Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez. I auditioned every rapper from biggiees Balls to Tupac, and I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director, I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in that room. Now I know, I know actors want to get the job. I get that, but being remembered by
a casting director that is powerful. And now it's time for meditation of the day. I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being anonymous. I want to say this to you that when we are quote unquote struggling or we are challenged in life, I want to
tell everyone to hold on, just hold on. Yes it can be frustrating, Yes it can be anxiety and stress, but I believe that through darkness there is light, and I believe that the darkness is a part of our growth as human beings. We have to understand pain to understand joy. We have to understand happiness to understand sadness, So it's all inclusive in this game of life. Today, I will approach every day standing and knowing there is
light at the end of the tunnel. Before we get started, I like to remind everyone to go to Crackle Network to view seasons one and two of my show Inside the Black Box that I co host with the great Emmy Award winning Joe Morton. Look out for news on season three soon. Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. You are in for a phenomenal treat. I just met our guest and I am so thrilled to have her on the show. I want you all to please put your hands together and stand up for
ifa Lewis. She is currently the co executive producer of Grown Ish and I know you guys know Kenya Barris. We talk about, you know, all types of people who are making moves in this industry. She has a plethora of things going on. So I want our interview to and be inclusive of that. Please put your hands together for Lisa Lewis.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you for coming on the shadow, Issa having me.
I'm so excited to talk to you.
You are so beautiful.
Thank you as you want to like youtiful black women.
Just having a good, cool conversation, right right.
I've wraggled all levels.
I'm looking at you like she would be a great agiss But okay.
I know I'm not talking about it because that's the same with me.
I got you Iza, yes, ma'am.
When I vent your bio, I was ecstatic to meet you, not only on your work, but so nineteen ninety seven Buster Rhymes did the way and show you did.
I was there.
I've been so much twenty eight years.
You're kidding.
We just finished Naked Guy last month in Atlanta.
You're kidding.
No, And I became best friends with Anne Marie on the show and still my best friend today.
Wow, that's that's a way to tell you we either see each other or you helped me something, you know what I mean.
That's I mean, that is a that is a crazy So I'm busting Rhyme's obsessed like he's one of the he's one of the few.
I'm upset. Like, let me tell you one of my favorite.
Moments in the last when when we were during COVID and everyone was sort of like locking into versus A. There was the dipset locks versus and before that, why Cleft was like getting the crowd hyped or whatever, and I have to catch this and he passes the mic and he sees bussing the crowd and he was like, yo, buss come up and.
They're a Madison Square garden. He's like, come on, bear, do something. Start screaming. They put on put your hands on my first. They put on the song.
Right, I, like I was thirteen, started jumping on my bed.
My friends were like, what the fuck is Wun't he but his energy. I'm just such a huge fan.
Yeah, it was a big one of the memories from the show that I remember because I'm such a huge fan of his.
So I so, that's crazy that you were there. That's crazy.
I was there. I was there, and I came back because I did a show with Missy Elliott. I coached Missy too. She did a guest starring Real Quick, playing herself. But this was after Buster. But I'll never forget being on the set because Marlon was so wonderful and so accommodating. And then the same with Anna. That's how we hooked up. We were just laughing on the set. But what I read through a bio, I was like, she was probably twelve years old, being a PA or something.
Running around, acting, running around, just trying to get out the way.
We had a lot of fun on that show, a lot.
That's oh my god. We only did one show and I was like, I don't want to leave.
It was great, it was amazing.
So I'm glad that that was our first indirect, you know, connection, but we just didn't know. And etha sidebar, he's on tour with Sierra and Missy. So I got you in La, I got.
You got okay, listen don't know with a sign and listen, I will be savored. Listen, listen, listen, don't play with me. I will have you at the show him backstage?
Oh, okay, we'll have to.
That would be I was talking to him last night, like.
My daughter, I'm gonna drag my daughter so she'll be so embarrassed because I I can't.
I love him so much. He's amazing.
Well, it's a done deal. That's that's nothing for me. Good. Buster and Eve are the longest clients that I've had. I've been with you for twenty seven years. Yeah, so it's amazing. Yeah, it's a blessing. And I said to him last night, I said, the thing about you, Bust, is that every time I think I can't love you more, something happens that I love you before and we would just screen. I was like, because I was like, all this said that they can good. I was like, oh
my god, I have more love for him. It's that there and this time in his life, Lisa is absolutely outstanding. Outstanding, but not without you know, going through and Chris Slidy pass and all of that. But I got you, so sidebar, I'm going to get tir information and hook you up and I'm gonna send you some pitches. So what it happened was, ladies and gentlemen, we have I am so happy to have you on the show because we have
a lot of you know, nowadays, everybody's multi hyphenated. And in my acting class, I have a homework assignment where I in the proper format, they have to write a scene, a three page scene with two characters that they're allowed to direct. And so I've been teaching for twenty eight years and we've discovered a lot of writers. They've gone a film that's Wills created, you know, short films, featured films.
I would like you to take our audience through the process of how you became such an acclaimed writer co executive producer. But we'll start with the writing first, because writing that's a lonely business. But I love it.
I love it well. So here's the thing.
This is a bit of false advertising because I have one of the most unconventional stories or pathways to writing. It was I didn't care about writing at all. Writing was not my jam. I thought I was going to be an entertainment attorney. That's why I was at Howard. I wanted to be in the music industry by way of well, you know, you go to HBC, you're gonna you have to sing or dance, or act or something. So we tried our hand in singing not so hot so, but I really.
Wanted to be in music. That's where I saw myself.
So when I left Howard, I worked at Deaf Jam for a year and then I understood the music business as a business and I was like, oh no, no, this will kill me because I love music so much that I can't It's set up in a way that is not artist friendly. So it would have felt like
being a civil rights attorney. So Marlin is a little bit older than me, but we had befriended each other at Howard through mutual friends, and so I found myself without a dream because now I'm not going to be an entertainment attorney and that was what I wanted to do. So he was like, well, come over to the show
and we'll find something for you to do. So I was the assistant to the executive producers for three three seasons and the fourth season I just happened to write a spec Transparently speaking, I found out what writers earn, and I was like, I would be a fool to not try to learn.
Girl, you better learn how to write a script.
So I was I was, you know, very tenacious and focused and would go I didn't think I had a computer at the time, or at least I didn't have the script software. So I would go up to the office on the weekends and learn, teaching myself the script writing software. And they happened to buy my specscript from me and they shot at the last season of the show.
So I was like, okay, cool, like I'll do this, like you know, you're making all this money and it's I'm working with friends, and they were going to give me the staffed writing position.
How do we come back?
But we got canceled the day before they announced the It would have been the sixth season. So I was like, ah, so that sort of put my writing career, you know, in terms of like being paid as a writer on hold.
But I still sort of had the bug. At that point.
I was like, Oh, this is interesting, and let me just see how I can sort of evolve that cut to I get pregnant. Oh, and you know, writing is a hustle, so back then I was like, I can't. My daughter needs almond milk, so we can't trying to play this reindeer yet.
Hustling for you know what I mean?
Like I was like Yes, So I went back to music because that was where I had the primary the bulk of my relationships ran.
Alated for a while.
Fast forward, that sort of morphed into marketing and so I was doing a lot. I created my own agency and was doing like a really strategic marketing for you know, brands like.
A gun, like a like an assassin.
Right, So I didn't have all the red tape of big companies, but I was kind of able to go in and make money and meet people, and that morphed into an advertising job. So I started as a project manager and for about thirteen years I grew with the company called Quantity in La Black owned digital shop, and we evolved and when I left, I was the fourth hire.
When I left, it was about thirty people with the company and we had huge clients like City National Bank in Honda and Google and Wells Fargo and ended up happening was So here's the getting back to the initial question.
Kenya Barns.
Keny and I have been friends since we were thirteen and and he is one of the most you know, across industry. I've never seen anyone champion black people or people of color. I've never seen anyone champion women, and I've never seen champion people that would not get the shot who he saw talk like Kenya And so to our friendship, you know, he always when he found out that I was writing later in life, he was like, yo, you should you know, don't stop writing. And I was like, dude,
I'm in milk. And so then, uh, I'm you know, I've settled into advertising and I had, you know, and he comes and he's like, I got a show East it's you know, I got Blackish and come and you know, be a writer's assistant or be a stuck you know whatever. I was like, nope, I got this key job. I have a parking space. My check is gonna come every two weeks. It's not going to be a lot of money,
but I know it's coming right. And I just I was, you know, I was so single, momming and so like scared to take a leap that I told him no, and that no persisted for four years. This is long after Blackish had turned into a thing. I was too scared.
I was like, I can't. So what ended up happening was in my I was a group account director now and at in my ad job, and now we were starting to get into the content space and creating content for some of our clients, and we had taken on some celebrity clients.
And I was being.
Asked because we were still even with thirty, we were still sort of lean, and I was a strategist and that was my primary function. I was always pulled into creative conversations. And so we were creating content for our talent that I wasn't gonna, you know, individually get any credit for, nor was I going to get paid for. And I realized that that was sort of being was being folded into the job. Simultaneously, Kenya had asked me
to participate. He was writing a book and just sort of want in my eyes, you know, just because he was getting super busy. He had launched grown Ish you know girls ship. I think it was either coming out or had come out. He was like, you know, he was the eCos sort of changing for him pretty dramatically, and and he got he got me through this project to sort of like reimagine my career or what I wanted to do, because what I was doing was now sort of using a muscle that I had thought atropheed
even though it wasn't a TV project. It was a book project, but so sort of it was like revisions and writing, and he ended up firing the guy that I had come to come into support and I end up the person and I was like, you, you fuck me.
This was not it's not agreement.
And so at the end of the so then he got too busy to even do the project. And then he called me my day, yo, leaving ABC for Netflix. And I know you've told me no all these times, but if there's anything in your body that says you don't want to live and die in advertising, I'm right now because I don't know what my world is going to look like, and right now I still have a.
Handle on my world. And I'm a real spiritual girl.
And I was fixing my mouth to say no, and God was like, uh uh, how are you kidding? So fast forward, you know, I just sort of lept. I told I told my boss, my chairman at Quantity, who was unbelievably supportive, that you know, I had to sort of go. And by this time, also Harlem Harlem is my daughter, and she was to graduate. Yeah, she was about to graduate from from a school at independent school out here and we knew she was going to Howard.
So all of the things that I was using to sort of prevent myself from taking any kind of like major shift career wise were no longer that I could sort of hide behind, and so I ended my tenure at Quantity on a Thursday and Monday, I was in a room of seventeen writers at Blackish season five. And I've been really, really blessed to not really have any dips in my working life since. So I say that to say that is not the way that writers.
Write, you know, yeah, it's just not how it works.
But but hopefully what someone could glean because I know when people ask those questions, you're listening for those nuggets, those like that, you know, resilience or whatever. And so what I can say by way of that story is, you know, fear will one percent anything, and you never know how it's going to show up. You know what I'm saying, You never know. Yes, I did not envision myself being a writer. I could always communicate through writing, and I was always a decent speaker, like weirded out
by it, but I did not think. I thought that my passion was my purpose. Writing is my purpose. Music was my passion, and so being able to sort of delineate and differentiate between the two, I think is the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing.
So so one I have to really I appreciate love. I don't say appreciate, but I appreciate love, your transparency, in your honesty, because I was a single mom as well, and as a single mom, you gotta do what you got to do, like I hear you, but I was in that two week. I need consistency. And also I think that the way that life.
I'm I'm a little older, but I left home August fifteenth, nineteen eighty three, at twenty one the two hundred dollars a one way ticket.
In a trunk. But I came here with a dream and I only knew two people. And the truth is I know too many now in a loving way. But United States, ninety eight countries, in Africa, whatever. But this wasn't the plan. I came here like I'm directing broadly, like it was just gonna be that fimble right. But I love the fact that whatever your spiritual belief is, God has a way. God's plan is always better than our plan, always, So I don't even rely on my
plans anymore. I The other thing that I love is that in writing and coming from a show Blackish and Anthony Anderson.
Is one of my good friends, that the honesty, the truth and.
Unapologetically is the writing on that show. How and I know of Kenyuna's background and influence and body of work. Was it difficult to in dealing with like the studio TV studio, in being able to communicate in that way and write in that way?
We're going to answer, would you like Tracy? I want the you like?
You know?
So, I will say, and I have to say it.
I've been I've been really really blessed and fortunate to be in Kenya's bubble.
And what you find is.
He has been writing almost thirty years and so he he he'll go up against anybody, you know what I'm saying, He'll go up against for the for the.
Truth to be able to be expressed.
And so and so I came in season five after they had I mean Blackish was meanted but early, you know, and not and not really. I mean, it's a trust thing. It's a it's a it's a it's a trust thing. It's an experienced thing, it's a POV thing. It's like, it's not always like out out like racism or you know what I'm saying, It's not all but yeah, but you have to you have to be steady, and you have to be really really clear. And Kenya when he has when he's locked into the idea, he's very very clear.
He's very intentional, and so that's sort of toality I too. You know, it's almost like someone who interviews a married couple after thirty years. After thirty years, figured out it's different than you're it's different than you're fifteen, it's different than your twenty. So you figured out what battles to fight, what battles not to fight, and and you have some
track record that transit direction under your belt. So there weren't a lot There wasn't a lot of friction I was in when I was joined when I joined the show between you know, the staff and the things that we wanted to do and the network in the studio. The network in the studio I think were very accommodating, and where they weren't, they probably learned that he was right in moments, you know, But yeah, that does exist.
I mean, there have been other shows that I've worked on, even though they had been his shows where the the pushback was a little bit there. You know, there's moments. But I again, very very fortunate Kenya has been able to One of his superpowers is being able to take a very specific niche experience and make it digestible and mass and people trust him now. So I believe the challenges that he may have will still be challenges because.
It just is what it is.
But I think people have more faith, which in turn, I think allows the door to be open for other show creators and writers to sort of take different kinds of swings because there is a Blackish or there was a black af Like I left Grownish after season five, I was like, yo, he's not going to be in a room.
He won't be able to be in a room for much longer.
And every writer that was on Blackish season five was it was like the Avengers. I mean it was seventeen of us, and it was like everybody was a sharpshooter. They had their own specialty, and everyone had been writing most of them for many years and had it credited him with being such an influential part of their writings journey. And so when he announced he was doing black Afi,
I had hit him. I was like, Yo, can I just audit your room while we're in on hiatus and I'll go back to Blackish because I want to I want to see what the sauces like. I love to be able to watch you sort of like because he wasn't in the room season five when I got there, and and that turned into me actually writing on Black af for that season.
My favorite show.
Yeah, I one of mine too, And so yeah, all that to say, there is pushback. There, There will always back, and there will always be pushed back for people that have not proven themselves. But I like to think that you know the the foundation that he laid in the shows that he's created, and thusly the things that we've been able to participate in have helped and make it a little bit easier for that pushback to sort of be pushed back.
Well. And I want the audience to know that you know the reason why I ask you this. I'm not going to name the show, but I worked on a show with one of my clients who is a person of color, and the room was primarily Caucasian, with two African American writers, one being the head writer, the African American, and we were reading the script and there was some dialogue for my client and my client said I would never say that, or like I want to rework this line.
And one of the white writers, male, said you would say this line and they were like, no, I wouldn't. And so there was some you talked about pushback and I'm talking, you know, fifteen twenty years before this, and I sat in that room. And I have a show with Joe Morton that we host Inside the Black Box that I created. We're on Crackle TV. We're also on TV Pilo and Apple TV, which we found about yesterday.
And so the thing, thank you. I am grateful. You know there's a business, but yes, I'm very grateful and thank you. And I created the show as a platform because in nineteen eighty seven, when I was at MTV as the only person of color and Kevin Powell, a white director, asked me to ask a black man to be more ghetto and to be more urban. And so I pretended like I didn't know what he was saying.
So I said, I don't know what you're saying, and he said, you know, Tracy, and then he turned into Julie Dreyfus and Seinfeld and started doing like jive Tracy more, Jive more and I still And then at the end of the audition I said to him, I said, you know, it's very insulting for you, as a white man to tell me, as a black woman, to tell another black man who out black himself. And it's based on what experience do you have as a black man to even
say that to me. So I created side the black Box four platform for us to speak about the disparages that continue to happen in this industry for people of color, and then another platform for actors to play and do games and improvs with our guests from Jeffrey Wright to Debbie Allen to Morgan Rob Morgan and so we've been blessed with two seasons there. But my challenge has been since the eighties and I used to bring people of
color in MTV. I was mainly responsible for casting hosts on different shows at that time, and they wanted all white men and all comedians. But then I went to the Boston Comedy Club, found this kid, Dave Chappelle, found John Stewart. The rest is history. So it's been a fight in twenty twenty four as a co executive producer in this industry and a woman of color, What challenges do you continue to face in this business or you know, have they lessoned?
So so the challenges that I've had again, I've been fortunate to work on shows with the exception I did and a show that was released this year DR from Detroit that I believe that's on Beachy So.
We're that show.
Yeah, it's She's brilliant. She's she's brilliant.
Kenya and DR teamed up to to get that show, you know, off the ground and you know, to her credit, could.
Have written it by herself. I mean, she is, she's a writer.
She started it, she created it, she wrote it, and it was the staff wasn't you know, too big. But honestly, you know, when you sit with her, you know she has it. It's all here. It's just you know, getting it out and you know, wanting to have some a little bit of like color and context, context that you just might not be able to come up with on
your own. But I say that I only bring that show up to say that that was probably the first show that I worked on that you know, and it wasn't even traditional it wasn't anything traditional in terms of like pushback because you know, the executives were tone deaf per se. Right, It's always like a balance between your art and the best way to you know and sort of bring the show to the to market and budget and you.
Know what I'm saying. And you know, it was those kind of things. Yeah, But I think I think in.
General, I think that it is still there is still a line that because society is so homogenized now in so many ways, there is this blurry area where I think non people of color may feel like they have a little bit more of an in road to the lives, the private lives, the anecdotes, the context for the lives of people of color, right, And I think it's good.
I think that knife can cut both ways. I think that you can go on Instagram or go on TikTok, or go on a platform and sort of just be a fly on the wall, go on you know, Patreon or whatever and sort of see kind of like what the conversations are like and realize, oh, let me just sit here. But I probably shouldn't. You know, if I'm a non person of color, think that I can contribute.
I'm talking about within like a creative space, or or maybe I understand that there are limitations to my ability to contribute to, you know, a conversation, a creative conversation when it's when it's come when it comes time to
scripting or casting or whatever. And then they're gonna be the people that don't feel like that at all, that feel like they felt like the man you were talking about in the eighties, who feels like they have even more license to like weigh in because now I know I'm not say it because I saw somebody like you saying it blah blah blah blah blah. So I think I haven't personally dealt with that kind of pushback. I think, you know, I think that there is still the boys club.
I think that there is still you know, executives that won't get it. I think that there are still executives who are going to be about, you know, the bottom line.
I think that the only thing that I will.
Say, and sort of this turns the question that you're asking a little bit on the other side. So I don't know how popular this is what I'm getting ready
to say. I think that what I've learned most and what I'm actually really really grateful for is that I had a background in advertising and understood a different industry before getting into writing, because creatives the big mistake to me of just saying that they're creative and that shit does not matter, because if you don't understand that your business that relies on advertising dollars audience consumption, because audience
consumption and audience behaviors are what drives memberships or subscriptions.
If you don't understand that, then.
You're gonna make stuff and you're gonna be broken hearted because people may not understand what it is that you're trying to do, and you'll think that somebody's out to get you. So what I've experienced more than anything would be the fact that creatives don't understand that don't understand what they should know or what they should be sort of like uh, exploring and their off time in addition to watching everything that's coming out and reading all the
scripts and books and blah blah blah. I think that that's really important, and I think that the creators that understand commerce Kenya lean Away, people that you know, have found a way to just not just create, but do
partnerships and like sort of expand their their footprint. They're the ones that are able to tell even with the with the drama, and with the difficulties of you know, being one of one in this industry, they're able to sort of create pathways that I think more of us need to create so that the creative that we're creating it's not so heavily reliant on having to service the needs of our entire culture.
So that's excellent. One of the most powerful things you've said a lot. You've given us a lot of diamonds and pearls. Choosing the battles that saved my life for the past two seasons. And I thank you for reinforcing that because that brought me peace of mind, like should I do that? Okay, this is worth fighting for and not that you know, I did have to put value to it, but it just maintained my sanity check to know what's worth and what I'm so challenged right now
because we have five minutes. I cannot believe that it went by the same. You are absolutely wonderful. Extend the whole of invitation to you. I want you to whatever you feel that these actors know, actors, writers, actors, producers give them some nuggets and also let us know because I know you have some development stuff that things going on yourself now.
So unfortunately the development stuff I'm working on, I can't really speak to.
They involved.
There's two prids, one of the Disney Pixar praying that that goes the way that it could go, and I came into sort of support. But that's a really exciting thing because Pixar. We don't get a shot a lot of shots at Pixar, So prayerfully in the next year, you know, I can say, hey, girl, this happened, so pray yeah.
I would love to come back. And then the other the other two projects that have in.
Development are with the talent and I I'm unable to say.
A music.
I mean, you know, Juggernaut music artist female who has gotten into acting recently and so I've we've we met and hit it off. And so now we've got a TV thing that we're trying to figure out, in a movie thing that we're trying to figure out. So that's exciting. So yeah, I mean, you know, and right now it's kind of it's an interesting time because I don't think people realize that with that strike. When the strike was over, there would be a ton of shows that would would
not come back. So I would say, I would say nugget wise, I would say, and sort of piggybacking off of what I was saying about, you know, not just being able to be a creative, use the platforms that you're on organically to use them as litmus tests for the stuff that.
You're working on.
If you're an actor and you are trying to see, you know, if you're if you're strengthening your chops, you're trying to see, you know, what the public response is to your comedic timing. You're trying to see if you're a you know, if you want to see you know, if a scene or something that you're writing is resonating with.
People, do a you can do a bullshit.
Video with your with your iPhone and post it because the people that are following you already have bought into you in some way, shape or form, and you only will be able to know as opposed to, you know, having to be in an acting class where it's just it's you and a bunch of creatives and you guys are all sort of weighing in on each other's talents in a in.
A different way.
You your service, your gift, your calling is to entertain and to inspire and empower and encourage through your talent, through your art mass. If that's what, if you're trying to make a living at this, so I would strongly and people to consider. Don't don't think that you have to get on a show to know how you. Don't think that you have to sell a script to know
how good your writing is. You know, engage people, use, use the platforms that you have, and when and when you use the platforms, and you do post the thing, you know, you leaving whatever context you think makes sense to sort of set up the scene or set up the piece or whatever. You know, encourage your people who already again rock with you, to comment or to follow if they don't like it, let you know if they do like it, because then what happens is now you
have something to go by. If you're writing a script that you're trying to sell with people like this should corny or no one talks like this?
Or this is already as hell? Or can we see keys? Then you know that you sort of you're resonating with an audience.
And then hopefully you know you'll go back in thirty days and look at the posts that you've made that have the highest engagement rate, that have the highest amount of likes or shares, or look to see how if people knew people started following after you posted said content. And you're starting to make a case for your your small business, which is your writing or your acting or
you're producing. So I would really invite people to use social not just to look at funny shit and laugh and you know, and go off on people or cancel people, but use it to help, like mold your business.
Lisa, you are amazing, phenomenal. I see your cap I see you. OK. I just want to thank you for being Lisa, and thank you for representing us in this field and being passionate and just your authentic self. I know you
authentically show up in those rooms. And I'm great for someone like you because there's some you know, fear is interesting and you know, I'm not worry you know, these are words that I don't use my vocabulary, but you know, I just love the fact that your resilience is outstanding and to know you and to know that someone like you reps us. So thank you for that. Thank you, Thank you so much. Yeah, you and we will extend
an invitation to you. Elsa will call you once you's quoth that deal and we'll be the first to have that exclusive story. Thank you very much. I so now I'm going to bring Elsa on. She has two students who have questions for you, and come on, Elsa. I think they're here.
I'm here. I'm just gonna say that was wonderful.
Thank you.
So today we have two of our spirited actors. We have Miss Maya Bello. Maya, welcome back, you can come on camera. And we have mister Carlos Swan Newness. Welcome back, Swan, you can come on camera. Hey, And of course ladies first, So Maya, what's your question?
Thank you? Also, I love Grown Ish.
That is my show. I was bawling at the series.
Finale, but yeah, I love it so much. From like a producing standpoint, when you and the team look at actor self tapes or auditions, can you give us, like any insight on what maybe you specifically look for or maybe what's taken an actor out, like anything to help us on the journey.
Yeah.
It's crazy because I got into this by the time I was elevated enough to be part of casting conversations we were doing, uh, the links like that. What is the thing called the you know, you upload your tape to that portal as opposed to people coming in and so I will tell you the turn off is when people do too damn much. Stop Stop, don't don't put that damn hat on. Don't you know it doesn't make sense that you're holding this cigar?
Why do you have?
You know what I mean?
Like, people do a lot, and I think that you're.
Doing a lot to stand out, which I understand the impulse, but I think that the tapes that I watch are ones where I feel like people just organically came to the role with, you know, an interpretation that feels straight down.
The middle, you know what I mean? I mean.
And it's also difficult because sometimes when we we would need to start casting, we wouldn't have the script done, so we would just be making up a scene there.
I can't tell him many things we just threw together.
Yeah, we knew, you know, in the in the vein of what we would need the talent for, but that wasn't even going to be the script that you were going to use. So it's just just to give us a flavor and so when people sort of like turn it into like this guy comes in looking like Abraham Lincoln and all we're and the line is like, you know, do you have a do you have do you know where the freeway is? It's like so I think, I think again, you know, it's sort of keeping to you know,
what's being asked. I think it's great when people interpret scenes, you know, organically, and it's the intangible that I can't give you because I always know when someone's doing too much, and I know they they're ass knows too. So I just feel like whatever you read, if you read it, and if it's funny, if there's a part in the lines that you know organically brings you to a certain emotion, just roll with your instincts, you know, Just don't just don't be like.
Weird because people do a lot. I can't. I'll be like.
You stories.
Listen, and I will also say this, and I don't know if you can control this, but the thumbnail image that you use to once you're your thing is submitted. I always think headshots are the best because when people don't use a headshot and they just have their own real time image, sometimes people do really they're just their energy feels weird or they just look weird.
And if we're if I have four.
People to look through and I got to make a decision in thirty minutes, I might very well skip past someone who just you know. So I think if you have a headshot that you feel good with, lead with that is your thumbnail too.
Thank you.
That's really helpful, excellent, so awesome, Thank you absolutely Swan.
What is your question, sir h thank you Lisa for joining us.
My question will be, how do you know, as a writer when your script is complete?
M Oh, that's a good question.
That's a great question.
That's a good question. You're talking to somebody who are working on something for five years and it shouldn't taken five years. Why is this taking you five years?
Lisa? I don't know because because of that question, I think that I think. I think if you're working.
Without a deadline and you're working on something that is your own, I think it's done when you can put it down and not have the compulsion to change it. And maybe you give yourself a window. Because I one of the hardest things for me to do again, and I wasn't I didn't say this before, but when I stopped writing probably when I had my daughter. So I had my daughter in oh one, so I was still
sort of writing a little bit, but not really. From when I stopped writing to when Kenya was like, Okay, you know, do you want to try to see if you can do this again? It was probably like fifteen years and I hadn't written anything script wise, like not a word, and I didn't have script software. I had to find a spec to give him on a two computers ago. So writing for yourself is different, right because you don't have a studio breathing down your neck, your agent,
your manager, whatever. So I would say writing for yourself, I'm done when I can put it down, and I'm not waking up the next morning or the morning after that with the compulsion to start changing stuff, because I will go through and read and change and read, and you can't ever get through anything that way obviously if you've got you know, and so that so I will also say that a remedy for it if you if you aren't able to get to that place organically, because
maybe you'll always be the writer that wants to change everything and even when you're shooting get an accountability partner.
Get someone who knows that you're working on something, it's going to be expecting it from you, and have them and tell them, you know, just like you have a safe word or whatever the case is, be like, look, don't let me spend more than two months on this ship for real, Like tell me that you need a draft for me August first, come hell or high water, or you're going to beat the brakes off of my ass.
And then people have someone who will be just as aggressive as you need to be to getting this thing done because you may not you may not have the capacity to not change.
It's really really hard, at least for me.
So if I would just sneak this in Issa piggybacking off the swan you mentioned earlier, spec specscript, can you just tell them, the audience and our actors what a spec script is?
Yeah, so back in the so a spec script it is essentially like your portfolio if you're a you know, an artist, or you know, like your Z card if you were a model on them, if they even have those anymore. But like it's your your it's your resume as a writer. So it used to be back in the day that you could find you know, a hot show and just come up with your own episode.
Because everybody understood, okay.
This is Seinfeld. We know who all these characters are, you know what their voices are. So if you can write an original episode of Seinfeld that makes me laugh or sounds like these characters, I then can judge if you are a decent writer, a good writer, a shitty writer.
In today's market with all these streaming platforms and the way that TV is sort of evolved with streaming, a spec would be an original pilot of some sort, whether it's a sickcom, whether it's a drama dy, whether it's a drama whatever, ever.
Kind of show you can cook up. It's something that is original.
Because people are looking for people, meaning streamers, agents, other writers, talent.
Everyone's looking for a new voice and.
They're looking for they're looking for new voices, and they're looking for voices that can also serve an a choir. So Kenya and a lot of showrunners that I have had the good fortune to be around always sort of come back to this analogy of like an orchestra or a band or a choir, whereby when you're hiring writers, even I would imagine the same as true for actors.
You need a piano.
Player, you need a bass player, you need a drummer, you need a guitar player. Could be acoustic, could be electric. You kind of need to know what you're listening for. And so not only are people looking for a new voice, but they're also looking for Okay, this voice could fit into this choir. This person would be great for This person probably needs to write on the upshaws. This person
would be great for stranger things. This person will be a candidate for, you know, Gray's Anatomy or Bridgeton or whatever.
You know.
So a spec is just basically giving people out they're going to need to meet you because I think it might be it might be the meet Your spec is going to get you a meeting, be it manager, managerial and agent, a studio meeting, maybe a meeting with talent. But your in person meeting is going to get you
the meeting. If you're looking to get staffed, it's gonna that's what's going to be the thing that gets you in the room because staffing and I know this, I'm giving you way more insight or then you ask that's why you shouldn't know. It's in la at ten o'clock in the morning to answer questions. So we're just gonna keep running our damn mouths. But in closing, so I'm landing the plane.
Swan, so I's looking at me like, God, damn, I know, Pa, No, But you know, writing is you.
You're locked in a room with people for a long time. Be it fourteen weeks, twenty weeks, ten weeks, forty weeks, Grownish and Blackish. Blackish used to have a twenty one episode twenty two episode season, which is very rare, but that would be a week's show.
So for forty weeks, for at least.
Nine ten hours a day, and that's only because we were a season show and you kind of had it like on a conveyor belt. I'm had to sit across from you, and if you get on my fucking nerves, I don't really too much care how great your script is because you think I'm you're a weirdo, and I don't want to with you that long. So a speck is important because it's going to get you a meeting, and then who you are is going to be important as well.
Thank you, thank you so much. I just wanted clarity because I know actually my thought and I just want to say I did a film with Buster finding Forrester, and Sean Connery had a line where he said, when you write, when you first write right from your heart, you edit from your head. Yeah, and that just stayed with me. So I'm so you guys, Etha is going
to still be with us. We're going to go into class and session a plethor you guys got to have your treasure chess open because she is dropping so many pearls and diamonds and all of you need to know this. So when we come back on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, we're going to do class and
session and Ethel Lewis is still with us. Stay tune, Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and we still have our phenomenal guests Issa Lewis here, and we're going to go into one of my favorite segments this whole show is my favorite segment. But I'm glad to have an opportunity to present these spirited actors to you, he says. So Elsa is going to introduce.
Thank you, thank you. So today's class in session, we have back two of our spirited actors. We have miss Maya Bella, Welcome Back Maya, and we have mister Carlos Swan Nunez Welcome Back Swamp. And today's scene is written by Mayabella entitled in her Own World Interior Coach's Office Afternoon. Coach Miller is a tough tennis instructor wearing a polo
shirt and references a whiteboard a mirror. Fashola is wearing a tennis outfit and carrying her backpack, racket, textbooks, car keys, and a water bottle, and she storms in, Hey.
Coach, Oh, I'm science and drew up, but something came up and I got a missives match.
I'm sorry, whoa, wha?
What's going on here? You have a doubles match today with Isabella And if you missed today's match, then you guys are all just.
I know we'll have to forfeit. I texted her, I'm sorry, something came up.
I really gotta go.
No, no, listen, we all have lives, okay, Ameber. One thing you cannot do is turn your back and give up on your team.
Who said I'm turning my back on the team.
This is the second meet you're missing. Look, I don't know what to say, and I don't know what to tell you. But if you cannot commit to.
This team, coach, thank please don't.
Look.
I don't want to do this.
Okay, Okay, I.
Don't even really know how to say this, Coach, but I have to take care of my younger brother. He has special needs. He's autistic and he's nonverbal, and it's just been so much to handle because they just kicked him out of his school. I just there's so much going on, and I know I have to step up for my mom and help take care of him.
I see. I don't know.
I just feel so selfish, Like how am I out here playing tennis when my brother and my family need me.
You're not selfish?
I don't know, but I love tennis. But I gotta go.
No, but wait, wait, wait, wait, m my cousin she's a lawyer and she might be able to help to put your brother in a better school. Okay, give this to your mom, have a call her. Thanks, coach, and you're not off the team.
Come see me in lunchtime. We're going to figure this out. Okay, than thank you.
Okay, you said whatever feedback you want to give him, We would appreciate.
Well, Well, first of all, I thought it was great. I think that that you know, I wasn't. I wasn't expecting to feel so much emotion, like I'm watching you mine, I'm like, oh damn, like she really have a brother who has special needs.
Shit, But I thought it was really good.
I think that the only note that I would give you because it's such a small scene and obviously don't know what the bigger, larger story is.
But I think it's always.
Really important to try to make the conversation as conversational as possible. So usually when I'm writing, a lot of the work is done in the outlet. Most of the work is done in the outline, so I will I will spend days on an outline, and any time I haven't, I always regret it. Dialogue references tone is really really important, I think, And and also when I'm writing something, I try to find a script that sort of or a show that sort of is a reflection of what it
might be. It might not be any it might not be subject matter anywhere near what I'm writing, but tonally, I need to be able to like anchor what I'm doing, and so I think tone wise I think there's there's some stuff to explore in this particular scene, so that you are so that so that you.
Don't have to.
Overwhelm the actual dialogue as much. I find that when you're really clear on sort of the vibe of and this the stage that you've set, then the conversation between characters flows a lot more fluidly. And so I usually take the outline and I dump it into the script, and then when I start to do my passes, I just write literally the first thing that comes to my mind sentiment wise, because I know that I'm going to
go back and refine. So I think that there were moments where like the heart came through, and there were moments where the heart was more was more compelling than what I was hearing, because I think that you did a really good job of like sort of harnessing an emotion. And I think, you know, just have a conversation like
would the coach if the coach is an asshole? Does he bend at the end of this And if he's bending, does his whole demeanor change or does he still keep a gruff sort of tone even though he's giving her a pass?
Would he is?
It? Is? It?
And I get it. I don't know the bigger story. Is there a version of.
Him sort of like feeling like an asshole and you know, melting all the way? Is there a version? I mean, so I'm not there's no right or wrong. It's obviously again in alignment with the bigger story. But I would say making it conversational and really sort of digging into the tone of the scene I think will help with that impulse to sort of overwrite or underwrite any particular exchange between characters. I thought it was good, and I
thought you did a really, really good job. Both of you guys did.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa, Thank you Elsa, Maya and Swan and Lisa. I cannot wait for season two of Black af because I feel like I've been a.
And I've just neither. I don't know.
I don't know the cards.
I don't know the cards. I mean, you gotta know. Yeah, I thought there.
Was announcement in Deadline recently that said that season two was coming, and recently you saw that, I mean within the past couple of months. I thought I read and see because I was excited.
Yeah, I mean, so, let me say this, the train has left the tracks. With Kenya. I mean they, you know, they they He's got a ton of stuff.
And I only know a portion.
I just know it's taken this long because the schedules, and you know, it's it's where the show sort of resides and is it. You know, there's a lot of moving parts. So I would I would love for there to be a Black af season two. I thought that show was It was one of the most fun things I've ever done, right, So.
Yes, oh my god. That's why I said, well, anything you do, Isa, we are supporting you, we are following you, we are championing you. And just know that in the spirited active community, we have mad respect for the work that you and the way you represent everybody. Thank you, so thank you, thank you for that, thank you for having thank you. I'm so glad we met too.
Well. I'm really really excited about that platform.
I'm glad you know that you know else and I go back to Howard Times and I'm thankful that you know, you guys have this platform and that you're you know, you're feeding and pouring in too, folks cross jown or.
I think it's really important, So I applause.
I think it's important.
That you're doing.
Yeah, thank you, because, like inside the Black Box, in this podcast, we're about solutions. We understand what the world is, but what can we do to move forward and to continue to do quality work and content. So that's what we are about.
Awesome.
Oh, I don't want to release her, but we have to let her go. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand up and put your hands together for a little thank you.
Thank you, Appreciate you, guys, God blessed.
Priestly love you too. And when we come back on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, I'm going to give you some love. That's one we do. Welcome to Kudos Corner. Kudos Corner is where we celebrate spirited actors, we support them, and most importantly, we introduce them to you. This week's Kudos Corner puts the spotlight on spirited actor
Arlene Macgruder. You've seen Arlene Macgruder in network shows including Law and Order, Organized Crime and the Godfather of Haarlem films including Manhattan Night, and theater productions including Drive, The Speed Limit, The Magazine, and Sheen the Musical. Arlene is also featured in commercials for Big Mouth toothbrushes, and Nike, among many many others. Kudos to Arlen macgruder and now it's time to give love. One of the most darkest times in my life was when my son was hit
by a car and he suffered traumatic brain injury. Within the first twenty four hours. The doctors towed us that Miles had the potential of dying. I want to tell you totally transparent that I was filled with so many different emotions when I saw my son laying on that journey, But when I leaned over and I whispered in his ear, it doesn't matter how long it takes, you're going to
get through this. I made a promise to myself that I would focus and I would believe that there was light at the end of the tunnel, and one day, through this experience, I would be able to reflect back on this and understand this experience, there is light at the end of the tunnel. When the doctor said my son would never walk, talk, and be a normal person again, I am so thrilled and so excited beyond anything to
let you know that he is not. And he lives his life passionately and every day he works through whatever challenges may come up. But it was the light that I stayed focused on, and it was the vision that I held, knowing that one day my son was going to heal and he was going to get through all of us. Today is that day. My son, for the past seven years, has been able to create and live his life to the best and to the fullness of his ability. Never lose sight of the light that is
what saves you. Hi. Everyone, The Spirited Actor Podcast with Tracy Moore now has a YouTube channel. You'll get to see exclusive video footage from our post taping as well as your favorite segments from the show. Make sure to like our videos, subscribe to our channel, and share with
all your friends. Don't forget to also follow us on Instagram, at the Spirited Actor and at both Tracy Moore and at The Spirited Actor Podcast with Tracy Moore on Facebook and x. Thank you for joining us on The Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next Spirited podcast. Thank you.