-You look fantastic. -Thank you.
-Welcome back to the show. Thanks for coming on.
-It's so great to be here. -I always love seeing you.
You spend a lot of time here in New York.
-I did. -Do you feel good when you come
back and you see the city opening up?
-I love this city. I went to school --
I went to NYU for grad school.
It's where I sort of became an actor.
-Yeah. NYU is not an easy school to get into.
-No, it's not.
-Did you know that you were getting in?
-Okay. So, I came for a callback.
The program has about 800 people try out for the MFA program.
They take 50 people for a callback and then
18 people are allowed in. -Wow.
-So, my first time coming in was for my callback to NYU.
My friend lived at Astor Place.
1 Astor Place, which is right across the street
from 721 Broadway.
So that's where I lived for the three years.
I could wake up at 8:55, make it to class by 9:00.
I'm blessed, bro. You know what I'm saying?
-Oh, yeah, yeah. -My whole life, it's like,
"You five minutes away from school, Brown?"
I was like, "Yeah, man. I'm five minutes away from school."
-Yeah, the life is pretty good. But Astor Place is gorgeous.
-Astor Place is awesome. I remember this too, Jimmy.
I remember seeing you in front of Cozy Soup & Burger.
This is crazy. This is before Jimmy had a side part.
Like, this was like -- [ Laughter ]
This is Jimmy, like, low-level Jimmy.
[ Laughter and applause ]
This was back in the day.
Jimmy would have his guitar and was just sitting down.
And he'd be strumming along, just doing his thing.
I'm, like, "Hey, man, you're really good."
"Aw, thanks buddy. Thanks, I appreciate that."
[ Laughter ] -That's a good impression.
-Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
-Wait, I was playing in front of a Cozy?
-Yeah, dude. -I love Cozy sandwiches.
-See, that's what I'm saying.
No, no, it was Cozy Soup & burger.
You were on Broadway just chilling.
I don't even know if you were like --
You may have still been on "SNL."
But you were just like jamming on the guitar,
hanging out, playing for the people.
-Yeah. -That's who Jimmy Fallon is.
[ Cheers and applause ] He's one of the people.
-That was fun. I love that you saw that.
No way! -Yes!
-That's crazy. What -- Did you -- What other sightings?
Who else did you meet? -I see a lot of people.
So, that's the thing about New York City.
You get a chance to see celebrities all the time.
And everybody's very cool. You just kind of go up to people
and like, "Hey, man, love your work."
They're like, "Hey, man, thanks a lot."
You see Buscemi, Billy Crudup.
Sam Shepard I remember running into in the audience.
And it's interesting too because now having a little taste
of fame myself, it's really cool.
You never get tired of people saying,
"Hey, man, I love your work." -Isn't that great?
-And you're like, "Thanks, man. Appreciate it."
You know what I'm saying? They like, "Are you Sterling?
Hey, man, I love your work." It's cool.
-Yeah. And you think back to when you were saying that --
-And I think back to when I was saying that to other people.
So, it's like it's a perfect sort of like --
They're not stopping your day.
You keep moving and everything like that.
And then every once in a while, you meet somebody that's like,
just uber enthusiasm and you recognize it as uber enthusiasm.
But it's a little strange too because it's like, "It's you."
[ Laughter ] And I'm like, "Yeah, it's me."
And they're like, "Oh, my God, it's really you!"
And so everything stops for a moment.
But I remember that feeling of meeting somebody
whose work you loved, and you can't give people the gas face.
Like, that's the worst thing when people just walk past you
like they didn't even see you.
So I vowed I will never give anybody the gas face.
I may have to go, like, get to my kids.
And I'll tell you, "I got a kid that needs me.
I love you too." But I never give anybody the gas face.
-You got to give everyone time of day.
-Absolutely. -You say thanks so much.
Is there any celeb that you have not met yet
where you were like, "I would freak out."
"Hello, hi."
-I've been in the presence of Streep three times.
-Streep. -She don't need a first name.
You know who I'm talking about.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Jimmy, I've been in Streep's presence three times.
One time I was working at the Public.
And she was doing something else at the Public.
And she was just talking to people.
And I was just standing. Camera, follow me, please.
[ Laughter ]
I was just standing there like...
[ Laughter ]
"It's Streep, y'all."
And she was just talking, being regular old Streep.
And I'm like, "No, I can't -- I don't know --"
I didn't -- I couldn't talk. -You just lurked?
-I just lurked. I was weird. I was a creeper.
-You were a creeper. -So, I'm looking forward to
somebody who knows both of us
to hopefully give me an introduction.
-I think you two will hit it off.
-Yeah. I think so. You know her. You know everybody.
-No, no, no. I still freak out though when I see Streep.
-Who do you -- do you fr-- You get a chance to meet everybody.
Who do you geek over? Is it more musicians?
Is it more athletes? Is it actors?
Like, politicians? Like, who do you geek?
-I geek too much. I'm a super fan over too many people.
I need to calm down.
I freak out -- I freaked out when I saw you in the hallway.
-Stop it.
-I jumped up, wrapped my legs around you.
You're like, "Get off. Dude, I'll see you in five minutes!"
-We do both have side parts now,
which was something that we talked about backstage.
-Yeah, yeah. -This wasn't 10 years ago.
-No, look at us. We've grown, we've grown.
-This is us now. -Can we talk about your new
movie, "Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul"?
-I would love to. -You play a pastor.
I've had people on the show. We talked about -- Some people
say like, oh, maybe they may have gotten
their start in church. -Sure.
-Or going on the altar or going to church or performing.
Did you feel that way? -I love church.
I am a deep man of faith.
And so it's a deep part of who I am as a person.
My best friend, Philip Grant -- if he sees this, I get to shout
his name out on national TV.
His mom and dad had their own church.
So, he's a P.K. And it was a basement turned --
-He's a P.K.? -Preacher's kid. Sorry.
Preacher's kid. P.K. Some of you know that.
Okay. His parents ran church out of the bottom of their --
the basement of their house. And I would go over to his house
because he lived right around the corner from me.
And they would ask me to summarize like the Bible study.
And I'd get up -- you know, I've always had a little bit
of the gift of the gab and I love, you know,
summarizing things and seeming smart.
That was the other thing. I loved when his parents would
be like, "Why don't you be more like Kelby?"
Sterling K. Brown, Kelby. Went by Kelby.
"Why don't you be more like Kelby, Phil?
He's so smart and so articulate and everything."
And Philip would just be like, "This Negro." Anyway --
[ Laughter ]
-He's like, "This guy. This guy."
-"This guy." That's what I should've said. "This guy."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-You know what I'm saying? -I know what you're saying.
-You know what I'm saying.
So, I would do it, and I would summarize the Bible study.
And they'd say, "Ooh, Kelby gonna be a preacher."
And Kelby would be like, "No, I'm not."
But I did know that there was something about speaking
in front of people, the performative aspects of, like,
being in front of a crowd or whatnot.
I was like, "Maybe I'll parlay this into something different."
And now, here we are. -Yeah.
And you've done a fantastic --
You can move people with your performance.
-Thanks. -And that's what you do.
And in this -- I love that this film got made.
And all of a sudden, Jordan Peele heard about this
and was like, "Oh, I want to produce this."
And Daniel Kaluuya. -Yeah, they're awesome people.
Big up to "Nope." Great movie.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -Absolutely.
-Keke! -Keke.
Lord have mercy. -Keke Palmer.
-That girl. Lord have mercy.
-Watch out, watch out.
-Daniel and I got a chance to do "Black Panther" together.
Met him during that time. -That's right.
-And so, he's a producer on this film along with Jordan.
And he'll call up every once in a while.
"What's up, bruv, how you doing?"
I'm like, "I'm great, man."
He's like, "Yeah, we in London right now, man.
Can't wait to get back over there for the premiere.
It's going to be fantastic."
-That's a good Daniel Kaluuya, yeah.
-Thank you, man. I appreciate it.
What I love about being an actor right now --
being a Black actor is that,
there's a lot of folks doing a lot of different things.
And there's more than enough for everybody to eat.
Everybody's got a seat at the table.
So there's no sort of sense that if I get something,
I'm taking it away from somebody else
or if Daniel gets something, Brian Henry --
anybody gets something else.
Like, everybody feels comfortable.
And we get a chance to celebrate each other.
And that's a beautiful place to be.
-That's great. [ Cheers and applause ]
I agree.
The movie is -- The movie's really funny.
-Thank you, man. -It's really funny.
"Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul" is the title.
So, yeah, how do we set it up?
Basically, the church --
-Basically, before the movie begins,
there's a scandal that happened to these two --
to the pastor and first lady of this mega church.
Wander to Greater Paths Baptist Church.
Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs and my partner in crime, Regina Hall,
who plays Trinitie Childs, who is amazing.
-She is amazing.
-There's a scandal.
They lose their congregation.
They hire a documentary film crew to sort of chart
their ascendence back to prominence
as they get their congregation back.
So, that's what it's about.
-Getting their congregation back.
I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Sterling K. Brown in
"Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul."
Take a look at this.
-Now, I'm telling y'all, you should have seen this place
when it was jumping.
-Of course, it hasn't looked like that for a while.
-No. -Obviously.
-No. -But we're going to get
that all back. -Oh, yeah, we will.
-Have this place looking all -- Oh [bleep]
-Oh, oh, boy.
-[Bleep] -Oh, my goodness.
-Now, how in the good Lord's lush green Earth
is anybody supposed to take me
and the resurrection of my church seriously?
These are Fianos. -Yes.
-Those are -- That's an Italian brand.
-We can edit around that. Right, Anita?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Italian brand. -Italian brand.
Just in case.
-Sterling K. Brown, everybody.
"Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul"
is in theaters and on Peacock September 2nd.
We'll be right back with Eve Hewson. Stick around, everybody.