Mad dog, you don't get your hand out my wife's face, I'm gonna slap a muzzle on you.
I know it's late but I really need to talk.
Ahhhhhhhhh!
We're going to show you some clips
from across your career, and you have you react to them if that's all right.
Okay. Some of them may go back as far as silent movies.
So we'll see what happens.
Oh, yes!
Scrub the bottom and pop!
I was making a living and supporting my family exclusively from doing commercials at one point.
I enjoyed that and the funny part about it was in real life,
I had gone to work for McDonald's up in Canada in their very first unit.
And it was like life was imitating art. Or art imitating life -- I don't know which came first.
But it was a wonderful time in my life and in my career.
I enjoyed working for, and with, McDonald's. And then to be Mr. McDowell's in COMING TO AMERICA, hmm!
That put the whip cream on the cake.
They got the golden arches, mine is the golden arch.
What I remember about working on it was that I got paid the grand sum of $60,
and I had to furnish my own motorcycle, which I did.
And Melvin -- I met Melvin in an apartment building.
I heard he was directing a movie and he had somewhat of a reputation in the
Black community as an up-and-coming filmmaker,
though nobody in the community knew the impact that that movie,
Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, was going to have.
I was extremely fortunate, extremely fortunate to form a relationship with Norman Lear that
allowed me to work for him in what? Almost 3 or 4 different projects in addition to GOOD
TIMES. The pilots that we tried to do together. And to this day, most recently, the reunion
of myself and the depiction of GOOD TIMES in the -- where
they recapitulated it -- actually I got to play opposite myself. (LAUGHS) Which was a
unique experience.
Oh, it meant so much to me on so many levels. One as an actor on a professional level, I
couldn't believe that I'd gotten that role and when the final decision came down from
the directors and those involved in that process, and they told me
that you got the role of Kunta Kinte, I was moved to tears because I knew what it was--
I knew what it -- I knew how important a role it was. I had read the scripts to the character
being introduced and his development as far as they
had gotten at that point. And I knew that it was a life-changing role for me as an actor,
as a professional, and from a social standpoint, just from a humanistic standpoint,
it was the culmination of all of the misconceptions and stereotypical roles that I
had lived and seen being offered to me, many of which I rejected.
Okay Lisa, he's rich! He is rich!
What?
He got his own money and baby when I tell you he got his own money, I mean the boy has got his own money!
I remember it being such a well-written scene that any part of it stands up on its own.
And when he had me playing that character so free, whatever greed that I felt that Mr. McDowell had,
I got a chance to exhibit it in that scene. I mean it was just the idea that his daughter hit the jackpot.
This was better than being on the Price is Right as far as he was concerned. So I loved
it and all that activity, including the dog and answering the door and -- it just
-- it was like a well-choreographed ballet as far as I was concerned.
I enjoyed it so much.
Well, we've got two more clips, if you have time. If not, that's okay. But I really appreciate
your time regardless. I am enjoying this because you're making me
remember certain points in my career that might be laying there not remembered
for the next decade or so.
The problem with that is, that's what they
were saying about me 50 years ago.
Blacks shouldn't serve with whites. It would disrupt the unit.
You know what? It did disrupt the unit. The unit got over it. The unit changed.
I love that scene as written because while Fitzwallace, the character that I was portraying,
had the opportunity to address institutional grievances and to express himself. He never
had to raise his voice. He never had to become demonstrative in his feelings, to the point
that it became so one-sided.
I'm an admiral in the U.S. Navy and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Beat that with
a stick.
I love the way that Aaron Sorkin had written this character's dialogue,
as it reflected on the man's position and the military. He was a Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs. That in itself, and his accomplishments, after
joining the military, that spoke volumes. And I just loved the succinctness of Aaron
Sorkin's dialogue when (INAUDIBLE) beat that is like tossing a gauntlet, like are you going
to continue with this charade of inequities or not? I just love good writing,
and you couldn't ask for better writing than that given to the actors and the cast of
THE WEST WING. I feel.
You're not just a father. You're the king.
And heavy lies the head that wears the crown.
It's not so much the crown that is so heavy.
It's everything that comes with it.
Eddie is so adept at staying focused in a scene that it was only when I really,
really got to appreciate it in COMING TO AMERICA 2, the one we just completed.
And it would be the scene in which Eddie is --
or rather Prince Akeem is being given some very, very helpful advice by my character.
We just searched each others souls it seemed when we did that scene.
We took our time. It wasn't a very long scene but as far as I was concerned, it was a pivotal scene.
Well, Mr. Amos, I think we're all learning so much from you and from your history. I'm
excited for everybody to see the movie, and everything else that you have in store for
us.
I thank you, and the way things have been going, I got a lot more in store for all of
you.
Okay, thank you so much and take care.
Be safe.
You too.