INTERVIEWER: basement like this?
You know, no, not in a basement.
But you have to meet people where they are, you know?
You got to meet them where they are.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEERING]
It's my girl.
Hey, my guys.
Hey, straight west coast, cuz.
Hey, welcome.
Good to see you, brother.
Y'all, let's pull into this terrifying basement.
That's why we appreciate you.
It's nice.
You did nice things with the place.
What's up? It's your boys in the building.
That's right. You know what I'm saying.
Nothing but illustrious guests.
Yeah.
And we continue on the trail with Ava DuVernay.
In the building, y'all.
Illustrious guest-- that's nice.
DESUS: Illustrious guest.
You're from Compton? - Yeah.
- Compton in the house. - You know what I'm saying?
Bompton.
How much of being raised in Compton
comes through in your filmmaking?
I just think it's about living in a place where you're unseen,
you know what I mean?
That's why the loss of John Singleton was such a big one.
MERO: Rest in peace.
Yeah, rest in peace.
Because we're a small tribe out there of black filmmakers.
Ain't a lot of us.
You could really count us on a couple hands.
But I remember watching "Boyz n the Hood"
and seeing people who looked like my homies
for the first time as the main character,
not the guy that's going to just come up on the side--
Come out and be like, that's whack.
And then just disappear off camera.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
But full characters with mothers,
and homes, and you got to see the inside of the house.
Being from that place, I'm trying
to tell those stories of stories that
mean something to that community more than anybody else.
Yeah.
Growing up, watching "Boyz n the Hood" was weird to us
because we from the Bronx. We had never seen--
AVA DUVERNAY: Is it that different?
That's the thing.
AVA DUVERNAY: There's some things
that are very west coast in it.
Yeah, the drive-bys.
There's some things that it was so similar to our--
We were like, drive-bys?
Yeah. Here, we have walk-bys.
Walk-bys. Yeah.
We just walk up like, pow!
All right, peace.
All right.
Your movie about the Central Park Five.
Yes?
What made you make it?
The lives of black and brown people and just really
digging into things that I think people should know--
us as people of color, but also just the wider world.
But moreso, this was just such an injustice
that was done to these five and I don't think
people really know the story.
People don't know what really happened then
and people certainly don't know what
happened 30 years after to them, post incarceration.
It's all the things they can't do,
all the ways they can't move.
They've served their time. - Right.
AVA DUVERNAY: But still, we keep them shackled.
DESUS: You can't [INAUDIBLE]
And that's millions and millions of people.
And overwhelmingly, those people are us.
They're people of color.
Yeah.
That is great.
And then it's not only that.
I remember when Trump had the advertisement
in the newspaper calling for the death penalty
of the Central Park Five.
Yeah.
He had a whole page in that shit.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
I don't know if that made it out to the west coast.
Yeah.
No, multiple newspapers here in town.
He only did it here, but he did all the newspapers.
It was only two weeks after the boys were arrested.
He called for their death.
It was before their trial, before anything.
He just-- - And they were kids.
They were 14, and 15, and 16.
You know what I'm saying?
That was wild.
Yeah.
And that's something that we always comment on.
People voted for this dude and I'm like, yo,
do you know who this dude is?
We're New Yorkers so we have a very
close lens on Donald Trump, from the '80s up until now.
And it's like, yo, this dude's been an asshole.
Now, you know this dude is an asshole.
- Yes. - Right.
There's documentation.
There's receipts.
You know what I mean? - Right.
It didn't matter.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
It seems like now, nothing matters-- nothing.
- Nothing matters at all. - Nothing sticks.
Nothing matters.
It's scary.
It's like a horror story, really.
That's kind of terrifying.
For all the young, ambitious women of color out there
who want to be in this position, what is something that you can
tell to somebody who's coming up who
has no experience in the game?
Well, one thing I would say that I always
tell people is, there's more jobs than the actor
and the director.
Literally, if I had known about all the jobs,
I probably wouldn't have been a director.
Anything that you could imagine that you're interested in,
you can do that for film and TV.
You know that's funny?
I'm really obsessed with the people
that put down the gaffer tape.
There's all kinds of things.
There's a job called scenic painter.
You had a scenic painter for this, OK?
They come down and-- did you do all this?
MERO: Yeah. AVA DUVERNAY: You did all this?
You're a scene painter? - Nah--
- Wow. - --he's a graffiti artist.
And he also did turn on the ventilation.
We almost died while he was spray painting, but--
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - Wow.
Really, you did this space?
This is actually really impressive.
But it-- - Well, that.
Not-- - Not all the--
--that problematic stuff. [INTERPOSING VOICES]
You didn't do the porn over here?
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - No, that one was not us.
That was here before us. AVA DUVERNAY: OK, copy that.
I was about to say, you know-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]
--grafiti area over here. [INTERPOSING VOICES]
Look, you've got to meet people where they are.
This is where you are?
I want to come sit with you here and talk to you about yourself.
But that's OK.
You don't have to go to film school.
You don't have to be a great writer, or actress,
or whatever.
But you can be a part of our industry
and you can help tell stories that matter.
Study the industry and find something
that might work for you.
You make very serious movies.
Have you ever thought about making something
lighter like "Soul Plane 2?"
"Soul Plane 2" was offered to me.
MERO: Or like, "Who's The Man?"
No, I'm kidding.
I was like, tell me more.
- Tell me more. - Tell me more.
How did we get to this?
Or a "Who's The Man" reboot with like Too Young.
AVA DUVERNAY: What's "Who's The Man?"
Back in the day, it was-- AVA DUVERNAY: Method Man?
DESUS: No.
DESUS AND MERO: Ed Lover and Doctor Dre.
DESUS: And they were cops.
I think you guys could do something else, though.
MERO: Yeah?
Yeah, I think you guys could do something else.
What now see for us?
AVA DUVERNAY: I don't know.
I think you guys could do--
Martin Luther King and Martin--
No!
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in a buddy cop comedy.
Bomb!
AVA DUVERNAY: You guys could do that.
I could do that with you.
You're not going to direct that for us?
That was good.
I could do that.
I would do that.
You know, I see it lower like a "Friday."
Yeah, that's a no-brainer.
Anybody, you want to help? No?
Hello?
OK. Yeah--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
--something like that. - Yeah.
Also you are--
what is the proper term for somebody
who gets other rich people to pay for a film to be made?
But you did that.
Wow.
You coordinated like people to finance films
and shit like that?
Because I'm like, yo, I did my homework.
I was-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]
Yeah. I have a distribution company.
- Distribution, OK. - Distribution, there you go.
All right. - Yes.
- That's the industry word. - That's the industry word.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
What you were saying was just like, some loan shark shit.
Yeah.
Like, yo, look, y'all, I'm going to--
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - I was like, damn.
I don't want to implicate myself.
--and I'mma give it back to you.
It was like, yo.
Where's Ava's money?
Right?
Which hand you write with?
She said 25 percent interest, motherfucker.
I'm just thinking of us at home, watching the box office.
He's like--
Shit.
We're in trouble.
We gotta bring a beating.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Yes, I have a distribution company called ARRAY.
Yeah.
We distribute films that are people of color and women
that other people wouldn't.
So we put them out, just making sure
that filmmakers have a chance to connect with audiences.
You know, a lot of black and brown communities
don't have movie theaters in their community.
You guys are in New York, so they're everywhere.
We don't have enough in New York.
But there's no movie theaters in Compton.
Really?
There's not one movie theater in Compton.
- Zero? - No.
And I made a movie called Selma.
It's in a 90% black area.
No movie theaters there.
There's no Magic Johnson theater?
- In Compton? - Yeah.
- No. - That's whack.
Wow.
You're thinking of South Central.
That's a whole different place. - Yeah.
Listen, we do not know Compton anything.
Yeah.
Y'all need to come out to Cali.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - --but we come out--
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - We're just running because--
Yeah, no. Where you guys stay?
- It depends. - I don't even know.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
You need to really get a real tour.
No, you really should.
So maybe we could do that, make it a film piece.
You know what I'm saying?
Let's do it.
But yeah.
Really, we went out there and we were staying in Pasadena?
- Yeah. - What?
Yeah.
And we went for like-- - Pasadena?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
We had to do something there and then--
--the TCAs.
And then we were like, we were--
No disrespect to Pasadena.
I'm going to have tweets from Pasadena.
But Pasadena?
Yeah, because that's where the TCA thing--
- The TCA was. - Yeah.
So we went there and we went--
It's a sprawling place.
Exactly.
It's like if I landed in New York
and I just went to Times Square.
That's what y'all are doing. - Yeah.
And I was just like, I've been to New York.
You know that's not the real New York.
Same with Cali.
We've been around some places in California,
but it's just like, California is so big.
- Yeah. - It is.
We'll go to like, San Francisco and people are like,
nah. You got to go to Oakland.
So then we'll go to Oakland. - Exactly.
And it's like, yo, you got to come up here and stuff.
Right.
And then we don't know, so I'm just like, we in LA.
All right. [INTERPOSING VOICES]
Let's drive into San Francisco tomorrow.
- Yeah. - They're like, no.
No.
Fam, that's five and a half hours.
Not how it works at all, right?
No, you can't do it.
You know what I'm saying?
Man, next time--
Even when you're coming in on a plane and you look down--
you just look to see the cars and there's just
mad brake lights. - Yeah.
You just see brake lights for like, 28 miles.
That's what we do. Traffic.
Wonderful.
You're the first black woman to have
$100 million budget for a film.
But they said you are still frugal in the streets.
You love the $0.99 stores.
Frugal in the streets.
You can be a lot of things in the streets.
DESUS: Yes.
Most people don't have pride in being frugal in the streets.
No, we're immigrant children so--
You are? Thank you for recognizing.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
--any type of savings-- it's like, yes.
Yes, frugal in the streets.
Yeah, I call my mom when I use a coupon like,
yo, guess what, Ma?
DESUS: She's like, I felt it.
Yeah.
I got these Lysol wipes for $2.00 off.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
I love the $0.99 store.
Yep.
I don't know.
I just love them, I guess, because you go in
and you're just like--
DESUS: No, you can get so much shit.
--I'm about to do this.
You know what I mean?
I can really do this.
DESUS: Rack up.
You leave with two bags and it was $10.00.
Yeah.
And nothing lasts for more than two days
because it's going to break. But you know--
It was a dollar. It don't matter.
I don't know. I just get a little feeling.
I really love it.
DESUS: If you weren't making films right now,
what would you be doing?
I was a publicist for movies.
So I would publicize the overall film or TV shows.
You might not like being our publicist.
Shout out to our publicist-- you know what I'm saying--
Who's not even here today.
--who's constantly having panic attacks.
Yeah.
I could handle you both.
Yeah, I could handle you both.
I'd have you in the palm of my hand.
I think I would--
You'd be like, yo, Mero, get the fuck off Twitter right now.
Get the fuck off Twitter right now.
Wow.
You cannot say that to that person on Twitter.
Stop.
Well, Ava, thanks for sitting down with us.
We could do this forever.
That's right.
We've been talking for four hours.
We know you're a very busy woman.
So we're going to end the interview
the same way we always do.
What would your neon sign say?
My neon sign would say, live without permission.
Surprised, right? [INTERPOSING VOICES]
That's how she lives.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - You know.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - You know what I'm saying?
LA in the motherfucker cuz
Yo, "When They See Us."
The Bronx.
It airs on Netflix tomorrow.
- "When They See Us." - May 31.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] It's a four-part series.
Watch all four parts, all right?
It's a mini series, you know what I'm saying?
But it's massive. It's major.
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