-Welcome back to the show. -Thank you.
-I got to ask you about this before we get into it,
because you're having such a great year.
I've seen you in like 10 movies. -Thank you.
-And you're crushing in all of them, but the Jay-Z video,
"Moonlight," you worked with Tiffany Haddish in that one?
-I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-What's it like getting a call from Jay-Z to do --
'cause you, like, recreated "Friends,"
an episode of "Friends."
First of all, are you a "Friends" fan?
-I'd never seen the show before in my life.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, I didn't even -- I hadn't heard of it.
I mean, I maybe heard of it in passing.
But I didn't really watch it, so, it was cool.
It was a learning experience for me.
I was like, "Damn." -Wow.
-This is -- This is white. [ Chuckles ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
-That's a good review. [ Coughs ]
But how does Jay-Z, does his agent call you or what?
How do you get in touch with him?
-No, it's crazy. I was just doing some random stuff
walking around and my phone rings.
And I answer it, and it's Jay-Z.
He's like, "Hey, hey, man, what's up?"
And I'm like, "Who is this?" He's like, "It's Jay, baby."
I'm like, "Jay? Jay who?" [ Laughter ]
"Jay-Z." And I was like, "Yo, what?!"
[ Laughter ] And he was like,
"No, I think you'd be good in this thing."
Rah, rah, we chopped it up. And I was, of course,
I played it cool. I was like,
"All right, cool, cool, cool." I hung up and I was like,
"Yo!" [ Laughter ]
-Make sure the phone is off and, "Oh, my God."
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was, like, high pitched voice and everything.
-Yeah, exactly. -It was cool.
-You have -- I want to talk about "Knives Out."
There's also -- You have the movie coming out,
"The Photograph"? -Yeah, yeah.
-Is that Issa Rae? -Uh-huh.
-What is that about? -Black love.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Black love.
-Yeah. You know, just a story about love.
And, you know, all the ups and downs that come along with that.
And our experiences coming to understanding ourselves in it.
And, uh, yeah, just a little -- a nice little love story.
-That's great. -Yeah.
-And then, "Knives Out" was with --
What a cast in this thing. It's getting --
I think it's 96% on Rotten Tomatoes,
if anyone follows that -- fresh. -Wow.
Not rotten, 96% rotten. [ Laughter ]
That's my movies. [ Laughter ]
Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis in this.
-Yeah, yeah. -Crazy awesome.
Chris Evans. -Mm-hmm.
-I heard Jamie Lee Curtis got you to stop smoking.
-Yeah, yeah. It was crazy.
Yeah, she's just like such a straightforward,
like, beautiful human being that just, like,
says what's on her mind at any given time.
And she seen me smoking a cigarette, she just come up,
like, "What's with this thing?" And I was like --
-What's with this thing? -Yeah.
And I'm just kind of like, you know, I don't know.
I'm on set, you know?
It's a very high-stress environment.
I'm just taking a little -- she's like,
"Yo, yo, cut that out." And I'm like,
"You know what? You're right." [ Laughter ]
-Wow. -It was just that simple.
And I was like -- -Jamie Lee Curtis.
That's the way to do it. She is right.
"Uncut Gems", man, that was a great movie.
You were fantastic in that, as well.
-Thank you. -The Safdie brothers.
Those dudes are interesting characters, huh?
-Yeah, yeah. They're dope, man.
-This movie is like, makes you feel like
there's, like, a knot in your stomach the whole movie.
Because I'm just so --
and Adam Sandler plays it great, as well.
-Mm-hmm. -And it's a dramatic role.
-Yeah. -But basically, it's like --
-Yeah, y'all go see that. That's crazy.
It grip you up the whole time.
Like, you're sitting there like --
-No, seriously. You really are. You're like, "Oh, my God!"
-Then it lets you go. But it's such a cool experience
to go see a movie and have a visceral, like, response to it
that feels like you're engaged in it.
And it feels like a real conversation energetically.
A lot of stuff you go watch,
and it's just entertainment and you feel good.
But some things move you. And this is one of those.
You know? -Yeah.
I just feel so bad for him.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm rooting for him, and I'm like, "Oh, dude."
Every scene I'm like, "No, no, no, no."
-Yeah. -"Please don't do that.
Oh, my gosh."
It just scared me, the whole thing.
-It's like what I do in my life.
I'll be like, "Yo, don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't do that. No, make a left.
Aah! Now you got to get back up."
-Yeah. The whole thing is like that.
And the soundtrack is just equally kind of like on edge
and kind of like weird.
And I just -- I loved it. It was great.
But you shot that here in the Diamond District?
-Mm-hmm, yeah.
-Did you get to learn a lot about that world?
-It's very interesting, the Diamond District.
You know, I'm from California.
So it's like a little bit different.
They got a whole block dedicated to just like selling diamonds.
-Yeah.
-And just the underworld of what operates
underneath the veil of that.
And just seeing the interactions and meeting the people
and learning the get down of the game was crazy.
It's like, "Damn, it's a whole new world."
-Did you love working with Adam? -Oh, yeah.
-He's a good guy, right? -That's my dude, man.
[ Laughter ] -He's one of the best guys.
-He's so -- He's as cool as y'all think he is.
-Yeah, he really is. I love it.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Lakeith Stanfield in "Uncut Gems."
Take a look at this. -We don't have time.
They're waiting for us. Where's the [bleep] opal?
-Garnett got it. All right? -Garnett's [bleep] got it?
-[Bleep] -I don't know what the [bleep]
you want me to [bleep] about that.
-Call him up. Call him on the phone.
Let me talk to him.
-I can't [bleep] call him right now. He's at practice.
-Tell him I will give him another offer.
-Howard, listen to me.
I can't call him because he is at practice [bleep].
He's not going to answer his [bleep] phone for me,
God, or nobody else. -Fine,
then we're going to practice. We're going to practice.
-[ Chuckles ] What?
So you want me to go [bleep] Philly right now?
-He's in Philly, then we're going to Philly.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Lakeith Stanfield!
-Yo, all you hear is "bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep."
-Oh, yeah, no. We had to --
There was more bleeps than there were words in that clip.
[ Laughter ] -All it is is bleeps.
-But if you see the real movie, there's no bleeps.
[ Laughter ] If you see the real movie,
they bleep out the other words
and it's nothing but curse words.
[ Laughter ] Lakeith Stanfield!