tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley.tonight, a conversation with james cromwell. he is now starring in a highly praised new movie. before we get to that conversation, this is our 10th anniversary on pbs. when introduced you to people who make this program possible. is brian anderson, he is my stage manager. he attempts to do that. i am honored to have you on our team. >> i met you 12 years ago.

said, i hope to work with you. you gave me this opportunity and i am grateful. i feel blessed. we are glad to have you on our team. you need to get back to your spot. >> a conversation with actor james cromwell. ♪

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: someone described a character actor as the man who does not get the girl. james cromwell has showed his "ange as the farmer in "babe and the deadly corrupt cop in "l a confidential." costar --you say it much

better. let's take a look at a scene from the movie. >> i am not going into town. you will have to shoot me before you find me in a retirement home. >> that is not what i meant. i was thinking of building a something smaller, more manageable. one level. >> we do not have the money. mortgage. taking the >> if i did the work myself, we could afford it. with the strawberries in the cattle gone, i seem to have a lot more free time. tavis: tell me more about "steel mind." he cannot prevent the dissent

into dementia. hewants to make that -- wants to make her comfortable in her surroundings. tofeels that he wants minister to her and take care of for the way he always has. she has meant so much to him. he does not asked anybody else. he knows what he has to do when he is capable of doing it. and then he runs afoul of a bureaucracy and regulations, of necessity.lace there are no exceptions, unfortunately. they do not appreciate how capable he is. if you do not comply with the

regulations, we will bulldoze the house. it is not only a personal tale people last year saw "a mour" and that is the dark side of it. we chose to show a lighter side of it, in a way. his action was possible and it was prudent. it was the best of all possible options. there are many things in this culture we refuse to talk about. dementia is one, growing old is another. suddenly, you no longer have volition on your own.

he is not. even at 87, he is incredibly capable. tavis: you have given me five or six good reasons to not make a movie like this. fit the roadmap to hollywood success. why did you choose to do this? >> first of all, it is not made in hollywood. people are really interested in dealing with the subjects. nowre dealing with it right , or trying not to deal with it, which is what happened in the trial of trayvon martin. people in other countries are looking at this. i miss read the script. misread the script.

i gave some wretched notes. it was not until i got the job calmed down.own -- you get so used to reading scripts that are about car chases and explosions. the entire focus is on the leading man. .ou fill a smaller function you are more of a diversion. .t all happens really quick you get something that is slow and deliver it and sensitive and character driven. it is a microcosm and you miss it. down.k me a while to calm someone said today, they really enjoyed that this film moves at a measured pace. and mr. -- emerson said, take

your example from nature, the pace of nature. it is based on patients. we have no patients in this country. we do not -- we have no patience in this country. we want instant gratification. you have the occasion and go back to look at your notes you made initially? >> it took me about four hours to talk him out of it. , this is absolutely wrong. it clarified it a lot for me by having to do that. he got for me, my interest. i was interested in making the best film possible. i wanted to tell the story as best as i could.

that informed my participation in everybody around it. they all believed in the thing. it was absolutely miraculous. that story says something to me about your own capacity and humility and willingness to re- examine your own assumptions and life. -- in life. >> other than i am so often wrong? i think that is part of growing. you think you know something and understand something, but if your goal is to become conscience -- conscious, then you keep having to re-examine the premise you base your actions on. actions have consequences. life, i have

inrned from participating i ams that were beyond -- not talking about acting. i am talking about my life experience where my eyes were open to other people's experience, their wisdom. i listen to dick gregory last night. speak to mostly white people. telling like it was. it was really interesting because i had been to a progressive democrat thing and i heard people talking about, we're going to do this and i am thinking, are you out of your mind? you cannot even get your candidate elected, what are you talking about? i felt were locked in to say what was on my mind -- reluctant

to say what was on my mind. i watched him tell the truth passionately. now i have to take -- i stoodibility next to two people and i wanted to say, what do you have any idea the suffering that goes into the coat that you are wearing? if you do not do it, it stays the same. and the pain goes on, the suffering goes on, the killing goes on. makes if you do it, it you the party pooper, the guy that kills all the fun, it makes you persona non grata. friends andnderful

they are dear to me, and they have supported me and make my life possible. i also have wonderful enemies and i earned every one of them. people who are not willing to step up to the plate and deal i do not tryect -- to drive it down someone's throat, but i have a lot of opinions. i have opinions on veganism, the snowden.alty, i want to have a conversation with somebody. defendt have anything to . i want to explore and see if we can make it better. let me push another button.

some of my best friends are white man. trayvon martin and the recent trial of george zimmerman. there are a lot of folks in this country where we talk about white entitlement. white skinenjoys privilege, it is white males. a lot of people do not get how many americans, white americans, white males cannot develop a sense of empathy, understanding to step in the shoes of someone else. i am not trying to indict all white males. -- asmething to me as the a white male found himself open to the world to want to hear

about somebody else's point of view and to be empathetic towards their situation. how did that happen for you? was anuse my father actor and a wonderful director. my mother was an actress. i come from -- that is what we have to do in our work, whether i am genetically disposed to appreciate and embrace empathy. ignorantly, i got out of vietnam. i had no idea what vietnam was. i started my career and i did not want to go. york a psychiatrist in new to write a letter and said i was nuts. either had to confront

going to canada, going to jail. tavis: some would say that makes you a coward. >> i think i was a coward. out of ignorance. i also had nothing to defend. i did not understand what was at stake. i remember that was the year that john kennedy was killed. none of us could believe this could kill, that you the president of the united states. very shortly after that, i went to the south to be in the houser and was taken to a ored only.ol

, that might be a throwback to the civil war. we were thrown out of the restaurant because i was sitting with a black man at a restaurant in new orleans. said, sit -- he down. a black minister told me about the play. mississippi,g into we drove into the side of the church had been firebombed and we went to the freedom house. there were no -- there were more black man i'd ever seen in my life. they were listening to a 14- year-old black girl saying how she had been beaten for

integrating the lunch counter. i thought, what country am i in? then i watched the courage of those people and the people who i saw thingsng -- that fractured that complacency, that entitlement. i realized, you have to earn everything. it has nothing to do with the color of your skin. it has to do with your principles and what you were willing to do to do the right thing. obligation is to do the right thing. tavis: you mentioned this black minister. last time i saw you, you are brilliant, i saw you in los

angeles. what did this minister say? >> i had done this play in college and it had totally bamboozled me. it is a tough piece. what does it mean? . have a cast i am directing this play. i am beginning to get it. he said to me, after we luckysed one scene, carries everything that he owns and i have the whip. this is the relationship between a master and the slave. the master is is tied to the slave as the slave is tied to the master. i always thought it went one

way. it was a question of power, but it is not. the more power there is, the more dependence areas. -- there is. there comes a point in which you say, the people in the south said no, it it stops now. thing, we went to ieensville and by that time, am dealing with people who have never seen the theater, a movie, they know nothing about this. blackface on myself and the white face on the black actors. i was ignorant. i said to the assembled, this

woman had a black glove because the white gloves were dirty. she sounded so positive. how did you know? said, i looked in the program and his name was not listed. answer.hat is a great >> you are waiting the whole time. we talk about it in leslie. endlessly. and >> we are not waiting for anyone

or anything. we are taking what we need. tavis: as much as i have studied the civil rights movement, i have not ever been aware that there was a nexus between the civil rights movement and godot.g for to >> incredible woman. men, itwonderful women, was the next ordinary time. the fact that we are still fighting it is appalling. what is your hope for the take away? it is a tender piece. it in no way proselytize is. >> in terms of the relationship -- there is as much ageism as

there is sexism. i experience it. i would like people to understand that people of a certain age still have life and dreams and they still make love and they still care and they're still capable. any excuse to take my clothes off. it, resistart of authority. i think we swallow way too much we just aretry, bamboozled by the amount of misinformation and mendacity. we came very close

to having a revolution in this country. aibileen re--- i believe the reason we failed is because we polarize the country because we blamed -- the natural american impulse to violence, which is not in this film. it is a canadian film. instead of punching him out or picking up a gun or doing bizarre, they just worked through it in a very natural, humane way. i noticed today people talking about the demonstrations for trayvon. we have to do with discipline. we are clearer now than we were then.

the discussion is still the same. the remedies will be different. tavis: after all of these years of doing what you do so well, --the pig wasbe" the lead. this is your first leading role? time.aited a long it is really fun. i can. -- i compare it to a chinese painting. the only paint the top of the mountain. the rest of it is in cloud. it allows the viewer to create the entirety. when you do a character role, you only have the one shot. you have a five-minute scene and you put everything but the kitchen sink and it.

-- and it. when you play the lead, you withhold information and choices and allow the audience to fill -- the act ofve watching the piece is created for the audience he cut the hero that they see is the hero they have created. is one of the greatest character actors ever and now at this young age, he is a lead. his name is james cromwell. he is welcome back on this program any time. good to see you. thank you for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next timefor a conversation with gloria s estefan.--

♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

a new approach could get more of oakland's african-american boys graduating high school instead of dying young. >> if you had not received the kind of support as a by that you are providing to these african-american boys at this school where would you be today? >> i'd be in san quentin, or dead. >> black men are teaching and mentoring black boys in hopes of shifting the odds toward success and survival. >> we're trying to make transformations. if you look at the statistics in oakland, we're the highest in everything we don't need to be in. >> a special report in collaboration with the san francisco criterion telecoming up next.