-I can't believe I'm here. -My buds!
-I watch you all the time. -I love that you say that.
I love that. Thank you so much. -I watch it every night.
You do? I love you. -My buddy.
-You're my buddy, my pal.
Right after I interviewed you last time was Zoom.
-Yeah. -And I want to say
maybe a week after that, or two weeks, I went to Target,
which is like my kids' Disneyland.
-Right. It's mine too. -I mean, Target is insane.
You guys know about Target, right?
[ Cheers and applause ]
No one warns you. No one warns you about Target
-No, you go into Target, you say you want to buy a pack of gum
you come out, you spend $250. -[ Laughs ] Yeah, or $250,000.
I'm going through Target I go, Oh, my God everything's cool.
You have a doll. You have a Funko -- Look at this.
I had to get this. [ Cheers and applause ]
Look at how cool.
Are you kidding me? -Yes.
-You are the coolest ever. -It's me directing on set
with my glasses and my tennis shoes.
-Isn't that -- I mean, you have dreams
and then you have things that you've never even --
-I never even dreamt that. I mean, that's incredible.
-Isn't that cool? -Yes, my mom has 90 of them
along her mantle. -[ Laughs ]
-I walk in and it's like the Target store in her house, yeah.
-That's what moms are for, right?
-Yeah. Lovely. -You have an Array T-shirt on,
which is your production company.
-Yeah, that's my company. -And I want to say congrats
because you just won a Peabody Award.
-I know, it's incredible!
Yeah. -That's another dream, dream.
-That's another dream, but for me that's really
never listen to your haters.
Because so many people said don't do that just makes films.
Don't have a company that does education and social impact
And we did it anyway and look what happened.
-That's exactly right. [ Cheers and applause ]
You do great stuff. I'm a fan of all the stuff you do.
You did get a lot of attention, too, on the socials,
because -- in a good way -- here's your tweet.
LeVar Burton didn't get the job of hosting "Jeopardy"
and I was upset.
And you're like, "This is me right now
trying to create a show for LeVar Burton to host
and make an international hit."
And everyone loved it. And then LeVar Burton responded.
"Check your DMs." I mean, come on.
-I know! First of all, always use Dan Levy
when trying to express yourself. -Always use Dan Levy.
First of all, yes. But yeah.
I actually I did. I checked my DMs. He slid in my DMs.
-Wait, be careful now. -I know, now hey.
-They say don't meet your heroes. Doesn't apply to him.
The loveliest, sweetest kindest. -LeVar Burton.
-He's who you want him to be. And he was lovely.
We had some conversations about what he wants to do next.
And he has some exciting things on the horizon.
-I love, I love him.
♪ Take a look it's in a book, Reading Rainbow ♪
I loved, I used to watch him all the time.
-Yes, I know.
It's "Reading Rainbow", it's "Star Trek" it's "Roots,"
it goes on and on. -"Roots" and it's just
also him as a person. -I know.
Just being cool and being awesome.
-Being cool. -That's what you get.
-Yeah it is. -All the best to LeVar Burton.
We love you. -We love you.
-You don't just direct. You don't just produce.
You don't just win awards but now you're taking on
reality TV as well. -I know.
-Talk to me about "Home Sweet Home"
because you know I'm already, like, crying.
I'm so excited about this. And it's on NBC. Big for us.
-It's on NBC which is a nice extra thing, yeah.
When I was first thinking about making "Selma"
I said I don't know if I can make this, because I don't like
historical dramas. So, would I be the right one?
And a friend of mine who was one of the executives said
"Well, why don't you try to make one that you would like?"
-Oh, interesting. -And that was the challenge.
And so, this is the same thing. I don't watch reality shows.
But I said, "Could I make one I like?"
-Wow. -So that was the challenge.
The reason why I don't like 'em is because they
feel fake to me sometimes, like, that's not really happening.
-yeah, you have to kind of go with the fake real.
-They're doing that for the third time.
-It's fake real, yeah. -This ain't real, right.
So, we really set it up where it's following these families
as they exchange homes and you have a cultural exchange.
It's not steeped in conflict, it's steeped in curiosity.
Everyone wants to be there, they want to learn about each other.
And so, I really love it. I love the show.
-It's so cool I love the message and I'm interested in that, too.
-It's the Ted Lasso era. It's about positivity
you know what I'm saying? -That's right.
That's why I watch you every night.
There's are a lot of things I could watch.
But, it's like, if I've had a crappy day,
this guy's not had a crappy day every day, right?
You come out, you're happy. -Yeah, I am.
I'm so happy to be here. -I just like to go to bed happy.
-Good that's our job. We want everyone to go to bed happy.
Please! We work hard enough.
Jimmy, do some work for us, please.
-At least somebody's happy. -Yeah, exactly.
I want to talk about "Colin in Black & White."
This is obviously, Colin Kaepernick,
who people know as an amazing quarterback
but also because he took a knee
and, yeah and that was, which I thought was great.
I think protest, peaceful protests, protest.
Get out there. Something's bothering you, say something.
-Absolutely. -I think it was great
that he did that, but, you know it was controversial.
But this thing isn't about that. This is about his life.
-It's about how do you get to be the person who can do that?
-Yeah. -How do you get to be the person
who can take a stance for what you believe in
and stick by that, no matter the slings and arrows
that are coming at you.
And so, it's about his early adulthood, his teenage life.
And the little things that formed him
to become the man he is.
I think it's really interesting to think about who we are
and how we got that way. -I love it.
-And that's what it's about. -Sometimes I feel,
especially with social media, too, people jump on something.
And they go, like, "Yeah that's --"
and then go, well you don't -- just --
-It's a lack of nuance these days.
-Everyone's got a story. -Everyone's got a story.
We have to ask the second question.
I mean, that's what "Home Sweet Home" is about,
that's what Colin is about. Ask the second question.
Go deeper. Why do you think what you think?
Why do you believe that? Why don't you ask and go deeper?
That's what this is. -And how do you pick
the episodes you want to direct? And how do you start?
It's tough to just launch a brand new show, down to details.
-Yeah, it's a limited series. So we're only doing --
I love the limited-series format.
I did it with "When They See Us," as well.
It's like a long movie. -Yeah.
-But with this, I hand picked directors that I loved
and then I just like to go first.
So I went first. I directed the first episode.
Because when you're first, you get to choose --
you get to do the casting,
you get to design what the house looks like,
you get to do a lot of the fun stuff.
It's a lot of work but it's fun. -I love it.
-And I love it. -Yeah, we can tell the love.
We can see it come through, in everything you do.
-Thank you. -And that's how you get a doll.
-Ay! -That's why you get a doll.
I want to show everyone a clip. You're gonna love this.
This is "Colin in Black & White."
Take a look at this.
-Alright, peace, Rezzy -You finna come here, next.
-You must be Colin? -Yes, hi.
-You're mom? -Yeah.
-You called me, right?
You want me to bust shorty like the boy AI?
-Oh, no, he wants braids like Allen Iverson.
-That's what I said.
Come on, Colin, let's get it?
-Really? Braids?
-Go on.
-You can relax, Mom. It's going to be a minute.
-Okay.
-Alright, you ready?
-She's a little uncomfortable. -Yeah. No, I love it.
Ava DuVernay, everybody. My pal, my buddy. I love you!
Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here.
-Thank you! -"Colin in Black & White"
begins streaming this Friday on Netflix.