Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating Wild Broke. I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very special guests at Jason George is in the building.
What's good?
How are you good?
How are you feeling good?
I'm very thankful that you took time out of your busy schedule to come spend time with me.
I wanted too. Plus, you know we're gonna eat.
We're gonna eat.
He's always good.
Eating is always good. So we are eating a broke dish. What are you gonna have me eating today?
This is one of the simplest things that actually required some cooking, because I think when you first opportunity to come here first came up, I thought about what did I eat while I was broke. My first thought was spaghetti. I ate spaghetti six nights a week for three years when I was studying acting. As a result, I did not touch spaghetti like you can ask anybody knows me. It was not a joke like I did not mess
with can we cuss? I didn't fuck with spaghetti for years, like seven years before I touched spaghetti again, And even to this day, the only way I messed with pasta is if like some chef got super jiggy with it, like they got you know, you gotta throw like seafood in there. It's got to be like I need a like cord on blue chef to like get it never gets cooked in my house, my family. When I was in my mom's house when we were really broken we had to sell the house that we were living in. Uh,
you know, she would this. She had this. She found this perfect pizza that you just threw in the oven. That in the can to meade of no potato soup. That should throw a little extra stuff in. No, not the way my mom did it. It was genuinely, genuinely one of my favorite is one of the most emotionally favorite. Like, so you still that I will mess with my mama does it. Yeah, the mom does it because potato. It's just it's just a simple pizza you just throw in
the oven like that. And those were like two simple there's like no cooking. This is taco soup, which is which is they call it our friends called the taco soup is really kind of you can burn it down to almost a chili. Yeah, but chili is most people's chili is too serious. So if you say it's a chili, then they're ready to fight you. You say to the taco soup, they leave you alone because this is not deep enough to be called a chili. This is so simple even an idiot could cook it.
Like me, yea dude. It was cheap and affordable, and I'm curious. I've never had this. I always get excited when we have a dish on the show that we haven't had, So when I did see spaghetti coming later, I was like, yeah, no, this is going to be the dish, So go ahead and tell me what ingredients you'll be having in this chaco soup.
This is real simple taco soup is. You can do ground beef, but I prefer with turkey, right right. I would eat red meat. I'll tear a steik up, but I can't do it every night. I when black Man from the South blood pressures everything like that, you try to take care of yourself. I'm an actor. I got to take care of theself. Right, So ground turkey is the base, and then you got all your dry things
that you're throwing. Kidney beans. You can also do black beans, but I prefer kidney beans because we black beans are like something by themselves, not something to throw into something else. Corn, uh and hominy.
And then and that was my first time seeing how many. By the way I had to google it. I was like, what is homony?
Know?
What is that a bean? It's just white beans. It looks like on the can it looks like corn.
How many is in that? I think it's it's somewhere between. Like I'm not even sure hundred how many. It's like I always think of it like with like coliflower and things like that is the way to think of it, like you know, but uh, but somebody's gonna follow you and explain better than me. I just know it's good. Look, I just think with mama cooked okay, okay, And then you got dice tomatoes, some tomato paste, and then a little bit of a chicken broth, a whole can of
chicken broth. That's the secret sauce because people would do it with water. When we figured out chicken broth, pot of a whole other level of a little bit of flavor to it. And then and then for some little bit of extra spice, you can get some sausa.
Okay, do you put the sausa in it?
You can put the sausa in it. We would put the saucea in it a little bit, just to like really up and you can just throw it on top if you wanted to.
That way is a taste, okay, Chef Jason, George.
Jeez, Like I said, this is like the thing about this, like you said, affordable. You buy the cans, you cut the cans open, throw them in and it's got to keep you full. And the other best part is that it tastes better the next day or the third day. So like you eat something that night, get full, keep moving tomorrow, because it's all about the leftovers. It's all about the leftovers.
Well, get in the kitchen, Jason, all go ahead, don't burn yourself. I'm guessing you're gonna start with the brown another meat.
That's what's up, all right, look at me.
While you start cooking for the both of us. Oh, you have a lib on. You're lived up. Well when you come to eat, you're gonna get on this mic. But now that you're in the kitchen, take me back to what was going on during this particular meal.
This was something that we started eating when I first got to Los Angeles. I came out here with the job. I came out here to do a show called Sunset Beach. I like literally got the job out of a contest in them all, So it was like a fluke, so literally it was like, no, it was I'm not even telling you, Like, they didn't plan on getting anybody out of the contest. They thought they'd give somebody like four
lines and send them home. But the day they were doing the contest here in Los Angeles was the same day they were casting the one black guy and the one black woman that were on the show. And so Sherry Salmon and I auditioned together and you know, got like and things went forward. I mean I was in the contest that was a separate thing from the real audition. She was in the real auditions. I was in the contest.
Where were you at when you got into context.
I was living in Philadelphia. I was an Eagles fan long before I lived in Philly, and then I got to live in Philly. I went to grad school at Temple University. The Act of Time Sizemore had come out of there just a few years ahead of us, So I was like really interested in and also I really wanted to be Look, the teaching acting was my plan as a backup to acting. Oh wow, so I really wanted. My mom was a teacher. My mom taught learning disabled
kids all growed up. So the idea was, get the degree so you can teach acting, but get the skills so you can actually be an actor.
Wow.
And I knew if I actually went to school in New York, I'd never graduate. Why because I be running streets, know thyself, know thyself.
I was like on that day, as it was elaborate, elaborate, please.
I barely graduated Temple. As it was somewhere between my first and second year, this show came up that was a for the Travel Channel, a traveling show where like you go all around the world and do cool stuff with indigenous people's and just talk about it on camera. I was like, dope. But A it wasn't real acting as I saw it. It was hosting, which is cool, but it's a different thing.
Yeah.
And two, I wouldn't finished the program, wouldn't have gotten degree, so it'd have been just it would have been just a job as opposed to a career move, a cool job. If I finished up the program that had been great traveling all around the world, to be dope. I think I've never checked it out. I think Bradley Cooper ended up doing it. It was one of the like five people that had doing it or whatever like that. I know he did a show to like that, and I was like, he was from Philly, so I was like,
probably the same thing. So that could have derailed me between my first and second year of grad school. And then I got the job on Sunset Beach out of the contest in the mall about six months before I was supposed to graduate.
Oh so you still got derailed a little bit.
I yes, yes I did. But and this is where I got lucky. God is good. I had the program. They give you the skills, so you graduate with a lot more credits than you actually need for the school's baseline definition of you have a Master of Fine Arts, right like you need sixty and I would have graduated like seventy five if I finished the program. I had fifty seven. Wow, right at the time. So they said, yo, go work, come back, give a thesis talk and will
count that as an independent study. That be your last three credits you graduate. So that all worked out, and I literally my brothers will never stop teasing me because I was at the Daytime Daytime Emmy Awards or Soap Opera Digist Awards on Friday night, and then drove down
to my graduation the next morning. Got there late. So I'm sitting in the stands with my brothers watching Bill Cosby because he was mister Temple then giving the speech, and I'm signing up autographs and my brothers, if you know, my brothers just give me stink eye and laughing. They're like, you are ridiculous. Everything about this, everything about you is ridiculous.
But it worked out, so that was the upside. But then, but that whole time, my wife then girlfriend came out and she got a job at Wittier College, so I moved out. She came all the way to the West Coast for me, so I said, let me go to Whittier for her, which is practically a different country because it's yeah, pretty far from it's out there.
It's hilarious at a different country. She moved all the way across the country for you. What you know, the traffic, you know how the traffic is my middle ground?
Your wife?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, are your then girlfriend?
That's my girl. But we are married during the so but we knew like we got to keep it lean because I want to try and do more.
Yeah.
Yeah, So we were like prepped. We were living renting an apartment. We were keeping it tight so that like as soon as I finished my three year track them out of here. And as it was, you know, I decided to leave the show and not renew my contract. Everybody else renewed their contract and got like back pay. They got like paid for the last three months they already shot, and they said we'll backdate the contract this, so people getting money for doing nothing. I was like, man,
then I make a mistake. And then and then the show got canceled, didn't get renewed for another year. And I'd been knocking on doors, getting meeting everybody and casting offices and everything like that being out there and I hit the so I was running and they got caught flat footed.
Yeah.
So that was the part that felt good, Like, Okay, yeah, always always, you know, always worked a plan. You know what I mean, what are you really after? Yeah, you know, you're trying to make a career. You're just trying to do a job. And I had to keep remembering that, and that's always been our philosophy. You know, got away from it a couple of times. You know, you buy a house eventually, you know, and and next thing, you know, we went back to eating taco soup when I bought
this house. And the day we opened escrow was the day that the show I was on Guy canceled.
Now, this is a back check to you buying a house. Wasn't it hard to buy a house as an actor?
Was it?
What was your girl? What was your girl with girlfriend or wife at the time you guys married when you bought.
The house, or by the time we bought the house we were married.
Yes, okay, So so I guess joint income they're going off of.
Right, Yeah, I mean, look, I'm putting money in the bank and they're looking at the beauty with being an actor. You could show them a contract and that would count for a little something. But and this is the benefit back in the day, this is right before this is
a few years before the housing bus. So they had what they call they now called them, actually called them this then liar loans, because part of the whole reason why that housing bus happened was because the whole industry was just letting people climb whatever.
People make two dollars by hand, Like, what are learning.
For a living? I don't know. Oh did you see hear you say you earned three million dollars a year? Sure, let's go with that. Yeah. I remember I worked in.
A building where someone was doing loans and people are showing up in drugs in their houses because like, why were you buying a house that was way above your budget?
Anyways, they were letting.
And they were doing those interest only loans.
Too, exactly. There was sending people in for failure.
Yeah, yeah, set.
People up for play. But we got lucky, well and lucky, and that we kept going. But that was our first house, which we lived in for several years, and then we bought the house we live in now. And this is years ago, and you know, two years in we had to put it on the market because I was working but not at the level that could afford this house. Yea, yeah, and I was scrambling, you know, and we were like
finding everywhere to save money. So suddenly all the like you know, fancy meals and eating out all the time and everything like that, all that went away again. And you know, taco soup has never left.
It's spaghetti popping, it's no.
Spaghetti never pops up. It mentioned spaghetti. Don't bring spaghetti back up in here again.
I'm playing you guys so serious. To it was like, don't you dare?
No, My kids loved spaghetti.
But your spaghetti air was the sixty seven years you were doing spaghetti? What where were you doing?
And that was when I was in grad school. That was when I was, you know, eating it six days a week, and I didn't matter how much pasta you ate. You couldn't you know. I was running all day, you know. When I was in grad school was eight in the morning to five at night. At school, six to ten o'clock in rehearsals, and then you had to rehearse like five scenes that you had for the classes going on the next days. And then on Saturdays we rehearsing to
play from ten to six. Oh wow, So Sunday was the day you got to do some laundry and maybe relax. And that was the day we would splurge and like eat something besides pasta.
Okay, And when you say we, who's we?
Me? My best friend? He was my roommate. And when I got to grad school, it seemed like everybody was crazy. And I found one other dude who wasn't crazy, and I was like, that's my boy, and he's been adopted by my family, Like he's friends with my younger brother, even outside of me, Like.
You know, he's like real fan, Fan's faan, he's real one. So you buy this house in two years and you get the we're riding the roller coaster way, take me through that.
It was look, I I'd spend my entire career thinking in terms of like, you know, my mantra was, if I wanted safety and security, I'd have been a lawyer. Because my mentor was like a Supreme Court justice in Virginia. His dad was a vice person my high school, one
of the best educators Avenue got to know him. I thought I was going to be a lawyer, and then I took an acting class and then all with the ship and so there was instability all over the place, right, but so, but my mantra was always like I was on the prize career moves not jobs. Right, you know, if you want safety, security, you could have been a lawyer. So don't make the safe.
Move that gets my don't make the safe moved.
Don't make the safe move. Make the smart move. Which sometimes takes risk, right, but that means you got to keep your you got to keep your life small.
Don't make this safe move right.
Don't just play it safe, play it smart.
Sometimes the safe movies smartest highs.
I'm not saying it's always high risk, but sometimes it is. Right. The safe move is just stay exactly where you are and don't do nothing right, in which case you don't advance. So sometimes the safe move is to stay still sometimes, I mean, sometimes a smart move is also the safe move. You know, you're at the cliff, don't move, stay still for a second, right, you know, Sometimes a smart move is not the safe move. You gotta take the risk. Yeah,
And that was the deal. So in order to be able to do that, we always try to live below our means. Lost that for a bit with kids because my wife teaches at universities, and she's a poet and fiction writer and teachers at university. So we wanted to make sure that they had the best education we could get them, which there were some private schools that we fell in love with that had not only the education
but also the diversity that we wanted. That's what I was, you know, I mean, And we were you know, look, I mean she's Indians. So we were like, you know, it was the school was so dope that like our kid wasn't even only black an Indian kid in his class. Like they both my kids graduating in their classes were fifty or more kids of color. So I was like, we loved that school. And we were like, I will,
I will pay for the nose. I will sell my house before I pull you out of school because I want you to have that experience all the way through. And you know, we were but we bought that second house and we were scrambling for a bit. So it's always about trying to keep it lean. Now I've been on you know, Grays, you know brought me on. I recurred on Grays as a guest star for years and then they brought me on as a series regular and then spun me off like a year and a half.
Two years later on to Station nineteen. So now we're chilled.
Are you feeling like stability? Comfort?
More than I've ever had my career Because I look at my account and I know that if I wanted to, I could cut a check tomorrow and pay off what I owe in my house. Oh and that's the thing.
That's a great feeling.
And look I am for going from a kid who didn't know anything about financial literacy, who didn't know you know. I remember we saw a condo for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars when we were living in an apartment that the rent was like two thousand something, and I was like, the mortgage on this condo would be less then less when I'm paying rent. Yes, got the down payment. I didn't understand any of that. I didn't get finances.
I didn't understand any of it. So by the time, so now my whole thing is I'm like going from that to now knowing. Okay, let's break down the numbers and if I needed to worst case scenario, we could eliminate the big bills that if you don't do that because it's better to that's them. YadA YadA, YadA. Okay, but I'm like, you know, so now I'm still keeping it tight. Like somebody I was, we're doing some renovations of our house and I goes, well, this isn't gonna
be your last house, is it. I look at me and said, wy not. I was like, you're expecting me to go buy the bigger house because I can. Yeah, I said, me staying in this house that my kids grew up in, and we have an emotional connection to that. I know I can kind of check them out and be good on that is financial and therefore mental security. I'm good. Fuck all, y'all. I'm gonna do what I enjoy once my kids are out of school. I'm gonna do what I'm excited about, not what I gotta do,
because that's the you know, that's the lesson. You know, my mom sold the house that I was sixteen. My mom had to sell the house that we grew up in. When we put our house in the market and we actually we actually sold it for a second, is what The dude who bought it was an ass. He was an idiot. You sold the house that we live in.
Now, yeah, you sold it for a second.
And when we put it on the market because that show got like I said, we opened deskco of the show got canceled. We had it on the market for a while. And this is right after the bus so there was the hot market was flooded, you know, so it was a buyer's market. And the dude was like, well, it's a buyer's market. You're gonna do what I tell
you to do. You're gonna do this, you canna do that, And he did it to the point where and I started getting feelings and getting signs that Grays might be Grays and Anatomy might be in a position to bring me on as a regular because I've been recurring for a while. And I was like, you know, a dude, Nah, nah, you ain't gonna buy my house. Yeah, yeah, you know you ain't going. You ain't gonna treat me like I'm moving the clown I got, yeah, you know you're out.
And he was like, what do you mean, it's a buyer's market. I said, you can say it all you want, don't change the back. It's my house. And until we signed something, so we sold it and I swept for a couple of minutes and then and then it happened. But but until.
That time, because what it was, we were you sold it, but then you got it back.
We never we never officially signed the papers, so it never went away. And that was the thing. But we you know, we were right there before that, when we were like underwater and just we were bleeding money into the house and stuff it was like, that's the only time in my career that I've had sleepless nights, okay, because I was like, you know, you know, I gotten this house and provided for my family a full on middle class life, and I did not want to take
that away from them. Yeah, and that's that that's that feeling. And I was like, I hadn't felt like that since when my mom came to us and said, I have to sell this house. And my mom is my mom is one of the most incredible individuals you're ever going to meet. Shirley George. She she came to us and she said, I'm sixteen years old. She comes to the house, calls a family meeting. We're not that fan. We didn't do family meeting. That wasn't a thing. But she came
and she said yo. I didn't say yo. I'm saying yo.
Yeah.
She goes, I have to we have to sell the house. We have to move. What constraints do I have? And my older brother was in college at the time, he was at Norfolk State, and he was like, he's a computer guy and an artist and he was at school. He's like, as long as we're in Norfolk, Hampton Rose, you know, I can drive to school. I'm here, I'm good.
Wherever you want to go, I'm good. And my little brother's like, I'll make friends wherever I am and we can come back over here visit my old friends anytime. I'm good. I'm in my junior year of high school. You I was like, yeah, you know what's coming. I was like, I'm I'm probably going to be captain of the track team next year. I'll probably be you know. I ended up being vice president of student Like. I was like, my shot at scholarships is kind of depending
on me being here because I got anywhere else. I start over again and I'm a new kid at senior year. What does that mean? So I was like so, and I was like, and I need to get some scholarships. So so my mom moved into a condo that she did not want to live in in order to keep me in school. She is the most incredible woman and s single parent household. My pop is a good man. He was not the greatest father, and he was bad.
And you know, we've become friends again now, but at the time it was just my and all growing up, it was just my He's been a good grandfather, but my made that move for us, for me, and you have never seen a person with us to ask more to like find the guidance guidance. The guidance counselors in school did nothing for me. The guidance council's secretary, this is Verostik is my It was my angel. She passed away a few years ago. She became She saw how
much I was pulling. Any scholarship that looked like I even had like a snowball's chance of getting at and she was like, let me help you out. So she started looking for me. She'd stopped me in the hall. She we got you're not supposed to have access to
the references that people wrote for you. I managed to get hold of the references so that we could if we found a scholarship that was due today or tomorrow, we could print off the stuff and put together the packet, nothing flat, and I type something up, change up this essay or whatever. And I made school. I made money for school. That's how I paid for school. First year of school.
Okay, so you knew the whole time that you you were aware of your family's financial restrictions.
I knew that MA was my brother was working his way through Golk State. As a result, it took him like several years to get through, not a straight four year thing. And then I this is almost brought up. We're about I was like, let me, I've got to find a way to pay for this. And so I'm taking this out like it was. You don't really put this back in because I can just do everything in here. Sometimes we do it different possible.
We're watching you, we're learning. I know I was thinking it, but I was trying not to coast one because I've never made tackles super fun.
No, no, no, it's simple. So now you put in the.
Drys so you're putting in all the can.
Goods, all the can goods, that the dry stuff.
So during all, during all of this, you but you tell your mom head on, you know you want to be an acted the whole time. When does acting come?
And you know I want to be an act at all. I wanted to be a lawyer. Oh you know the judge was was my mentor at the time.
And so when did the judge become your mentor? And when you were in high school?
Yeah, so she agreed to so she feel it is it's fun. So she kept us in the NEIGHBORHO kept us in that school. And mister Hessel was a vice prince from my high school. And he and I were cool because he was that educated that like treated every kid like they were a human being, even when they're
that trouble kid. Uh. And I wasn't the trouble kid, but I did get in trouble a lot because I could be I was what I'm just saying, Like I was like, you know, like I said, vice prince, vice president, but like I also knew, like I could get hold of hall passes, so I'd be like we pulled the car around sneak kids out.
Of school, you know, kind of like me, I can relate.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, I'd not show up for stuff and it'll be like, so I get detention a lot. And he but he talked to you like why you want me to give you attention? Yeah? What's going on?
Yeah?
And you take five minutes to talk about that, and then you take another forty minutes out of class and just what's going on in your life? And he'd really be interested in you. And he did that with the kids who were like always in fights and actually trouble. So he passed away my senior year, and even the kids who were the trouble kids, the teachers couldn't stand in tears because they loved that man. Wow, that's when you know you're bad. That's when you know you're a beast,
because like even the kids that everybody can't stand love you. Yeah, And they made a scholarship in his name. And I knew him better than most, so I was able to yes, scissors or something like that.
Teeth jas No, I'm just trying not to be that person. It's eating while broke.
Yes.
I hope we get a zoom in are like, oh, there we go. That's how we know you're official. Okay everywhere. Yeah, you got to watch. It's all good though, It's all good.
First you put it on the me This is the secret. You you put it on the stuff first.
You put it on all the beans first.
On the beans, the corn, the homony, and the stuff first, and then we'll put in the put in the liquid broth a little bit later. We want to like get it in the end of me on there for a second, just a little bit.
When was the last time you ate this dish?
My wife made it actually just like it's probably what made me think of it. She made this. I haven't made it in years, if you can't tell. Yeah, but she made it actually just a couple of weeks ago. For the kids. Wow, they love it. I mean they had it when they were level, but we haven't had it forever.
So when does the acting end up taking play in your life.
I get to college and I'm planning on being a lawyer. I'm putting together programs like the University of Virginia. They don't have a formal pre law program, but you can kind of put something together like that because their whole thing is it's all the philosophy of they don't want to teach you like how to have the job. They want you how to think and that sort of things, the whole jam. And I'm like, cool, that's great. And but my boy was an architect and he was like
he was an architecture student. He was like, Yo, we're gonna have really stiff jobs, so so we should do something for just fun. Let's go take an acting class. And we took that acting class and it was a rap. I just kept I just kept showing back architect. No, Well, if I'm being honest, he didn't get in the class. The class was over sold, was too many kids in the class, Like say, it's like supposed to be thirty students,
it already had like thirty three. And he said, I'll take three more students and he just kind of did like a quick little audition and I got in and my buddy didn't. I think he's never forgiven me for that.
Oh, but is the architect now or yeah?
Yeah, he was designing golf courses, I think. But so I'm just warming.
All the being and your mom's being supportive of this whole career choice.
Well, she loved me being a lawyer. My dad loved me being a lawyer.
Oh, your dad was semi around still.
He was. We could contact him we want to. Our mom would make us call him on Father's Day. She would make us call him on Christmas. She would make us call him on his birthday. Which is when you know who's the problem in this situation is the parent that's making you call the other parent? Yeah, is not the problem.
Yeah.
Yeah, again, my mom's a insane. But everything's cool when you're going to be a lawyer, because you're gonna be official and everybody gets the stability of that. Everybody gets how that works. But I kept finding my way back in the theater department. I kept ended up over there. I did a play and then I like, then you're like really addicted. It's like that's one of the acting is in addiction, right, everything else is just helping you
manage it. Yeah, so I was. Then I made the decision, you know what, I need to go to graduate school for acting because I want to do this thing for a living. I remember I had a teacher who she was the hard ass in the school. Who was she She's the one that people go into her office for their like mid semester or halfway you know, at the
end of the semester like evaluation, come out crying. And I went in there like nervous as hell because everybody, like somebody came out right in front of me, boohooming. And I went in there and she sat down. She stared at me, Betsy Tucker, and Bessie looks at me and goes, you're not bad at this. You can do this for a living. And I'll never forget what she said there. She goes, you could do this for a living. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Wow.
And that's why I'm beginning to get an idea of how deep this career could get in terms of, you know, how rough it would be yo at times. Now I'm throwing in the other dice tomatoes. Yes.
And then how long on average does it take to make this?
You said, well, I'll let it. I'll let it. See, throw the broth in for a second, bring it to a boil, and then and then we'll let it settle for like fifteen twenty minutes.
So it probably takes like in in actually other like thirty or thirty minutes to make this.
Yeah, And you know, it depends on if you wanted more like a soup, or if you want it more you know, like a stew, or if you want to get it all way to something feeling more like a chilling.
Do you ever add tortillas on the side when you eat it?
Oh?
Yeah, yeah, I could see this dish being like a like flower tortillas on the side.
Hard to have the name taco soup, because.
You know it definitely looks hardy.
It's just I mean, it's something like what do I what can I make? Yeah? What can be? Remember? I'm like we made this when weird. I had just gotten to town, gotten one gig under my belt. I'd seen plenty of other actors on soap operas get a gig, you know, even get nominated for a Daytime Emmy. I got my little Daytime Emmy nomination, and I was proud and love it. But then I've seen people get that and never work again.
So how long was your was your hardest break? Like when how long was the biggest gap in your career.
I don't think I've been blessed. I'm gonna say that right up, but you never know, because I think I've been blessed. I don't think I've ever gone more than a year wow without working, which, knock all the wood in the world is a blessing now. Like I said, though, I made the mistake of moving my lifestyle up and then I was working doing guest star roles. But I was trying to live a series regular life with a
house in mortgage and intuitions. Yeah, so suddenly I was like, I'm working, but I didn't be working twice three times as much as I'm working right now, or earning two or three times as much. In order to state this lifestyle.
Was there ever a period where you're on a break and you're like, Okay, I need to get a job, like another job.
No. No, I thought about it, and I started. There was one point in that year where where I was like, maybe now we look at teaching acting kind of thing. It's always been a goal, but it was always also partially in my backup, so it was like, okay, let's think about this and turning this back up now. But I never did it at the university level, which is what I always thought I would do. But not long after the you know, we were, I was underemployed. Let's
say I wasn't unemployed. I was underemployed for the life we had. But things started to like pick up looked like grays might happen. I started my own acting workshop, and because like I said, it had always been a goal. And then grades started happening and suddenly I'm a series regular. And but I kept the acting workshop going because it was what was beautiful about it was there was nothing on it. It wasn't to earn money for me. It wasn't for somebody to try and get a job like
auditions are and everything like that. It's like whatever we do in here creatively, it's just about seeing what we can do. It's just about letting thoroughbreds passion. It's just for just for a passion, just for the art. I mean, it's like for the love of the game. Right. So that was I did that for like ten years. Wow, I ran that workshop. And you know, in some of my there's nothing better feeling and helping somebody break through
in terms of understanding themselves and their craft. And they and so I'm you know, I'm watching them, you know, gave a couple of them the recipe for tacos. I'm like, here's something. No, but it was the it will help you through.
But you did you ever give us student the same advice that your teacher said to you about you being a great actor? And I feel bad?
What did she say, Yeah, you could do this for a living. I wouldn't wish that on my worst than.
Did you say that to any of your students?
I have, and they and they persist and they you know, and it's there's nothing better than seeing somebody get their first guest starring role, which is a big deal in an actor's life. And then and then the thing that many actors never get to see it. And you know, I've had one or two of them get their series regular. You know, get a contract thing where you can actually be like, oh so for the next you look at the contract next year, I can breathe, yeah, you know
what I mean. And that's a that's a crazy time. But it's but it's tough because you also don't know because you can make money. I tell people, I'm like, when you first get on a show, god bless you, thank God, hug everybody. Treat everybody well, from the janitor to the person who writes the show. But you know, buy a car, don't buy the house.
Why I would to say I would have said, I would have thought you would have said the opposite, because with the house to get equity, yes, and a car is a liability.
The only way that's my initial statement is okay, we're gonna get into financial leadership. If you can get a house where or a condo where you know that the monthly mortgage once you do the down payment will be the same as you pay in rent, then it's a smart move. A mistake that most people have is they think I'm on TV, I got a contract, I'm a serious regular I'm gonna buy a million dollar house. I'm like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, wow, Wow,
what are you doing? I mean, like, slow it down because now you've now you're paying monthly two and three times times which you were paying. Keep it low.
I was freedom and so and banks like to banks like to offer you way more house than you can buy and as.
Much money as they can they But.
I like what you said, like, make sure that the rent is you know, something that you pay in the in the real market.
If your more, if your monthly mortgage is basically what you be paying a rent, you got to pay to somebody better to pay it to you yet, right, But that's my secondary conversation. My initial conversation is if you need to buy a car, buy a car, but don't buy the house, because that's a whole level of financial responsibility which takes away some of your freedom.
Yeah it does, right, yep. So you you give people the keep your overhead as low as possible while pursuing this passion.
That's your freedom. Yeah, that's your frequency only. You have control of a very few things in this business, but that one you do. I mean, look, my first coming off the soap, the first tip I did was for Aaron Spelling, you know, legendary producer. I've been blessed to work with Aaron Spelling and shine the rhymes like to legendary. And he was like, cool, so, well, you know I've started in this primetime show. You should audition for that.
So I went into test for that, testing for his show on day one and testing for another show on day two. The first episode the first show was it was a horrible show, and I was the black best friend. My job was basically asked the white guy who was the lead, I was your date last night. So then he could go on for like five minutes about what's
going on in his life. The other show, I basically was going to play Lady Kravitz basically like this ron star, right, this rock star, like you know, and who's trying to figure out like who in my life actually loves me? For me? Like, what does this mean? I'm successful? What does that mean? I was like, that's dope, that's a cool that's like that's juice. I could do that all day. The other thing is like a job, that's a career move,
that's a job. So they literally Monday and Tuesday auditioned for Titans on Monday and on for the spelling Joint on Monday and I walk in and it's for the writer and director. That's it. I do my thing. I don't even make it home. Half an hour later they go, you got the job, and I realized that's a good spelling basical, was like, hey, number ten or eleven in the call sheet, it's my guy. If you hate him, then no, but otherwise, you know, give them the job. Simple,
no big deal, keep it moving. I got a job. I said, well, great, I'm auditioning for the thing I really want tomorrow. Can I tell you them tomorrow?
Can I confirm tomorrow if I.
Auditioned, I'll have an idea of like, yeah, yeah, I kill it. Did I kill whatever? You know? And they're like, no, you got to tell us now, Jesus, And I said, okay, well I got to tell you now.
Then No, I knew you were going to say that. I just know based thought this whole story he was going to say, no, I'm right and that.
It was one of my proudest moments because I was like and then so then they were like, okay, I went. I went to the audition the next day. Then my thing did not get the other thing by the way that one, Like, where was the writer and director for the spelling thing? It was like thirty fifty forty people in the room, like everybody had to sign off from me. Yeah, didn't get it. Immediately called and said, yo, can we get the other thing back?
Did they see us?
Yeah? They did, Thank god. That's but that also tell me. That taught me another big lesson. It's just business for them, it's just business. For us, it feels personal and we're all caught up in it.
And so what was cool was that, Like, I love that you called back that, you know, And so I.
Remember going to the other table read for that show and they came, you know, the president of Spelling Television that Aaron were like, they were like, dude, you gave us a heart attack, Like give me hugs and stuff. I thought it'd be mad. No, it's just business. So when you we worry about the risk all the time, and it's like part of the risk we think is they'll hate me and they won't hire me anymore. And it's like for them, it's just business. They get that
this role is not the end all be off. They get that that's a better role. They know that they know what's best for me, and that they can't be mad at me for trying to do it's best for me. If I do it in a jack away, there's a different thing. So it was like it taught me a lot of lessons really early in my career of like how to conduct yourself, don't you know, make the smart move, not necessarily the safe move, know when they're the same thing,
and know when they're not the same thing. Yeah, that's kind of how I've been trying to live my life the entire time and try to teach my kids and try and tell my friends when they asked me for advice, I'm like, look, you got kids in the family. You need to put your head down and work this way. My kids are almost grown, so I'm like looking forward to this chapter where I'm like, what kind of buck ass wild stuff can I do next? I mean, but
I've been blessed that, like I'm back on Grays. I'm back on Grays Anatomy because when Station nineteen wrapped up after seven seasons, they were like, we think you can come back over to the Grades. I was like, is there still story there? And they ran down a bunch of ideas for you know, my character Ben warrened to go through and I was like, yeah, okay, I'm in. I'm in because it got me excited as a as an actor.
What do your kids say about your career?
My kids, my goal was like if I could have had the money, and like if I could have had like Will Smith's money and choices, but like, had my kids think I was a janitor, that would have been like my goal for the longest time to keep I keep it as regular as possible at home. And so
for a long time it didn't factor it. It wasn't until like Grey's Anatomy was just too big and too big with their friend group to like hide that they had friends who were like a little like geek, like, oh I know you did, and like that's when they like so they were like, you know, beyond that, beyond it. They had like a little there was a kids movie that like I did that they loved when they were like five, but like that was like you know, my
daughter cried about like daddy, bad guy whatever. You know, that's a whole different thing. They don't get it. This was when they actually went like, oh, okay, and they saw that, like, you know, financially things changed and our vacations got better. But the house I love.
I love that you keep it. It's like you fully understand the scope of the risk that you take the whole time you're doing this career.
Yeah, and like and you know when the and what I'm excited about is, you know, look, I'm a I'm an enjoy myself on grades and when they're done with me or when it doesn't make any more sense, there's no more story for bed. Whatever the next thing is is going to be something that only the stuff that I'm excited about because I love my kids are almost out the house, so I'm like, it's not about yo, that job thing. So it's like, you know, I can go back to making risky moves.
Oh my good, and the house is almost paid off. I'd imagine at this point.
It's like we do okay. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's been it's been an interesting ride. And in that spot where knowing that like, you know, I can still beat my kids in the foot race, so but we're in the financially decent spot. So I was like, I'm pretty hyped about where I am right now, Like yeah.
Well, let's see what your tackle soup tastes like.
Is it right? It's somewhere in there. It should be. I mean, it should taste decent. This is the thing. Is the thing about taco soup is that it gets better as its I'm gonna let it.
I'm gonna go pick up my daughter and come right back and be like, let's bring this soup home. Well, I didn't even bring it to a boil, so oh, it's gonna take a while.
I got to bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for like a little bit after that. But so it takes a second, you know how like chili is and good soups do. But you could take a sip down and I give you an idea.
Yeah, we're gonna take just put a little bit. You and buy are both gonna do it together. Okay, So I'm gonna judge based off the fact that he couldn't fully fully bring it to a boil and simmer. It looks really good though, it looks colorful. I have a question, do you ever add a cheese to this?
But again, we'll put we'll put the I should have told you treaded cheese and like you said, taco strips or something like that, and you can throw a little bit of the We can't have people do I don't because you know I try and do hikma say how many? How many? How many? How many? How many?
All right? Does it taste good?
Okay? Anything? But it gets better over time? Like I said, is it? This is really good? As it sucks up the juices and stuff, it gets better.
Now the meat is perfectly tender and it's not dry. If you boil it and let it simmer, Will the meat get dry.
When you get dry with it? No, that's the beauty of it. It's just gonna get It's gonna's gonna suck up these juices. So right now it's on the super side. This is the taco soup. It'll start looking more and more closer to a chili as this like, if I boil it, let it similar for another like fifteen to twenty. After that, we eat whatever we're gonna eat, throw it
in the fridge. Tomorrow's when it tastes the best. I really, I think it's good the first out, but the next day, which is perfect for the like we are on crazy schedules, we're running.
Did you put real tomatoes in this?
What did you do?
Oh tomatoes?
It is good? You look so we just hitting the boil now.
Honestly, if this tastes better tomorrow, I go see you eating with this with like saltine crackers.
Right, it thickens up whatever you want to. It's like all those like very tortillas, all that stuff is just it's a vehicle for whatever something else.
So when do you add the salsa in it?
But then sometimes I throw it in now if I want to. It's at a good spice level. Right now. Some will leave it, but people will sometimes throw it in on top of the you know, with you throw some cheese on it, just like a taco, right, you throw your cheese on top of it and throw because you can actually say something, this is magnificent.
Well, thank you, thank you, and for all y'all listeners at home. This was literally a couple of bucks, like a dollar, two dollars cans.
It's the whole point.
It's like, if you can't cook and you're a man, this is like, yeah, you can impress someone with this.
Yeah, this is what I My wife is the one who introduced it to me, and then I would it was one of the things that I could cook that even when she wasn't around.
The sauce is really good. Did you try a bit just a song?
Hm?
Great, great meal. Thank you so much Jason for feeding me. Now, shout out to your mom because there's a couple of things that you mentioned that I don't want to overlook the fact that your mom raised three sons. It sounds like all three of you went to college.
See it again, three sons went to college, worked that way through. My older brother worked his way through. I managed to put together scholarships, and I worked as an ra to get myself all the way through. And my younger brother got an athletic scholarship and athletic academic combination scholarship the Howard University, so Norfolk State, UVA, me and him. My older brother went to Norfolk State. I went to UVA, myright younger brother went to Howard and she we all
had to get it done. But she, she's the matriarch.
She held it down. Even the conversation when she talked about like selling your home, just how she included you guys, like what are the restraints, what are the feedback? And for her to even hold it down to just like, Okay, you know this is your goals. I'm going to make
sure that you see those things through. I think that was pretty impressive, along with the fact that you've eaten broke so long that you cannot even eat spaghetti anymore, really says a lot about your story, and even just sharing like the financial literacy aspect really shows that you were really eating while broke while pursuing your dreams and earning college degree and making sure that you had career stability with acting teaching acting in the background. I love
every part of your story. Thank you, and we love watching you on Gray's Anatomy. We want to keep seeing you on more and more and more and more stuff. What advice would you give to an actor and actress trying to get in this industry? Now?
A couple of things. On the we talked about financial literacy, keep your overhead low, right, that's that financial freedom is freedom and financial freedom is creative freedom. On the creative tip, you got a camera in your pocket, you need to be creating. Stop. You know, if you can learn how to write, if you can learn how to direct, if you can all that, you can just play around with it.
Nobody else needs to see it. You and your friends making stuff, and if you do it right, then it becomes you know Ray, you know, awkward black girl, which becomes insecure. I mean, like you need to be creating your own stuff because nobody. I had a friend who used to use this great phrase. He said, you're unique, but you're not special. I mean, don't think you're better than anybody else. But nobody in the world has what you have, the exact blend of stuff of you. So
create something. I mean, just do it on your phone. Create something. You never know what it's going to turn into. I love that.
And sometimes when you get a veteran in the game, someone that has a long resume like yours, they hate on the new era of the phone and pull out your phone.
And technology always changes, Technology always changes. Every theater actor hated on you know, every silent film actor hated on talkies, and then you know film actors hated on television, and everyone wants to hate on whatever the new thing is. Get over it. It moves, it moves, you know, move
with it or be a dinosaur. Right that said, you got to hold on to and remember what's actually real, because that human thing like AI is the only thing that I'll hate on uh and even But here's the thing I say when I say hey, I don't mean because my brother's a computer jack and he uses AI all the time as a tool. He's a human theme, Oh yeah, using it as a tool. But there are two people who try and use it to replace human beings.
And I'm like, the thing that allowed us go from theater to move to silent, to talkies to TV is that human thing we always connect with. You see somebody who's like, I know exactly what that's like to fall in love, to lose somebody, to do with that human thing that sticks. If you can hold onto that doesn't matter what the technology is. And if you can use AI to bring that out, that's cool. But AI can't create that.
AID can't create it. And I think there's this thing where people think that it can. And I was I have a girlfriend that's doing a children's book right now. She hired an animator and the animator was obvious was using AI. And I looked at it, and she's like, what do you think? And I was like, this is AI. And the truth in the matter is kind of what you said about being unique. It's just when you're an artist and you can somehow that vulnerability is still pours
through an art. And I like when you say AI can be used as tool, but it cannot on no lever can it replace incredible writing, or incredible acting or incredible drawing. You could see it from a mile away.
I spell it with with computer generated animation, they would call it. If you see a computer generated person, they called it the uncanny Valley. It could be looking like it was a picture, almost like an actual photograph, except for something about the eyes.
Yeah you can't.
You can just look where the movements and we just go, Nah, that's not it. That's not a real person.
I assure you, even if you try, like I play around with a lot of AI tools, I just I don't know. For me, it's like a playground of just seeing what it can do. But if you pay attention, you will see when it comes to the details, it misses every time.
Exactly details. And that's ultimately what that's what makes the difference. The difference is as a human being, we have opinions and best sign I saw on the strike lines because I was neat. I was part of the negotiating committee for the billion dollar deal we got coming out of them, the striking such but walking the picking lines. I remember sobody had a sign it was a writer and it said AI didn't have a fucked up childhood? Yeah, And
to me, I was like, that's the world. Like there's a perspective that comes from all the stuff that hits you in your life, good, bad, ugly that you bring to when you write this thing, which is why you got the writing job instead of that person, you know.
And then that that diversity is like the missing link, Like that's why you see big companies like Google or whoever when they have to have like this diverse, like different backgrounds, because they need these perspectives. And that that sign right there said all more than enough. But where can everybody keep up with Jason George?
You know, I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I think Instagram is Jason Winston George and they spoke. I think it's Jason W. George and I think that's what it is on Blue Sky and X.
And then do you actually handle your own handles? Do you and say hey, what up?
Yeah? No, you gotta know that, like my Facebook is connected to my Instagram. So I had a friend, like somebody who I knew who like lived down the block for me has my phone number. They made a movie and they were like, you know, an independent joint and they were like, yeah, well that was the role. And they showed me. They were screaming the movie. They were like, yo, that's the role that we wanted you to do. I was like, why didn't you holler at me? They're like
we dead. I was like, no, you did not higher at me because and they said, yeah, I hit you on Facebook.
I was like, stop, stop, I don't get that.
Don't don't hit me on Facebook. You need to hit me. So but my point is they hit me on Instagram. They'd have had a twenty percent chance of getting me Facebook give a zero.
If you have the number, I hit the number direct.
What I'm saying, but if you hadn't actually just walked down the street knock on my door man, you know where I live. But but yeah, but you it's mine. So if you holler at me when you see me putting stuff out there, that's me putting stuff out nice And I'll be putting random stuff out all the time. Like I almost had like a thirty six hour think of just eagles after.
Because I can tell you are so proud of this moment.
Eagles one on my super Bowl.
That's right on my birthday.
My birthday was the day that Eagles won the Super Bowl. Somewhere, we're Shannon that I can't see. Shannon. My publicist is around here somewhere, and she's a Cowboys fan. And she's rolling her eyes right now because she's My mom's a Cowboys fans.
Shout out to your mom. We love her.
It's her one fault. It's her one fault. Leave she can, she can be Cowboys fan. You can be wrong. It's legal to be wrong. It's legal to do unintelligent things. But that's just on you. That's just on you.
Well, thank you Jason for feeding me and taking time out of your crazy schedule to bless us with a little insight of who you are behind the camera.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you. He's out, y'all. Assass