Yeah. It wasn’t D-level schlock.
I’m like: Nah. I didn’t pander in any way with my career. That was eight seasons of a character that I really cared about, and I was fighting for his humanity and fighting for mine too. While I was doing it, I became a television director and a producer as well. Everything is in concert with what I believe my soul desires to do. It makes sense that I did “The Color Purple,” “Sing Sing,” and then did pickups with “Rustin,” three things that are very humanist. And I will continue to do that.
I’m about to go do a comedy with Tina Fey — ”The Four Seasons.” It’s just about relationships in our fifties. If that isn’t humanist, I don’t know what it is. But it’s a comedy; it’s a swing for me. It’s doing something different. But it’s still very much about who we are. I would write that as a playwright on my board: Who are we? Who are they? What are they trying to be? What happens if they don’t get what they need? These are the questions that I’ll always have with every character, with every play, with everything I direct. Because I think that’s what keeps me so grounded. That’s what I know my purpose is. I sometimes wish I could do something that just paid a lot of money. But then I would just feel mad. It’s not for me.
That was one of my questions. Because I know that one of the last times you visited Chicago, you took an improv class. Would you ever do a comedy?
I love comedy. I feel like I’m a pretty funny person. I got good timing. My comedy started with Shakespeare and romantic comedies and stuff like that years ago. I feel like, now, maybe I’m in a place where I’m ready to keep expanding, but still with that same ethos. Who doesn’t want to do a romantic comedy? I would. I wanna be in love. Why not?
But again, at the end of the day, when I read a script, there’s something in my gut where I know I have to do it. I’m curious about it. It’s going to break me open in some way. It’s gonna change me in some way. I feel like just relating to the RTA program and “Sing Sing,” as well, it’s going to bring something out in you. You’re kind of nervous about it. You’re a little scared about it. But that’s part of the journey.
I feel like I’m building more life skills with every single thing I do. I feel like I’m becoming, hopefully by the time I’m 70, a more complete, evolved individual because I believe I have those tools with my work. My work shows me and teaches me about who I can be and what I want to be in the world. So I’m still building and evolving into that man because I have this incredible work and this foundation that’s been built. It’s kind of cool.