Oh God, I can't really tell you this story.
Uh, sh man, what's hand him?
Man?
You got more Shawn be Small Lynch, Doug Hendrickson.
And Gavin Newsome.
And you're listening to politics.
You know to be, you known to be.
We got Connie Nielsen coming up. Who's Marshawn? She's been in all kinds of stuff, from The Devil's Advocate to movies with Robin Williams. But of course she was in Gladiator twenty four years ago and is in Gladiator too, and she's the maybe I mean, if not the dominant character and Gladiator too, she's one of the dominant characters. And she's a dear friend and remarkable philanthropist and someone has been out front on gender equality and she's got
her own nonprofit. She was, you know, and she was an actress going back when she's very young and Mark and as travel the world, speaks six or seven damn languages, one of those people.
Uh.
And so we're honored to have Connie Nielsen up next on politic.
Connie, how are you?
I'm good? How are you that?
I'm doing great?
You You are the hottest woman in town, in the country right now with this movie how are you feeling with it?
I don't feel super hot. I gotta tell you. I'm like, I'm I guess I'm not dressing the part really like, you know, just a sweater.
Well, I got my mind, Marshaun, shirt on, don't get, don't forget, you don't eat your chicken, and uh.
I don't eat chick.
So we're all dressed down, Connie, But no, thanks for coming on really for Gab.
Gab is as always like super well dressed.
I took my tie off for you. That shows my respect for so is my respect.
So's my respect.
Well, it's good.
Thank you by the way for joining us, because I wasn't joking. You've been, I've seen, I've turned on. I'm like, what the hell you're in Australia, You're you know, all over obviously all of the United States, but around the rest of the world with this sort of next level blockbuster Gladiator too, and and and a movie that obviously doesn't need any introduction, a movie that's so indelible in our lives twenty four years ago. Uh and you had you had a significant role then. But Connie, I was
sitting there with your son watching this movie. We just coincidentally went to one of the shows. He was sitting behind me and literally, I don't know, I haven't even told you this. I turned around. I'm like, I didn't know. Shot, Like, you're like the one of the mate. You're you're not, You're not just in the movie. You're like foundationally rushing to medium. It was next level part uh, And you didn't give me any warning about that? But was that?
I mean, honestly, did you expect that role to grow in such a prominent and significant way? Did you expect when you got that script that you would be such a significant player in the remake or the second iteration?
You know, it's so funny because you know, my memory of the first one is of course that I'm super central to I know, but not as And it's like the Rosencranz and Guildenstern thing, you know, which is where you know, this incredible play where you know, these two side characters and Hamlet, you know, think of themselves as the main characters in their own play. And so I'm one of those actors. I always think I'm the main character.
But was it? I mean, it is, I mean it is.
It's a remarkable movie because just the ability to take something that was you know, almost perfect, that's twenty four years old, with so much expectation, and actually match that expectation and exceed it. That's a risk in it of itself, just be participated. There's been a lot of great flops, and there are the Number two movies, but this isn't
one of them. And I did you know that right when you saw that script or you just knew that before you even got the script because of the team that was assembled.
I mean I wasn't sure about the script frankly until I read it. It seemed like an impossible task to create such a you know, a story that could actually measure itself next to the original. And as you said, like there was a lot of love for that first film, and I think people were worried that we were going
to come and ruin it. And what we've had is like so many people who have literally said, like, I actually think I preferred this one to the first one, and so there's a lot of love for both glading it just that's for sure. And you know, I was definitely worried and then I read the script and I realized, no, you know, this is it's a really great story, So you know, I was excited to start it.
I love it.
Well, Connie, take me through when you're done with it, because obviously we have another buddying movie star here with Marshaun who's.
Now in entertainment. But take me through when you're done.
It seems like that Gavin said, you've been on every continent at premiers every place, and you've been at the Grand Prix in Vegas. You've been or f One. You've been everywhere. How's that the last three and a half we spend you've been on the road, interviews every place. Has that just been nuts in terms of what you've been doing for it.
I've been on the roads for six weeks and if I tell you like my itinerary, you will faint. I mean, it's diffinite, it's crazy, But it's also been kind of amazing, you know, to premiere the film in Sydney, in Tokyo, in Paris, and Copenhagen in London, Los Angeles, New York, Like, it's been pretty crazy to meet with the fans in so many different locations since see them be so excited
about the film and frankly also about my character. Like just a lot of people have just shown Lucilla a lot of love and it's just been beautiful.
And I'm curious, Connie, just with you know, the experience you had twenty five years ago, and you're out imagine a version of a world tour.
Is this?
I mean, is it? I think it was Marcus Aurelius who sort of the the and the og of this the first film. He said, you never walk in the same river twice, not because the river's changed, because you're changed. And twenty four years later you're a very different person. The maturation of your character gave you that ability as well to bring that to life. And it's it's it.
That's what was so wonderful for me to watch, just in terms of knowing you, which is always strange knowing someone and then seeing them on screen, but how you can just see your joy and try to bring that complexity and that maturation to the character to life and have I thought, just more room to run with that. But what was just the experience of being back out there in from a global perspective? Was it? I mean, was it the same river twice or was it something even more extraordinary?
No?
In fact, I think I used that precise take on it that you know that you in fact can't going, you know, walk into the same river twice, because the river has changed, and so have you, you know, I've changed, and even like the Roman Empire that we're talking about has changed. And that was what was so interesting for me, because I really just put myself in the place of Losilla.
What would it have been like for Loscilla had she had this experience of being like the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, And you know, Marcus Aurelius had presided as the fourth emperor in a lot, in a line of four emperors in a row, eighty years of unprecedented growth and like
positive governance of this empire. And even so, you know, we've cast Lucilla as a as a republican who continues to believe that ultimately, you know, freedom for the people is the only truth that they really can you know, push for, you know, no matter how benevolent this dictatorship has been, well, not quite the dictatorship, but this emperor
position has been for Rome. And we see why, right because after Commatist dies, you have a series of horrible rulers of Rome, and it must have been incredible for people who still remembered the Golden Age at that time, to go back to to to look at what had happened to their once proud, sort of shining example of a democracy, a democracy, you know, different from our terms, but in their terms of democracy back then in twenty years.
You know, you have a moment when our film starts where the Praetorian Guard is basically just selling, auctioning off more or less the position of emperor to the highest bidder. It's a sad state. And I imagine what it must have been like to.
Watch that, Marshaan, were you familiar? I mean, it's interesting. Everybody's now looking up Stoicism and everybody's learning about Marcus Aurelius, learning about one of the most significant works of literature, just deep human understanding meditations, and people that have read it maybe are rereading it today and picking up more contemporary cues. But I'm curious, Marshaan, you ever heard of Marcus Aurelius the most powerful man in the world?
Rome, No, I haven't.
But you saw Gladiator, right, you saw the first one, right?
Yeah, I've seen it like I've seen it a while ago. So I mean, you know, and I haven't seen part two yet, and only because I haven't been able to sit down, Like I want to go and watch part one before I go and get in to two, just so I can make sure. Yeah, I mean there's nothing that I'm miss so you know, I mean, when I get the time to sit down, I'm going check that out.
I do want to say, Machean, you don't have to watch number one because the number two actually just stands alone on its own. It does, and you kind of even even if you haven't seen number one, you can go in and kind of understand from the beginning what has happened as a preamble to number two. So I just want to say, if you want to catch it while it's still up on the big screen, I would definitely go do that, just because seeing that film on the biggest screen possible is really worth it.
Okay, Well, I'm one of them dudes that like the If I want to watch something, I like the like the bands watch So you know, I mean being able to go and you know, I mean check one out, then go shit down there and watch two. I think that'll be But we.
Should make like the double screening somewhere.
Right, you can make that happen.
I'm gonna make it all.
Denzel seems like the coolest dude in the planet. Like I've never met him, it seems like the coolest dude that anybody would want to meet anywhere. Is he that good of a guy, that cool of a guy.
I mean, it was so sweet because when we were doing the press tour for our film, he was also doing a press tour for a film that he's done with his kids that's called The Piano Lesson and it's gotten great reviews. And you've just never seen a prouder dad, Like literally so excited to tell us about this new film. And he was so out of having, you know, done this film not just with his two sons, but also with his daughters in this film, and so it's an
exciting thing for him. It's an exciting moment for him. You know. I think he's he's kind of thinking of winding down his career a little by little, and I think having had this moment of shooting with his family made him just especially proud.
No, but did you guys, I mean it must have had conversations over the years about the prospect of making number two, right, this didn't come out of the woodwork. Was Denzel always? I mean, did they did the Ridley Scott, Did they have Denzel in mind for a decade or so for this role.
I mean, Ridley had already done one movie, American Gangster with Denzel and and so I think you know, when he wrote the character of Macronus, who also was historically you know, he's also part of the history book, then I think he automatically had Denzil in his mind.
It's good and I mean obviously, look, I mean the epic nature of everything released Guy's ever done. But you've talked a lot about as you've been on the road, watched a few of your interviews, the nature of technology now and what he's able to bring to life with his quality of imagination because the technology allows him to scale that and generate in real time, the ability to
make magic. I mean, I imagine a lot of that you anticipated, you may have seen or read in the script itself or felt, but when you saw it up there on screen, when everything came together, what was that like for you?
I mean, he he does use technology a lot, but everything that you need to see he actually builds in real life. So you know, he had created an animatronic rhinoceros. For the big Rhinoceros fight scene. There were real boats for the boats seeing, though not real water. So it's just like, what what the technology allows him to do is to just reach a whole new level of effects that I don't think anyone has put on the screen yet, you know, not not to this level.
Uh.
And and it's uh, it's just he just loves uh technology, especially because it just allows him to, you know, whatever comes into his mind as a vision, he can make it appear.
You know.
It's incredible.
Yeah, Marshaun, You've got to go see it tonight. It is absolutely amazing. And again, Connie, I was with Gavin when your son was there watching as well too, and I was mind blown.
It was just unbelievable. But let me ask you a question.
I've always been admired, admired you as a person and everything you've done, as far as the philanthropy work, uh, you know, working in movies and whatnot.
How have you been so grounded?
I mean, you've got your great mother, You've been phenomenal everything you do, and you've lived away from kind of la and you've done it kind of your own terms and I've really admired how you've done it because you've taken the roles you want to take. You work when you want to work. Everything you've done is hit and been like blockbuster stuff, which has been great, and you've done it in a very cool way in your own terms,
and I really appreciate that. So is that that's not normal in Hollywood, and you've been doing this for a long long time.
It is kind of funny. When I'm home in Denmark, people call me like a Hollywood star. I go like like I would get lost if you put me in the middle of Hollywood and asked me to go somewhere because I'm without my phone, because I have no idea, I don't know the place like whatsoever. And it is strange for me when I do go to La because I've really don't know very many people there. I'm just as much a tourist as anybody who goes there, you know. But I have lived the kind of life that I prefer.
I am sort of someone who just likes to be with my friends and with my family and too, like I don't know outside of my work, you know, do like a real life, like living with real people who live normal lives, you know, And I guess you could say that. You know, the Bay Area is very privileged in many many ways, and there are all kinds of people here, and I know we have our own set of problems in terms of like the high living costs that's forcing a lot of those normal people out of
the Bay Area. But that notwithstanding, I just have loved living here and building a life here for my kids.
For sure.
But Connie, when did you come out to California? I mean you, when do you leave Denmark? And then when at what age did you end up out here in California.
So I've lived a lot of sort of weird chapters on the way here. I lived in Paris from eighteen to twenty one and did my first movie as soon as I arrived in Paris where I was staying with my uncle, And I literally did my first movie at eighteen there with Jerry Lewis as my co star. I was eighteen, he was fifty eight I think, and had just had open heart surgery and showed me I remember
the scar that went from here down to here. And it was just before having my first film Kiss at eighteen with a much older man.
Wow, that's a whole other podcast right.
There, right, and then I went to Italy where I went to I did a acting school in Rome, and I had my first kid there. Lived in Italy for ten years, loved, loved, loved living in Italy, and then
I moved to New York in ninety six. Did my first movie in America there literally two months after moving to New York, which was The Devil's Advocate, And it was quite a thing for me to land in New York, put my kid into the Italian school, and then go to work, you know, on a rooftop above Central Park with al Pacino and Keanu Reefs in my first scene.
That was the first scene.
Well, Conlie, how so before you got to eighteen, so in thirteen fourteen fifteen, you were doing acting and you told your parents to listen, I want to go do this, and then you find an agent then in Denmark and then they found this role for you in Paris or how'd you get there to begin?
No, I was like, I was living in this tiny city, village actually outside of a city, a small city in the very top northern Denmark, and I told my mom, like I started doing acting next to her, she had a review and variety show in the summer that did political comedy show sketches, and I did my first scenes with her at fifteen and sixteen, and then I told
her that that was what I wanted. And my grandmother had a cousin living in Paris, but we had no one living in Copenhagen, and so it just was easier for me to go to Paris than it was to go to Copenhagen. And when I got to Paris, I met a girl in the subway who was American. She asked me to dinner. I came to dinner. Next to me was sitting a producer. The producer asked me if I wanted to ask me what I was doing in Paris, and I said, I'm an actress and then he and
then he asked me, oh, what's your background. I told him, well, I've been doing these political review shows with my mom
for the past three years. And he was like, well, would you like to audition for this role young girl in a in a comedy And I was like sure, And literally three days later I went to the studio at the audition for the role, got the role, and it's there where I just want to say I could speak French because I had had I had done seven grades of French in high school because our teacher had this small group of girls, like seven girls to teach French to and was obsessed with it, and so he
taught us how to read and write fluently in French. So I spoke fluent French when I got there. And so I realized, as I'm telling my story that I've had sort of like a forced gump like kind of life where I've just happened to you know, you know, but you know, I don't know, like sort of back my way into something rather than sort of forging ahead of it. Does that make sense?
A hundred percent?
Take me through the Uh, the guy's a gladiator. I mean, who was the toughest gladiator to those two guys?
I can't really say because I would give it away. We don't want more sean she happens, do you know what I mean?
Right?
But I can reveal that one of them is my son and the other one is my husband. And so you're putting a woman in a hard place. Who is she going to choose her husband or her son?
Like there you go, there you go?
I like nine out of ten times it's the sun. But that's just you know, that's not wrong.
No, it is Pedro Pascal. So it is a hard choice.
I gotta say.
By the way, if you I curious, have you talked to Russell about this new movie? Do you guys like compare notes? Is he a fomo that he's not in it?
Oh?
God, I can't really tell you this story. I did text him picture of me and Paul and said look our son and uh, and he didn't think it was funny.
That's interesting, But that's good.
I mean, you know, legitimately, I don't even think about, you know, how he's feeling about all this, just with all the fanfare and energy. And I'm but you know, we don't have to go down that rabbit hole. But one of the things you know you have done is you've you've kind of you've made a few movies, and you've done it over and over again. I'm noticing a little bit of pattern Wonder Woman. Obviously you got nobody too coming out. But back to Wonder Woman. Uh, what
I mean? That was interesting that I mean, I know and you we can get into a little bit also your passion you talk about things outside of Hollywood and the work you've done as it relates to gender equality and talk about your nonprofit in a moment. But Wonder Woman must have been intentional for you in terms of also expressing not only your acting chops, but also expressing a point of view and participating in what became also just an indelible and iconic breakthrough movie.
Well, first of all, want to credit you know, Patty Jenkins, and and also to a degree Zach with with with just having the vision firsts you know, as a director and then so our producer to come up with this vision for for Wonder Woman. I think that everyone fell in love with the world of the Yscira that you know, Patty put up on the screen, with the incredible costumes, like just incredible people who did a lot of different
things to make this so beautiful. I was very inspired by an incredible book called Amazon's which is written by Stanford just a wonderful professor at Stanford in so sorry I'm blacking on her name, but just like an incredible woman who in her studies of anthropology had you know, like revealed what no one seemed to really talk about, which is the extraordinary thing that you know, all of those ideas we have about what is male and what is female and what did women do in history and
what did men do in history. Well, it turns out that a lot of these ideas about warriors being male and you know, people working in the home being female were misleading simply because anthropologists, you know, just assumed that if they saw a sword in a grave, well, then that was a male grave, and if they saw a bowl in a gray, well, then that was a female grave.
But what this anthropologist then realized or like describes in this book is no, in fact, you know, when these new female anthropologists started like testing these graves, it turned out that the DNA revealed that all the way up to twenty percent of these graves were actually female warriors in like places like Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and parts of Serbia, you know, where the Amazons that were considered mythical were in fact not therefore mythical, and were in fact these
female warriors that really grabbed the imagination of the Greeks, who were famous misogynists and who just could not even bear to consider this idea that that these women were warriors and able to you know, beat them in battle. And so that was my inspiration for Hippolyta, the character that I played in Wonder Woman. For me personally, as I was I was, I kept in mind like this one grave that I read about, which was like the
most famous grave, and it was a woman warrior. She was covered in gold, gold plates, like as in her grave. She was buried with her hunting dog, with her with her hawk, her trade hawk you know that she used for for hunting and and and seven horses and so she must have been insanely rich at the time. And uh and it just like could not get her out of my mind, like this, that's a story that you just never.
See national r and body for that role.
Well, that's who I sort of had in my mind. Yeah, when I did that, all, yeah, you're right.
It as dope as fun, you know, Marshawn what's interesting.
And Connie, I appreciate you you because all that research you do for these these parts, et cetera. And I think that was something that really struck me as it relates to the interviews you've been doing on the Gladiator two tours. Your ability to iterate and engage, particularly with a director like Ridley Scott who wants that and chooses individuals, actors like yourself that are willing to express themselves and are willing to sort of challenge some of those norms.
And I think for Marshawn, it's interesting just as you start your acting career as well. You know what's that I'm curious and this is a question for you, Connie, but it's a consideration for you as well, Marshaan. At what point do you have that confident that you can move from the script and this job to more of an expression and you know, take that risk that you may you may get pushed back that we hired you to do this role. Read your script, shut up versus Hey,
I'm a human being. I thought you hired me because you wanted more than was just the written word. You wanted me to bring something extra to this role. I mean, was there a moment, Connie where you were like, I'm going to move out of my shell after a third film or sar Were you that way with Pacino and you said, Hey, al, here's the way this character is gonna work for me.
You know, my dad was a real tough cookie, and so I learned to negotiate with tough guys since I was a baby. Okay, I learned how to that. You know, a no does not mean a know, it just means maybe.
Connie does not play Marshall. She's a tough, tough I love.
Doug's basically advantaging for that.
I'm just like, I just really believe that you can negotiate anything, and especially if you're coming from a place that is not an ego, but you're coming from a place of passion and enjoy You're coming from a place of wanting to share all of the discovery that you've
made in creating this character. And if you're not just there because you're this narcissistic person who is like, oh, it's my way or the highway, but if you're there because you want to share ideas and ways to make your character richer, that will benefit the film as long as you're also listening for what is the other person
really trying to do anything. That's where working with someone like with big and amazing directors like you know, Ridley, like Patty, like Zach like you Just like with Zach, I can, for example, say on Justice League, you know there were ideas where in the script, you know, I escape this uh, this collapsing, you know this collapsing place where where it buries a lot of my my Amazons inside it. And then off we are to the racist, you know, to get the mother box out of there.
And I said, Zach, you know, I really feel like it's it's it's sad that she doesn't take a moment to consider the lives that these Mamazons have sacrificed. And so he set up this whole scene where I honor that sacrifice, that loss for a moment, and it gave a dimension to the film and to the character because just a little thing like two seconds where you take a moment to honor these swallen warriors. That was that said a lot about the character and a lot about the film.
Marshawn, you a little bit of it. I mean, you and I know we've talked a little bit about this, but you're you're Marshawn's first big movie. Connie was Bottoms and ninety nine percent making this up. But Marshan, maybe you can share. I mean, all most your lines are just stuff you said, Hey, this is this is what I think needs to be said, not necessarily what they told me that I should say is that I mean, is am I overstating that sort of a similar experience a little bit, Connie.
And by the way, can I just say I love that film so much and you're awesome in it.
Thank you, I say, I appreciate it. No, it was just I mean for me is because I'm so green in the space. It's kind of more so like I'm I'm to the point where it's like, all right, tell me what it is that you're looking for, and then if you give me an opportunity to, yeah, I mean
do me. I've just been uh blessed to where they actually like, you know, when I do me, and then if we can find a happy medium to where I can give them, you know, I mean, uh, the few things that they need, you know, I mean to drive the film with the with the story and the concept of everything. And I'm able to, you know, I mean give them that and some of me and a good
mixture of it. So uh, you know that's kind of you know, my thought process, because the thing is, I never want to go into no position where I'm stepping on nobody toes. So when they do give me the actual opportunity to do me, I make sure make sure I do all of me. And it's and it's been working out, Uh, you know pretty well for me.
Well, the cool thing is Gavin. You know, Kanye and mare shown are very similar. They both done it their way. They're authentic, Uh, they're they're humble. They're not gonna like Marshans to step on anybody's toes, but they're gonna have their own mind and think and do it that way. And Kanye, honestly, everything you've talked about in your life is very similar how Morshaan's live his life. No one's ever kind of told him, hey, this is your box,
stay in it. He's done his own thing and he's whenever I had to do a contract for him, he said, why is this the contract?
Why can't we get more? What about this?
He's always pushed to the higher limits, which is cool as you guys are very similar that way.
But Kanye did have a question.
So if Morreshawn did have a great year in the NFL, and you know he was a free agent, all these teams to come calling and offering new stuff off of this movie. Now is the phone ringing like crazy or people calling and seeing what you did, because again, the movie was absolutely phenomenal, Or is it now you're you're looking at ten twenty different scripts of what you want to do? Is how does it work in Hollywood? Is that kind of on the heels of a movie like this?
So I am like, apparently I literally got a text from my my agent like an hour goes in, You're number three on IMDb, which is like apparently, you know, determined by how many searches.
For your name?
Nice?
Yeah, And so yes, I am reading scripts still, and I'm working a lot also on my own writing as well. There I started producing and writing and I got my first sort of own project done two years ago where I described how Karen Blixen, who wrote Out of Africa, how she became a writer. And I just was like so excited and was really truly exciting to do my own stuff, like things that I had come up with the concept for and really wanted to to talk about.
And that kind of stuff is what I'm really hoping to do more of now as well.
And no directing, Connie, I mean, as you ever had the directing.
Bug that my producer in Denmark would like me to direct my next project. Yes, but we'll see. I get one step at a time, and it's just like my Sean, it's about being humble and and and also honoring the process, you know, and and I really so I feel like, yeah, I would love that, But I also am aware of how many much better directors than me that are out there, and so if I, you know, if if the right thing comes along for it, then I would love to
do it. I saw my old ass the other day after my youngest had recommended it to me, and you know, that's an actress who who has now made her second movie, and that film is like unbelievably good and just uh, it's inspiring when you see that stuff happen.
By the way, just in terms of your own, you know, the sort of expansive career that you've had, are there. I'm feeling more optimistic. I mean, it's interesting in the last two years, sort of backing up, you've had these sort of twin movies that have sort of broken through and given you know, some you know, given new life to quote unquote Hollywood obviously with Barbie last year and now you and Wicked this year. But what are you
optimistic about your industry? Are you concerned about some of the trend lines in the industry, the streaming side of things versus the blockbuster over reliance on already well conceived or well received movies and becoming derivative of those movies or lack of original I mean what you're over under in terms of your own you know, own perspective and your own experience.
I mean, my perspective is colored by the fact that my great great grandparents had movie theaters. They had three movie theater My great great grandmother built three movie theaters. My great grandmother had built and operated one movie theater. My great grandfather made his own comedy film movie. And then my great grandmother stopped the her movie house in the late sixties because this craze for bingo.
Uh, that's more Shawn's mother now about to say, what kind of bengo like?
Bingo like ravaged the movie theaters in the provinces of Denmark, and so all of a sudden people weren't going to the movie theater. They were going to bingo because they could win a goose or something like that, you know, if they wonted bingo.
I played Bengos for gooses.
Yeah, they played that you could win something and it was yes, usually like a frozen something and so, but then movie theaters just innovated, they made you know, it went from being palaces at the time of my great grandparents, and then they became smaller and they could put more movies in the movie theaters, and then they also became bigger and better sound, and now here in the Bay Area there are plenty of them where you can have
dinner at the same time, you know. So I think through innovasion, people will always figure out a way to go to the movies because I think it has so much in common with sports. You know, if you did not have the people sitting there watching sports, it would not be the same thing, you know, being a part of it and participating in whether a story, whether it's something that's played out on the field or or shown on the big screen. You know, it's a communal experience.
And I just don't think that that will change, and I don't want it to change, you know. For me, in my mind, I trace it back through not just through my family over the past hundred and fifteen years, but also because that's one hundred and fifteen years since my great grandparents opened their first movie theater. But I traced my job all the way back to ancient Greece, and probably before that, you know, where people sat in huge arenas and watched plays. That's how I see it,
I think. And before that even we had itinerant storytellers who would go from village to village and they would sit around the fire with the village and the elders and the children and everybody would listen to the story. This is before reading. This storytelling goes back to the cradle of humankind, and it is what tells us about who we are and how to live and what's funny about all of that too.
Hey, hey, Connor, let me ask a question you literally have. I'm not sure if it's one or two sons, but that a famous obviously rockstar father and a rock star actress mother. Are they falling any lead in the music path or the entertainment path or both or neither.
So, my oldest son, Sebastian was a hip hop producer for more than fifteen sixteen years, and the music industry during that time just changed so much. And I do want to say this publicly the way that and I say this also to a legislator, the way that all of the money is amassing at the very top of that food chain meaning in the distribution access meaning stream of the music. H is quite literally killing talent, uh and making them go away for music because they don't
know how to monetize it anymore. A very few people can monetize it. Right now, my two middle sons, Miles and Lane have an incredible band TYPEI Houston. They're touring. They are unbelievably talented and given, and they make incredible music. And you know, we'll see if they can figure out how to monetize this thing. If not, they too, were gonna goat it.
We know somebody can. Can you fix it?
Gather?
This is this is part of the show.
Something's gotta that's for sure. You can't. You can't have to have one hundred thousands streams before you can afford to buy a coffee. I mean, and I think it's even worse.
Actually no, but Gavin, that's true. Let me snoop talking that before with us. How do we fix that?
Gavin? Honestly, let's get this one.
I mean, come on, Connie, you're adjacent to the answer, which is Lars was out front on this decades ago.
He was Yeah, it was like and do you know how much shit he took for that, like it was like people that like sent him death threats for telling the truth.
No, I mean he was literally on the forefront, right on the edge. Sean Parker Knapster, I mean that was that was the game changing stuff.
Yeah.
No, So it's so yeah, I'm the last guy the answer to that question. I just call Lars and get the answer and then just.
So now I think that the answer is that we have to go back to like making sure that Paola is not repeating itself. That's what I think.
So there's a lot of that. You're just calling that straight out.
I like it.
Yeah, wow, absolutely. I'm not in the music business, so I really don't care.
But it goes to Doug's question, though you're you, I mean, I love it because a lot of parents don't want necessarily the experience is the negative side of fame and the experience of celebrity and and you know the trials and errors, you know, I mean, it's a tough business in terms of ego. Uh, you know, you're up, you're down, et cetera. But you you you embrace, you want you want them to follow their passion, your kids, and you're not trying to say don't get into acting. Don't become musicians.
Uh just you know, I mean you're you're not in that, You're not in that.
Space, absolutely not. I think I really believe that the passion that each one of us has is so important. You know, whether it's for sports or music or whatever it is. For me, if they were interested in uh, you know, math or science, I would be just as happy. But ultimately, all I my job is to just tell them go with your heart. To just go with your heart, because I believe in that so much.
I love it.
But don't go to Hollywood necessarily.
You know, they can go to Hollywood. Three of them lived in La so when you know, yeah, so they go, they went there.
So what can I macconnie. I mean, you seem very happy in a great spot. And I've known you a while, but you just seem very happy and you should be. Obviously your life's phenomenal. But you see, and what do you do outside of this business? I mean you do a lot of you know, yoga, meditation.
Talk about tenth anniversary or nonprofit as well, and also finding that passionate purpose.
So we just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of a community slash Municipal Services Center that we created in the slum of Kibera, which is the biggest slum in East Africa. And you know, we started the project back in twenty ten and to watch over, you know, the progress this passion project has taken over these past fourteen years and ten years of the center, it's remarkable.
You know, we collected thirty people, young people from all of these differing tribes living in this slam who two years prior had been trying to kill each other over electoral issues in Kenya and told them, you know, everyone here is equal, just as many men as women. Always make sure you have one from each team, one from each gender, and so on your team's talk about DEI. We were doing DEI fourteen years ago and it worked.
And you know, our center became a place of peace and of progress and a place where anyone who won to get a skill sets and education had, get a loan, start a business, go on the internet, take a bath, use the bathrooms, and bring home clean water. All of that is available to you. And you know, if you're living in a place where you don't have running water or access to electricity, all of a sudden, you know, finding a job becomes extremely difficult because how are people
going to get in contact with you? How are you even going to propose yourself to a job if you haven't had a shower, or if you don't know how to write an application a job application, and if you don't have skills for any job. And so we built those and we can now look back and say, you know, tens of thousands of people have benefited from clean water, and thousands of people have built businesses and lives and
income livable income through these services. And for that, I feel like this enormous gratitude is just for me that we've been able to just come up with a simple thing, which is make these services available for people in one spot where they will not waste any time or have any difficulty finding all of these services under one group roof.
That is awesome and people.
Will do the rest. People will do the rest, you know. And I think we should take this concept and make it available everywhere in the mart in the United States as well.
Well. It's funny, Connie, you know Marshawn when he graduated from cal when e'ven in the NFL, he started a fan First foundation in Oakland and they have a youth center in Oakland and they do similar stuff where they have a kind of a one stop shop where kids can get off the streets and and you know, job training and just you know, if they need to get away from and get counseling or whatever it may be.
More shutting can touch more monet But it's been an incredible foundation they've done for the last nineteen twenty years.
You said where over Africa, It's.
In Nairobi, but you're so right, my Sean. In the center of Nairobi, it's like a slum there called Kibera, and like hundreds of thousands of people living there, and honestly, there are so many unincorporated you know, communities just I think in the United States that could benefit from a sort of like micro you know, municipal center that provides you know, all of these services, because these are just services.
It's not you know, I know that in America a lot of times, you know, anything that is services based is seen almost as if it were socialism. But these services help change people's lives and make it empowers them for change.
When you're agreed, Marshaan, Yeah, that's interesting because maybe ten years ago in Nairobi as well, but we went and put a fresh water system out there. That was one of my first international projects that we did on behalf of our foundation.
But as you was talking about it, I just looked up.
On my phone the the pictures and everything. And we went out there and to a village that they took me on.
This uh, this mother walk.
So they took me on a mother walk with you know, all of the women from the.
Village who actually take care of everything.
You know, the husbands go out, you know, and work could be from you know what I mean monthson.
At a time.
And before we actually went to the water system, I got to see like what it was like as like a.
Day and of life.
And I mean we walked from the village to the to the water hole where I mean everybody came here. And when I say everybody, I mean that the animals, the people from the village like and it was almost like a neutral spot where everybody called the truths like, I mean, the animals come in, they get their water.
The mothers walked there.
It was probably like a half a mile and they say they maybe make that walk maybe like ten to fifteen times a day just to be able to have water and shit. So before they actually took me to the system, this was like, this is what we have to do in order to get you know what I mean, our water, and then we have to boil it, I
mean to sterilize it and do that. So when we go to the actual water system where you know, it was maybe like three or four fountains, you know, the big water tower, and I'm just like, okay, this this is a pretty convenient.
This is pretty nice. But you know what I mean when you start speaking of the services.
That you, you know, you're able to provide for these individuals, just fact that how appreciative and the gratitude that they should just to go to a place where they can actually get fresh water, and you know they talk about you know, I mean the like how much time it cuts out I mean by just having it I mean accessible like this, and what that meant for the for the community out there that that was that was huge.
I'm not sure I mean how.
Much work you still do over there, but that's something that I mean I would like to look into, and I mean if there's opportunity, I mean to go over and see, you know what you got going on we'll.
Come to come with me in January. We're going to the center in January and we're going to go with with other people as well. The center is completely self run by the community members. And when you go to the center, you have both our own well, we have
our own solar system, we have our own water bottling plant. Now, we have we have a eighty computers for IT training so that people can get jobs and just in a three month course people can access it jobs at a low level that you know brings them seven times up in wages just from the first just from the first month of work, and within six months, you know, they're able to radically change the income for the rest of their family.
In additions that can.
Also have our own bank that was started by our own people. Now has a loan nut that has grown organically of more than four hundred thousand dollars and they only they take a very low interest rate. That's how we grew it very very low, so that people can forward it. We have both a MENI MBA class every summer for entrepreneurs. We have, as I said, lots of IT class, but we also have a music and film studio where people can learn how to become videographers photographers.
We do a course with Nikon, so we have like all of these different areas that people can use, and then we have you know, twenty toilets and showers for men and women and and so you kind of have like this whole sort of like every aspect of how to get ready for a job.
That's there.
Congratulations, man, this is unbelievable.
You've done?
Do you and I doing for a living?
Buddy?
I mean yeah, listening to these two.
I had a lot of time.
Uh I was over it for like two or three weeks, and I got to like I said, I did the mother walks and then you know the from the other side of that. Uh I was with a group Masi Warriors and they were you know what I mean, kind of telling us like, oh, yeah, this is how you know, you do your crossover and you become a.
Man like you gotta go out and uh I actually.
Got some of the uh some of the tools and we ain't gonna call them weapons, We're gonna call them tools that they that they equipped the youth with to go out like that with that. Yeah, yeah, I got that motherfucker city right next to my bed at the house.
It's incredible. I have one too, you.
Know what I mean.
But they you know what I mean, they took me through the whole process, like you know, I mean, got me, uh, got me suited up.
Kneel and wait for the lions, and.
Then a whole little process.
I may need this politically, by the way, this might be glighted at three Marshawn might be glighted.
A man, you say, a lion like while we're speaking right now, But then when you see one actually in the wild, like yeah, I mean that motherfucker a little bit different than the lines that you see at the zoo. And you know what I mean, this is a little different process. But uh, you know the time that I was out there, you know, I mean I really got to learn a lot, you know, with the village that
I was in. But during the Massa war here, like they took us on a on a took us on a trail, you know, I mean, it showed us like, okay, this where the lions at. Don't walk that way you get too close to their cubs. They I mean, the whole process, you.
Know about the conservancy thing that they're doing. They're no longer killing the.
Lions right right.
But the thing is they put me through this course and then they give me these two us and they're like, come on, let's go on a walk. And then at this time it's like, all right, well we showed you what to do if anything.
Is to happen.
Nah, you know what, take me back to the to the village where you know what I mean, you got real MISSI warriors who really know how to.
Handle this ship.
And then just take pictures and then show me that way, I could say, like, you know, I was there because you know what I mean, I don't really the animals in the wildlife and you.
Know what I mean, you know I wasn't really, I wasn't really for that.
You haven't done the Safarian experience where you.
Go out no, I said, I started, Yeah, I started until I seen like how real it was, and I'm like, nah, it ain't no, it ain't no gates, it ain't no like visionary lines and nothing is. More so like we have a level of respect here. You respect, you know, I mean, what they got going on, and they respect what we got going on. You just don't cross that line.
The thing is, I don't see these lines. There's no you know, I mean, no course, so they're saying, don't cross this line, and I'm like, well, there's no line here to cross. So you mean to tell you if I just stepped out of place. Yeah, I'm gonna go back. But I got I got renamed out there. They gave me a name, kit Rap. It was around the time that kit Rop had won the eight hundred in the Olympics.
So and I'm, you know, trying to get an understanding of my name and they tell me it's like rain Man, and I'm like, rain Man, Okay, it makes sense because I had brought the fresh water system there and so the name kind of went together. But it was a it was a it was a great experience, you know. And then I had worked with a company that you know,
got me out there to put all this together. So I mean, you know, as well as like I said, if it's something opportunity, I mean, to put something together while you're going, Marshaun.
And you're so welcome to come with us, Absolutely happy to do it again. And this time I'll drag you with me on a walking on a walk about come on.
You got your own tools, I do, But I got the thing is I got I got too much respect for you. I mean the animals and their kingdom, and I understand that this is this is their kingdom. I've got no problem with, you know, watching from Afar or looking at the pictures with individuals who are brave enough to put themselves in that type of predicament.
I'm just not that one.
So Gavin, here's the deal, Gavin.
You've got a couple things in your agenda, a few of more things, Gavin, but you got to fix the music business for Connie's sons.
I got it.
And then we have to implement I think I think we're in the former committee today of Connie and Marshawn to implement another center or center in the US, right Connie, can we can we take that model and expound upon.
Oak mixed services available to everybody.
Toddy, He'll be there with you.
He'll be got some people that you know, can get some things offline more so, just like dates and everything.
Definitely, let's do it.
So we, like Doug was telling me, we got a foundation in the community center in Oakland. Who I mean between me, my cousin, Josh and Marcus, individuals who also played in the league that I think I met them.
I think I met them at one of Dougs, like one time with Doug.
I think, yeah, probably probably, probably so, but uh, you know, I tend to bring them with us when we go to these uh to these other countries and do these things. And then I mean, you know, it's just something that you know, we got into, uh that I really like. And then along with the water system that we did out in Kenya, we did another project, well I did another project with a teammate of mine who's from Haiti, and we went and kind of.
And his his his whole.
Situation is more like, uh, what you did where you know, we we built schools, uh bill housing as well as the the fresh water project, so you know that was more so like a bigger thing for me. But I mean we've done these and you know, I'm trying to do it, you know, I mean all around the world. Just I mean, just but what we did and bring
those resources to those other places. So yeah, I'm not sure you know how we go about, you know, hooking that up, but that'll be something that really interesting and well we'll.
Set it up. I'm We're I'm really good at getting that stuff done very quickly.
So Connie is the is the Gladiator? Then is the press workut kind of done now? Is this kind of the end of it or is it still going the next few weeks.
We've got a few things still to do coming up next week. Uh. And also I don't know, like there's just a we have the San Francisco Film Festival going on right now. There was wonderful dinner last night with Steve McQueen, the filmmaker who is in town. He spoke just mentioning San Francisco Film Festival so that people can
go out and buy tickets and support your local film festival. Please, and Gavin, thank you so much for making these tax rebates for our industry so we can keep this industry and it's incredible talent here in California, especially all of our incredible crew members who otherwise get short changed for crew members in other corners of the world simply because of a tax rebate, and that allows crew members to
keep their families here in California as well. So I just want to say kudos to you for doing that. That's really, really, really important. But Steve McQueen at dinner last night spoke, I asked him to talk just a little bit about this incredible film that I don't if you guys saw it. It was one of his first films called Hunger UH and it's about the hunger strike of the Irish prisoners UH in Ireland. And it was just like really amazing, an amazing thing that he spoke about.
And I asked him what it was about that film that he wanted to that had sort of like guided his uh he's thinking, and he said, you know, one of the things that people who have no power, even children can do, is to refuse, to refuse. And I was just like that was the whole point of his film, like to show the power of refusal, simply refusing. And I just thought that was such a pretty and and and beautiful image that that he that he brought up when it was and it was an incredible film as well.
So I love it.
Love it reminds me of Hobbl's piece The Power of the Powerless. Yes, it's sort of the same same some principles which I love.
Well.
My Christmas wish wish gis Guy Gavin is to see a collaboration with Marshawn and Connie on the film at some point coming up in the next few years and.
See if he can audition for Gladiator three. Clearly you should be pushing him for that. Start start working out, Marshawn, you need to work out. You know, Denzel's guy, he's he's seventy. You know, you could be Denzel's son or something. And Gladiator four.
I don't know.
I don't want to give away the film. I don't sure you watch The Governor, did you want?
Yeah, I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not talking about you. I'm not talking about I'm just it's all. I'm just, yeah, speculating, you know, it's all.
That would be word plot, that'd be a interesting plot, that would be a little confusing.
It's a lot of a lot of you know, it's it's Hollywood. It's not Hollywood. It's it's you know, make believe. It's what I look Connie. Nothing, nothing about you is make believe. You're the real deal. I'm grateful, We're all grateful you join us today. Congratulations on another uh successful tour around the world. Congrats on everything you're doing outside of the day job as it relates to the big screen, and and thank you for your integrity and your friendship.
And thanks for your contributions overseas, not just across our country and the state, and I'm looking forward to comparing your notes between Marshaan and yourself. When you guys finished that walk about in Nairobi, I'll.
Hey, oh yeah, I appreciate it, young lady. Thank you.
Yeah, Connie, thank you so much.
You're you're unbelievable and I've always admired you and love what you're doing and uh, you got great things are funny, so I appreciate it.
Have a great holiday season, thanks so much, and