What's going on, man?
Thank you.
Everything.
Thank you very much for being here.
Isn't it great--
My pleasure.
--to be out and be among people?
It feels good.
It feels good to be outside.
I got to tell you, man, you know, I appreciate what you do,
not only just on screen but also for the community
and for the culture.
I really appreciated--
Thank you.
--your voice.
And as far as activism goes, it's
been a big part of your life, even as you were a kid, right?
Yeah, yeah, I was raised in certainly
a politically-conscious, socially-aware environment
at home and in terms of the folks that were around us.
We were always being given an opportunity
to have a way to interpret the marketing that
was coming at us.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and being broke helps give you some perspective, too.
Absolutely.
Well, I think it's a beautiful thing, too.
Because, obviously, the way that it's
worked out, the way in which you use your voice,
and the way that you see the world, and the things
that you're passionate about creating-- you just
produced Two Distant Strangers that won an Academy Award.
Congrats on that, man.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Now, I've got to ask.
So what was that night like for you?
Yeah, what was that night like for you?
It was incredible.
I mean, I'm just really privileged to be
able to work with really, really smart, intuitive,
creative folks like Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe.
And we had a great team around us.
And that night was pretty euphoric
for a couple of reasons.
I think, A, it's nice to work on something
and see it curl all the way around and find a home.
We were blessed to be able to get distribution
through Netflix.
So you get exposure.
People can experience the message
that you attempted to put together.
And then to be acknowledged, it's nice.
I think a lot of times, particularly, you know,
women and Black and Brown folks are
used to having an experience, or having an idea,
or getting something started.
But then somebody else mimics it and gets all the credit
for it--
Absolutely.
or gets an award for their version of it.
So it was nice to see.
It was a collective win.
And it was nice to see the people that I worked hard
with get their flowers.
So that was nice.
It was also nice to just be out.
I was outside.
Like I--
Right.
--went out.
[LAUGHTER]
I went out, and I was in a group of people
celebrating and sharing that energy.
There's nothing like--
100%.
--you know, and energy exchange.
While we're talking about it, go ahead and tell us
what the film is about.
Yeah, so Two Distant Strangers, which is available to you
right now on Netflix, a 29-minute film,
it explores the journey of a young man named Carter
who, after a lovely night, just wants
to get home to see his dog, to feed his dog,
and finds himself bumping into an interaction
with a police officer, an unsolicited, unnecessary
interaction that ends poorly.
And then he gets kind of a deja-vu restart,
and starts over, and is going to attempt again
to just get to his own home under his own volition.
And he's obstructed again.
I'm trying to speak a little bit in code,
so you can experience it for yourself.
But it's a little bit of a Groundhog Day model,
if you're familiar with the Bill Murray
movie, where he keeps restarting and trying again and trying
again.
And something isn't working, which
is very much how a lot of us feel
when we are living as Black people in public
and also watching the news over and over again.
And all of these stories blend together,
and they mesh with each other.
And it's traumatic, and it affects us in our daily lives
where other people have the privilege of just
being able to focus on their interests.
Absolutely.
And it's an incredibly important film.
As a matter of fact, let's go ahead and take a look at this.
Let's take a look at this clip.
Nice.
See the corner?
A cute couple are about to kiss.
Boom.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
Yoga girl about to take a selfie.
[DISTANT SIREN]
Voila.
Skater kid right there, watch him eat shit in 3, 2--
Son of a bitch.
Are you [MUTED] with me?
Nah, nah.
So if I shoot you now, are we going to do it all over again?
Yeah, dude.
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah.
It stars Joey Bada$$ in that.
Awesome.
Now, let's switch gears for a second.
So both of us are parents.
Both of us have five-year-old sons.
Yeah.
And, you know, that boy energy is just off of the charts.
Mine literally never stops.
He's either Spider-Man one day or The Flash the other day.
Oh, The Flash.
What about yours?
Yeah.
Yeah, my son, Maceo, very similar--
he has an older sister who checks him a little bit.
So he's got a little bit of some bumper cars in the house.
But, yeah, Spider-Man is very big,
Black Panther, Dash from something I forget now, maybe
[INAUDIBLE].
From The Incredibles.
Yeah, yeah.
The Incredibles, absolutely.
Anything fast and also paper airplanes and kites--
we're in a very aerial stage right now which is fun.
So I have that to look forward to.
Yeah, yeah.
Good.
OK.
Yeah.
Look, we got more with Jesse after this.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be right back.
We are back with Jesse Williams.
Now, Jesse, recently, you just left Gray's Anatomy
after 12 years.
Amazing, yeah.
Now, how was that, watching that,
like watching your last episode?
It was a little more emotional than I expected, to be honest.
It's been a long, beautiful, just spectacular journey.
I'm just beyond grateful to everybody
involved, starting with Shonda all the way
to all of the incredible crew that we
spent time working with both as an actor and a director.
That's where I started directing television.
And, yeah, just a lot of gratitude,
but a little more emotional than I expected, as it
all wrapped up.
It's funny.
You say that they made a few kind of homage videos or memory
videos.
And seeing, you know, this young kid start
and what that character's journey was,
it did contextualize it for me a little bit.
Absolutely.
It's pretty nice.
And also speaking of new chapters,
man, you're about to be off to New York.
You've got a Broadway play coming up.
Yeah, yeah.
That's awesome, man.
I'm really excited.
We started.
I was in the third week of rehearsal for Take Me Out,
a Broadway play that we're reviving.
I'm one of the leads--
Darren Lemming.
And we were three weeks into rehearsal when COVID hit.
So we had to abandon ship there.
But lucky for us, which is incredibly lucky,
we get to go back and get another shot at this thing.
So I'm very excited to lead in a Broadway play.
Absolutely.
It's pretty exciting.
And also I got to say this.
So there's also a part in the play you're going
to be getting naked on stage--
What?
--I understand.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE] [LAUGHS]
I got the memo.
Yeah, it just so happens that the guy--
I don't know what the applause is for.
[LAUGHTER]
We'll see ticket sales plummet after week one.
But, yeah, the character does call
for a little bit of nudity.
So, you know, what I will say about that is
it's terrifying in all the right ways.
Right.
I'm looking to be challenged in new ways,
to be scared, and excited, and be pushed, you know?
One of the beautiful things about the job
I've had for so long is the comfort it creates.
Right.
So I'm excited to do something new,
and transition from there into more entrepreneurial endeavors,
and starting an education platform called Assemble, which
is, you know, essentially creating an education platform
for all the best and brightest BIPOC creators, Black
and Brown, women innovators all over the country--
Love it.
--and a space online and on mobile where
we can all learn from them.
You can learn from the best and brightest--
innovative jobs, jobs you didn't even know existed.
Talk about a crew-- there's so many jobs in show business
alone that folks don't even know exist
and that are really amazing career tracks,
and also learning that our walks are different.
It is different being a woman in this world.
And me teaching in some kind of gender-agnostic way
or racially-agnostic way is not exactly serving our people.
So we are finding ways to meet our folks
where they are, and teach them about the real world,
and how we can continue to be incredibly
ambitious and successful like yourself.
Man, I love it.
And honestly, I will say-- but I'm
sure there are so many people that share my sentiment.
We're so excited to watch your journey continue and so proud
of everything that you're doing.
Thank you.
Y'all, Two Distant Strangers is available now on Netflix.
The incredible Jesse Williams.
We'll be right back, y'all.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel,
so you can see more awesome videos,
like videos of me getting scared or saying
embarrassing things like ball peen hammer
and also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
[YELLS]
[BLEEP]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
God, [BLEEP].