-Our next guest is the Academy Award-nominated director
and producer behind movies
like "The Butler" and "Precious,"
as well as shows like "Empire."
His new show, "Our Kind of People,"
premieres September 21st on Fox. Let's take a look.
-Do you know why I bought this table?
Because it was the biggest one I could find!
And I put it in this room because of the incline...
so that everyone sitting around this table
has to raise their head to look up at me,
a Black man in America
holding the American dream in my Black hands.
-Please welcome back to the show Lee Daniels, everyone!
[ Applause ]
-Yes! [ Laughs ]
Thank you for being here. -Hey, buddy.
♪♪
-Now, I am always -- Please take a seat.
I am always so happy to see you,
but I am especially happy to see --
-Yeah. -I want to confirm,
you are wearing the grill you wore to the Met Gala.
-I -- Well -- Yeah.
[ Laughs ] All right. I got --
-Based on the way you're talking,
this strikes me as your first -- -I got to take --
I got to take the -- the top ones out.
-You gotta take the top -- -Or the bottom ones out.
-Wait. That's -- Here, you took the bottom --
-I -- Bec-- Let me tell you what happened.
So, my kids -- I had my tooth removed.
-Okay. An upper -- a top tooth.
-Yeah, the top tooth was removed.
And the tooth is not gonna be available to me until December.
-Okay. -I don't know why.
-It takes that long to make a tooth?
-Yeah. It's expensive, too. -Yeah.
-So, my kids said, "Dad, why don't you get a grill?"
I said, "What the hell's that?"
They said, "A grill like, you know, the rappers. The grill."
So I started looking at these rappers,
these rappers and these grills.
And I got this guy, Runal the Jeweler.
Runal the Jeweler. I gave him a shout-out.
-Okay. Great. -And he put the --
He did this, like, pearls and diamonds and emeralds and --
-It was probably more expensive
than that expensive tooth you're waiting on.
-Oh, it is. -Yeah.
-And so -- Just to cover the tooth that's missing.
So I'm at the Met ball. I'm walking up the stairs.
And I can't talk.
You can hear me trying to talk with one.
-Yeah.
-And so I took it out, but I took the wrong one out.
Seth, I took the wrong one out.
And the wrong one was the top one, where my tooth was missing.
So I'm walking around talking, and my kids are like,
"No! No! Your missing tooth!" So whatever.
-So you ended up with lower grill, missing-tooth top.
-Missing-tooth top.
-Ultimately the worst possible outcome.
-But the theme was, like, Americana.
-Yeah. -So we got a lot of Americanas
without any tooth. You know what I mean?
So, hey, you know what I mean?
-That -- I was very happy about that clip.
I feel like you have written -- and tell me --
I think you write a lot of great boardroom scenes.
-Thank you. -I feel like you --
Your show -- There's something very powerful about a boardroom
and people in a boardroom.
And this is a very fun show. -It is.
-Based on a book, yes? -It is.
It's based on "Our Kind of People."
You know, the good thing about "Empire"
was that it enabled me --
So many Black IPs, good ones... -Yeah.
-...came to me, and -- and this was one of many.
So, it's a great book about Martha's Vineyard.
-Yeah?
-And they don't mess with people of --
of a certain status at Martha's Vineyard.
-Yeah. -White people and Black people.
-It's true. -The Black people do not mess --
That's old, like -- That's old, uh -- old money.
Old Black money from -- from -- from land, and so --
-Well, it's a very -- it's been a sort of Black --
For Black wealthy people,
it's been a vacation destination forever.
-Yes. And they don't look --
They don't look at new -- They're like the Kennedys.
They don't look at new money as --
as basketball money, rapper money,
my kind of money, entertainment money.
They don't look at -- They look down on us.
-Yeah. -So it's a...
-I have comedy money. Cannot get a table...
-You can't. -...at Martha's Vineyard.
-But I heard you crashed Obama's party.
-I couldn't get an invite to Obama's party.
-You didn't. -And I threw it out there.
[ Laughter ] There was -- I mean --
-I didn't get one, either. And I'm telling you something.
It's about that old bluff scene.
-No, you -- Come on. There were a lot of --
There was a lot of new famous people at Obama's party.
You could have -- -I did not go.
-Did you get an invite? -I would not know.
No. -You didn't get an invite?
Did you -- Were you holding out for one at any point?
-Mm-hmm. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] -Well, at least,
I think it's very -- I think it's very nice of both of us
to be able to admit that -- -Yeah.
-Yeah. Would you -- If they had --
I thought the perfect outcome
was to get invited and then after they pulled
back the guest list -- -Don't come?
-No, I wanted to be... -Because of the COVID?
-...first wave and then get uninvited
so I didn't actually have to go to the party
but I could say that I got invited.
-Right. -Not bad.
-I don't know that I would have gone anyway.
I'm so paranoid.
I mean, I -- The whole thing with COVID had me so paranoid.
And even going to the Met ball was so --
Like, it is already -- You've been. You know.
It's, like, so -- And then, on top of that,
can you imagine what it was like to be in that space...
-Yeah. -...thinking,
"Do this person got COVID? We ain't got no masks on."
-Yeah. -You ain't got COVID, do you?
-Well, the grill is a natural mask, isn't it?
-You don't have COVID? [ Laughter ]
-I don't have -- So, wait.
You mentioned IP, which is intellectual property, right?
-Yeah. Mm-hmm. -And another one
you're producing is "The Wonder Years."
So, this is -- You know, this is a very iconic show
that's being remade. -Yeah. Yeah.
I didn't want to do that, either.
-You didn't want to do that? -I didn't want to.
-'Cause you were worried about the -- the history of it?
-Well, it's a classic. -Yeah, it is.
-I mean, it is, like, a classic. How can you -- They came to me.
And I was -- So I didn't want to direct it.
I didn't want to write it. I just didn't want to mess it up.
So, I found a great showrunner/writer, Saladin,
who -- who had a good take on it
and who really understood the nuance
of the African-American experience at that time.
I wanted to show my family and so many other Black families
that were middle-class and could --
But we aren't represented that way in the '60s,
in the '70s, in the early '80s.
We are specific.
And so this is a middle-class Black family...
and what -- what that world is like.
And it's exactly the same tone. Fred Savage directed it.
-Oh, that's wonderful. -It's exactly the same --
exactly the same tone as -- as "Wonder Years."
And it's good.
-That's great. -It's really good.
-Speaking of really good... -What?
-...another show you're producing.
-What? -Comedian Ms. Pat.
So, we met Ms. Pat. I met her on Zoom.
She has stayed with me.
The Ms. Pat experience left a mark on me.
I was very taken with Ms. Pat.
She's a very funny person that I was not aware of.
How much did you know about her before you --
-Nothing. -Nothing, okay.
-Nothing! As much as you did.
-Somebody said, "We want you to meet this woman, Ms. Pat"?
-Yeah. -Okay.
-Brian Grazer wanted me to meet her.
My partner, my producing partner.
And he was in the middle of "Empire."
And I'd never seen anything -- witnessed anything like her.
The closest thing I could think of was Roseanne.
-Yeah. -On steroids.
-Mm-hmm.
-Literally on crack, which she was selling.
Pat was selling. -Yeah.
-And we were trying to get the show sold,
and people weren't buying it, you know?
And --
[ Laughs ]
I mean, you know, she's a crack dealer
that turned her life around and now is a stand-up comic.
-Yeah. -You can't -- You can't --
Seth, you can't make it up.
-Well, I -- it's funny to think about.
You know, 'cause it's very sterile,
those environments where you go and pitch TV shows.
-Yeah. -And for someone --
It's very funny to think of, like, you guys walking in
and, like, her pitching that show to executives.
How did it go when -- when she sort of told her story to them?
-I told her, I said, "No surprises, Pat."
-Yeah. -"No surprises.
Please, no surprises."
And she, of course, gave me the surprise
in front of all these white people.
She says, "You know, my nipple got shot off.
[ Laughter ] But I put it back on."
And then she says "You know, my mama shot my brains --
shot my -- shot my -- shot a bullet through my brain."
And I'm -- And these cats are like --
These suits -- I mean, you know. -Yeah.
-I mean, these suits are like, "What the...?"
-Exactly! -But we sold it.
And it's incredible.
I think it's -- it's an important show.
-It's really wonderful. -Mm-hmm.
-And I should note, like, it's -- it's a family show.
-Very Norman Lear. Very Norman Lear.
-Yeah. That's -- I mean, I think we're -- you know, we're --
we're talking about sort of the most extreme parts
of her story, but it's really authentic.
And the part about it that's really cool,
is it's -- oh, this is, like --
Her family is like a lot of other families, as well.
Maybe a different backstory.
But the way families interact. It's a really great show.
-Yeah, it really is.
Jordan Cooper is our showrunner.
A young kid, 26 years old.
Has never written anything. And I'm real excited about it.
-Well, congratulations on everything.
It's always such a delight to have you here.
-Thank you. -Really appreciate it.
"Our Kind of People" premieres September 21st on Fox.