thanks very much for being here. that is all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪ what did we name that movie? >> in the heat of the night. >> in the heat of the night. sidney poitier. >> he's a wild man's fantasy of what he wants us to be. >> what are you talking about? he just won the academy award, breaking down barriers for all of us. >> about being white or acting white? sidney poitier is nothing but a rich uncle tom. >> look at you. all puffed up. your hat on your head. coming in here saying whatever you want. you need to go?

>> what? >> gets the hell out of my house! >> no. >> now everybody just -- >> i'm sorry, mr. butler, i didn't mean to make fun of your hero. >> everything you are and everything you have, is because of that butler. >> good morning and welcome to a special labor day edition of "morning joe." happy labor day. >> happy labor day. >> this is one of my favorite holidays. >> it is? >> why? >> to be honest with you, the food. i always -- i always have -- get ribs on labor day and burgers and hot dogs. >> and you take a much needed day off. >> no. no. i won't do it. >> right. >> i'm here working. >> that's right. >> labor day means ribs and also the start -- school is starting and football season is starting. very exciting holiday. >> i love september. >> what's your favorite holiday? >> i would say easter. >> easter? >> yeah. >> really? why is that? you like the flowers?

>> i like the whole concept of it religiously. >> oh. the jesus thing? >> yes. >> jesus actually -- >> okay. we digress. we can do a show now here on labor day. >> i didn't get that. really, that's great. >> i love easter. >> i thought it was easter bunnies. >> you love the spiritual concept. >> and definitely the spiritual concept of it. i think it's beautiful. >> i do too. but in the fall i like the ribs that labor day brings. >> every so often a movie comes along that doesn't just entertain but inspiring. "the butler" struck a cord for many moviegoers. >> it was big. >> images on tv constantly remind us that our country keeps struggling with race, of course we had the trayvon martin murder trial and the emotional speeches honoring the 50th anniversary of dr. king's historic march on washington. and really, just so much. this movie really came at a

perfect time. >> we'll sit down with actors including oprah winfrey who returned to the big screen after 15 years. >> willie talks to cuba gooding junior. >> yes. >> also lenny kravitz about the lessons the movie taught them and how we apply them today. >> later emmy award winning screen writer danny strong. >> we kick off the special part one of our interview with oprah winfrey and director lee daniels and we asked them why they thought it was so important to tell the story of this white house butler who saved -- served eight american presidents over three decades. >> this man is relentless. he -- when we started working together, lee daniels, lee daniels the butler, lee daniels the director, when we started working tote on "precious" and i was, you know, came in as executive producer because i wanted to lift the -- lift that up as high as i could, he said to me, you know, i'm frustrated

with you. you're frustrated with me? because i hadn't -- >> you don't say that to oprah. you don't even wear shoestrings. how can you say that to oprah? >> he definitely did. i'm frustrated that i wasn't acting and i needed to do it, right? >> because she was so magnificent in "the color purple". >> well that was two decade ago. >> you were amazing. i remember it like it was one of my favorite movies of that time. >> would you like to work for me, be my maid? >> hell no. >> what did you say? >> hell no. >> and she was so -- and that performance is embedded in my head. you get frustrated she's doing her oprah thing. i want her to do my thing. >> it's not like it wasn't one of the biggest things in the world. >> the oprah thing really took -- that took up a lot of my time and energy and after

"beloved" not received as well as i wanted it to be received, i sort of put that away. i just decided, guys, well i guess that wasn't supposed to be, me being an actress and the day job, as you know, takes up a lot of your time. >> how nervous were you going back on set? >> i was nervous enough to take his advice and get an acting coach. >> did you find an acting coach that would say oprah, that last line you delivered really sucked? >> i said that. >> you said that? >> but the acting coach wouldn't say that. >> listen, this acting coach, susan, who has worked with a lot of great -- when she walks in the room you can't believe, that's the great susan. she came to my house and spent -- i said to her, i had trouble crying. you wouldn't think that i would having seen me cry all the years on the oprah show. i empathize. when a director says we need you to cry, i start getting anxiety about it. when i read the script and saw there were moments where gloria

would need to go there, lee said call in susan. susan sat with me for 20 minutes at my house in santa barbara i was bawling on the sofa. first thing i said afterwards you're the first people i told this, i need a confidentiality agreement. i am just now poured out my soul. i poured out my soul and i didn't have a confidentiality agreement. she said good thing with that, because you still have all the vulnerable spaces and if you're vulnerable and can get in there, you can work on gloria and you can bring her out. >> so let's talk about the movie. the concept is amazing. the eyes of the butler, the eyes of the son, and it's this ongoing -- >> the wife. >> and the ongoing debate about race relations in america, do we -- is it going in an incremental way. do we be more aggressive. look what happened over the past --

>> trayvon is the emmett till of our era. >> yeah. >> look at what happened over the past month and the reaction to it, suddenly you go, god, we've come a long way in 50 years and in other ways, we haven't at all. >> yeah. i didn't do the movie for that. i did a movie because it was a father/son love story and that transcends race. it's universal. and i have a 13-year-old son and at the time he was 13 when we were doing it when i got the script. he's a teenager. i say white, he says black, i say night, he says day. >> how old is your son? >> 17 now. >> i say go to bed, he says no. is this ever going to stop? it was a love story and with the civil rights movement in the back, you know, backdrop. >> something special is going on down here dad. >> what's special about another -- >> what are you doing with the

hard earned money, pop? are you even? school? >> i'm trying to change -- >> but the relationship, we felt this over the past month or two, it's heartbreaking for us to hear that black fathers still have to have the talk with their black sons. eugene robinson. told us -- >> everybody does. >> if you get pulled over by the police, turn on the lights, keep your hands up here. it's a matter -- as gene said, it's a matter of life or death. >> don't do or say anything that might be threatening. >> it makes the father/son relationship much more complicated. >> yeah. >> i'm sure you've had that conversation with your son, have you not? >> i have. it's an embarrassing conversation. i would rather have the birds and bees conversation. that's an easier conversation to explain why it is you can't get a taxi and yet your neighbors that are right in front of you in the the same soccer outfit in the rain can get a taxi. and you can't. and why my son is -- >> you'll have your assistant go out and hail a taxi.

>> yeah. >> because it would be easier for your assistant to get a taxi than me. >> what's the answer when your son says why? >> but what you're forgetting to say, may i remind you. >> please. >> what you're forgetting to say -- >> she's a director. i don't have to direct anymore. >> what you're forgetting to say is one of the reasons why you wanted to do this film is to explain in context to your son why when he goes into 7-eleven and being followed, why when he walks into a store and being followed he doesn't understand, his son goes to, you know, a hoity-toity school and not of this era and doesn't understand that. >> they don't know. they don't know. they don't understand why. >> why. but the why as to why this is happening -- >> everyone says you're the man that got them raises and promotions. i had no idea. >> i wish i could take credit. >> i would like to invite you to the state dinner next week. >> i'm going to be there, miss

reagan. >> not as a -- not as a butler, see sill. i'm inning you as a guest. >> the generic question, what's it like it to work with oprah, but what is it like, because you are -- you were frustrated, you wanted to see the actress in her come out. i agree with you. i saw "the color purple." having said that she is oprah. >> you know, i was a little nervous -- >> how do you take control of that situation? >> i was nervous because she -- but it was me, it wasn't her. >> that's right. >> it was me. so when you see -- >> get that straight. >> i'm dealing with my perception is. and what all that is. but when she -- when you see someone come to set alone with just one person taking you back and forth to your car, and you see the -- her nervousness, her humility, her rawness, openness to take direction, her frugality -- >> frugality. >> and vulnerability --

>> i'm not just saying that because you're here. >> when you see all that. >> wow. that gave me a little -- >> you feel protective because, you know, because she's oprah -- >> she came to work. >> she's a girl. >> the first day i came to work, i came to work the first day though. >> she's in tears. >> fighting for gloria. there were some things i was upset with in the script. >> like what? >> we can't say. >> yeah, we can. >> can we? >> first of all he had -- i thought -- >> i want to hear you say that. >> i had done the work and knew who she was. so there's a scene where the president kennedy has died and my husband, the butler, hasn't been home for three days and in the original script when he comes home -- >> don't say it. >> i can't say the word but he had three f bombs from her when her husband comes home and i said, that's completely unrealistic. lee was like she's upset and lonely. i said, but during that time, in

the united states, i'm older than you and i remember, she would have been sitting in front of the television and see lee harvey oswald get shot by jack ruby, the whole country went into the same mood and shock that we did when 9/11 happened. so that is completely -- >> i didn't care. and the only reason she got me -- the only reason i swayed her way she started crying. she was that -- >> i was saying -- >> she started crying. >> this is not the character. >> how can you -- >> she's going to pull those tears on me -- >> you win. >> mika will tell you on "morning joe," if i need to get something done, i start crying and she just completely -- >> look. >> she was right. she was right. >> i was crying because i thought it was so wrong and also, you know, if it -- we had his way -- >> no. >> he wanted another -- he wanted me rolling in the bed. >> don't do it. >> with my next door neighbor. >> right. >> played by terrance howard. we finished that one seen, he was like i'm going to do another

scene. we've written the two of you. in the bed. >> she cannot go to bed. scene in the bed -- in her husband's bed. >> you just wanted to get oprah in bed. >> that's what he wanted. >> disgraceful. >> you should see the director. >> stay tuned for part two of our interview with oprah and lee daniels. >> she's great. >> he's great too. >> he's adorable. >> lee daniels, "the butler". >> he was actually so tough on oprah. >> he was. >> great performance out of her and that cast is amazing. >> what's great about her is that she puts herself out there. in a very raw and visceral way in ways she doesn't have to. >> just like me. >> right. >> something like you. >> i'm the new -- not really. coming up next we'll hear from "the butler" screen writer danny strong took the same route as the freedom writers when writing the script. fascinating story. stick around.

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something special is going on down here dad. >> what's so special about another -- >> what are you cog with our hard earned money? >> are you in school. >> i'm trying to change the way -- >> oh. >> that judge just sentenced you to 30 days in the county work house. >> if i can't sit at any lunch counter i want, i might as well be dead. we're fighting for our rights. >> rights, boy, what are you talking about? >> change the nation's conscienceness -- >> i have been in school. >> hey. who do you think you're talking to? i brought you into this world, i'll take you out. >> lee daniels, "the butler," scored big at the box office in its opening weekend last month.

>> we had the film's screen writer danny strong stop by "morning joe," to weigh in on america's hunger for historical movies. a great talk with him. this guy has done so much. he did "recount" and very talented guy. worked with halperin and heilemann with "game change" and "the butler." he talks about the importance of historical movies here. >> you look at this film, you look at "42" which you were talking about before, "the help" there seems to be an interest in this chapter in american history and the civil rights chapter of american history. >> also an extremely powerful dynamic emotional chapter. it's extremely rite ri lly ripe and movies. more of these films that are important stories, our country of where we got to now. hopefully you will be seeing more after this. >> no doubt about it. you actually to better understand what you were writing about, i understand you actually

took a trip and you went on the same route traveled by the freedom writers to have a better understanding of that time. >> yeah. i took a road trip through the south through alabama and up to memphis and i went to montgomery to selma to birmingham, and then to memphis. i just went to all of these major civil rights sites that are portrayed in the movie and just being there was an extremely powerful experience. montgomery such a rich city historically. not just the civil rights movement but the civil war as well. this is one of the centers of american history over the last 150 years. >> yeah. >> really fantastic place. >> how typical is it, though, and as joe was pointing out with "42" and "the help" be a success for other projects, you have to be so emotionally and professionally invested so long, it has to be rewarding to see the payoff of it doing so well. >> our producer who took over,

for our legendary producer, mission to get this memory made in her memory. not only for the film to get made but succeed is really exciting. >> the curiosity factor of steve jobs, one of two biopics you go up against that, matt damon big budget vehicle as well, the thing that fascinates me the most, i'm amazed the story hasn't been told before. the man's life is amazing and i had weren't heard nothing about it and will heygood's stories, i didn't read those either. are you surprised this had not come to the front yet? >> will heyguard really found eugene allen. a terrific piece of reporting. he called 50 different people trying to find this man, eugene allen. finally found him and wrote this beautiful profile on the day after obama's election and it captured people's attention. it's long overdue. now in the film, the character's name is cecil gaines, inspired

by eugene allen. >> it's really historical fiction. >> in many ways. all the history is true, but the family itself that we're centering around is a composite of many people i interviewed that worked at the white house. >> how hard was it to write the fight scenes between father and son and a very emotional scenes for oprah and the back story on her life as the wife and the backbone of this character. how were you able to get in all of their heads to come up with how they would, you know, speak and the interaction, the fights. >> sure. it's the same that i do on any other project that i work on. do at love research and then you just go for it. and you just try to dot best you can. >> i have to ask you, why does john heilemann call you, quote, the angry jockey? >> that's one of the nicer things he calls me. >> of course for people that don't know, danny wrote the screenplay for "game change" and you had to work with heilemann which is very hard, to climb

through all those mounds of cocaine and acid to get to him, but you worked with him and yeah, i mean, the angry jockey? >> i'm also an actor and when i first met them i was auditioning for a part on "luck" for a jockey who was an angry jockey. i told them i just auditioned for this role and he took that to mean that's going to be my new nickname for him. it's been an amazing three years of being called the angry jockey. >> and get ready, "game change 2". >> i'm excited to read it. we'll see. >> we're excited you're here. >> coming up next "washington post" reporter will heygood who discovered the real white house butler eugene allen and made that story known to the world. >> also, rock star powerhouse lenny kravitz and academy-award winning actor cuba gooding jr. take us behind the scenes of "the butler" and reveal what it's like to work with director lee daniels.

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jo you're very popular around here. everyone says you're the man that got them raises an promotions. i had no idea. >> i wish i could take credit for that. >> i would like to invite you to

the state dinner next week. >> i'm going to be there, mrs. reagan. >> not as a butler, cecil, i'm inciting you as a guest. >> but the president prefers me to serve him personally. >> don't you worry about ronny, i'll take care of that we'll see you next week, you and your wife. >> my wife? >> it's gloria, yes? >> yes, ma'am. >> that was a clip from the upcoming movie, lee daniels, "the butler," which was inspired by the true story of eugene allen, white house butler who served eight presidents from harry truman to ronald reagan. here with us that man that made the story of eugene allen known to the world, writer and my old pal from "the washington post" will haygood, author of "the butler a witness to history." before we do this roundtable conversation with you, will,

tell me how you found eugene allen and what led you to want to find him? >> i was a reporter with "the washington post" and i was covering the 2008 obama campaign and i was at a rally in north carolina. at the end of the rally i walked outside and there was some young ladies and they were crying and i walked over to them and i asked them if anything was wrong. they happened to have been white young ladies who had been inside of this stadium rally. and they said, we're crying because our fathers won't talk to us anymore because we support this african-american candidate. that was very powerful to me. and it sort of told me this man is going to win, because it felt like a movement. if young southern ladies can defy their mythical fathers,

town to town, farm to farm, it just felt like a movement. and then i told myself that barack obama is going to win, even though was down in points in the poll and hillary clinton was still in the race. with that in mind, i want to find somebody from the era of segregation who worked in the white house in the '60s or '50s, whoever far back i could go, i made a whole lot of phone calls and i tapped on some sources and finally after 57 phone calls, a man picked up the telephone and i said this is will haygood with "the washington post" and i'm trying to reach mr. eugene allen who worked at the white house and he said, you're speaking to him. >> what i want to know here is, give me an anecdote, either from the book or what you found that's not in the movie that will -- people will want to hear. >> when i was down in his basement at a certain point, his wife looked at him and said,

honey, you can show him. so i think that they had to feel that they could trust this person who they had never met who just made a cold phone call and asked if i could visit them. he got out his key, led me through the kitchen through the basement door and walked me downstairs and it was dark until we got to the center and turned on the light and when we did, all of these archives, these photographs, letters from the president, harry truman to ronald reagan, jack kennedy letter, mrs. onassis -- i mean jackie kennedy had given mr. allen a tie that her husband had on the day before he was assassinated and ta was in a frame and all these treasures, picture of the butler with sammy davis jr., frank sinatra, michael jackson, just a sweep of history, and i said, mr. allen, now, are you sure no one has

ever written a long story about your life and times. he took a step closer to me and he said, if you think i'm worthy, you'll be the first. >> the story is amazing. >> could listen to you all day. >> the book is "the butler, a witness to history." will haygood, thanks for the book. thanks for being you.

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more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. hey, there he is. heard you were coming. what's your name? >> cecil. >> i'm carter wilson, head butler. don't worry about big mo behind you. this brother in the mirror over here his name is james, second in command. >> james. >> jackie robinson. >> why don't you shake the man's hand first before you start asking him difficult questions like that. >> want to know where the man is

coming from. >> like the jury is still out on that. >> is the dodgers still lose sfg. >> i might be able to answer that question if carter would stop running his nasty mouth. >> cuba gooding jr. and lenny kravitz play butlers alongside forest whitaker in lee daniels "the butler." willie sat down with the actors for a discussion on race in america and the making of a hit movie. >> people who have had the pleasure of seeing this movie have been jolted by it. critics, people who go to premiers, i had somebody say, i started crying halfway through and didn't stop until i got home later. what is moving about the story, cuba? >> i think it's because it's one of those stories that resonates so much with people in terms of not just the historical facts dealing with issues of the civil rights meechltss, the atrocities of the freedom writer bus had to endure and black and white, but

also it's a touching story of family between a father and his son and the issues that they faced as they both grow older and i think there's a truth there and lee daniels is that type of filmmaker he strives for truth in his work. brutal truth at times, but i think the movie is really connecting with people in that way. >> so how do you put yourself, lenny, back in that place in time? back in the era of segregation? you play one of the early butlers back in a time before the civil rights movement had really exploded. how did you get into that character? >> i was fortunate enough to have parents that were involved in that and friends of my parents and so i grew up in that kind of environment, you know, my parents got together in 1963 interracial couple. they dealt with it the same but

a whole other set of obstacles as well. and my grandfather always educated me when i was young about the foundation that was laid and that's the beautiful thing about this movie. people, kids, whatever age you might be that really don't know how we got from a to b, get to see how that foundation was laid, gets to see the type of sacrifice people had to make. >> lenny, as someone who comes from an interracial family, born of the 1960s, there was a lot of talk when president obama was elected in 2008, that we were now a post-racial united states of america. as though a magic wand had been waved. >> wow. >> what's your view on that? >> it isn't so, but i think a lot of people wanted it to be so. and at the time i was touring in europe and that was the question i got every day when i was being interviewed.

so, you know, america is not racist anymore. that's not the fact. when you have progress, like that, you have people that are not down with that progress, they want to hold on to their old ways of thinking, the ways they were taught by their parents, traditions, and want the world to remain a certain way, they begin to pull back, you know, and then you have this tug of war. we have a great amount of racial unrest in this country. we all know that. but with each generation, we get better. >> do you feel like the trayvon martin case brought out the worst of this country in terms of race? in other words, each side went to their battle stations, rather than having a conversation about race that we as a country claim to want to have all the time? this is a good moment, have a conversation on race. >> i think it's just interesting that you see the frustration level went up with a lot of americans when the verdict came down. i think a lot of people were like surprised because they

didn't -- they didn't see it turning out that way and they didn't follow that case. they just assumed they would find him guilty and move on. there's a definite disconnect with the youth today in that what we had, lee daniels and i were giving this interview and there was this white college educated radio disk jockey that said he had -- he was aen if of a rapper who had a lyric in his rap song about a sit-in and didn't understand what that meant until he saw "the butler." there were kids that had to -- you couldn't go into the front of a restaurant and eat or a diner and sit at a lunch counter that was whites only until he saw this movie. >> was it personally painful for either of you to go back and revisit this time in history? i shutter when i see food dumped on someone's head sitting at a lunch counter, shutter when i see fire hoses and dogs turned on children in birmingham, alabama. was it hard to go back and live

through that, even through a movie? >> it's difficult to watch, but it's good that we remember. >> how much lenny, do you think it's generational then, getting rid of racism, that it's not so easy as electing one president or saying i listen to hip-hop music now or whatever it is, which so many more people do now. >> it's time. it has to be filtered out. >> right. >> but people don't want to wait for time. they want a magic wand -- >> time is what it takes to accomplish anything. >> yeah. >> and this type of thing is going to take a lot of time because you have a lot of people who are still being taught by their folks, they're taught to be racist. they're taught to hate. these are not things that we have in us naturally. >> in light of all that, back to your characters in the movie -- >> the movie. >> trust me, i could go on all day about this, and it's tied into the movie and your characters how do your characters change in their views of race and white people and white presidents over the course of the film?

>> we don't -- our characters, you don't get to see so much how they change, because it is about, you know, cecil and, you know, where his friends and we're there and you see how they are with him and with the presidents throughout the movie, but -- >> he's pretty gregarious, casual, the uncle that says the things you think but shouldn't say. what's great about our character and the relationship between the butlers is that it is an example of what i spoke of earlier, these men, they attacked racism by example. by an elegance and a, you know, a presence and appearance and they showed that they could be nonthreatening and that they -- that black men can be part of the solution and not the problem. the scene in -- when you're showing the diner and the sit-ins and then the ketchup

squirted and spit on the kids and the butler serving them, you're seeing two things where you have this radical physical attacking and nonresponse, but yet, showing love and then you have the butler's serving and again, showing that they can be accessible to whites. i think these two, you know, forms of attack and what made up that whole civil rights movement as we -- as you see that these people grow at one point without giving away too much of the movie, you see the two ideologies melded and these people, these, you know, specifically in the relationship with cecil and his son, lewis, coming from a militant background, you see the two ideas connect and then they inform each other and then they both enrich and enlighten each other and then they change their viewpoints on what's the -- because there is no right or

wrong way to eradicate racism. but the best way to educate -- to stomp out ignorance which is one of the basic forms, foundations of racism, is to educate and there's no right or wrong way to inform people. i think it's just the fact that we're talking, this is the healing process. >> how do you describe the lee daniels' experience? >> it's -- >> fasten your seat belt. the brother's nuts. >> you don't know what it's going to be. >> he's -- >> he's crazy. >> he's intense. he's crazy. >> he's crazy. >> he's an open book. >> out of control and completely in control. >> he's an open book. >> it's not chaos. >> it is chaos but it's controlled. some sense it's controlled the whole thing is -- when you watch the film, like, you see the vision. it's pretty amazing if you're there to see how it happened.

>> coming up, the final installment of our interview with oprah winfrey and lee daniels. why oprah says she couldn't speak when she first saw the film. sfx: oil gushing out of pi sfx: birds chirping. but you had to leave rightce to now, would you go? world, man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day.

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i made you a birthday cake. >> i got all the cake i want right here. >> you're crazy. >> champagne in cooling in an ice box and some ice cream too. >> you going to be drinking with me? >> you know i don't drink. i don't drink. >> look at us. happy birthday present. i want you to go put it on upstairs. >> put it on? >> put it on. >> all right. make it snappy, bring down my sewing kit because i need to do some alterations. >> make it snappy. >> we're going out tonight. >> in the final installment of our interview, lee daniels "the butler," we asked what it was like for them to work with such a star-studded cast. >> everybody who does this knows

you get elevated by the people around you. i mean i was elevated by forest whitaker. we are an ensemble but at the end of the day, this is forest's movie. >> he got that job himself. the white house called him. he didn't call the white house. >> i want to hear all the stories. >> i don't know how many stories you're going to hear. they swore him to a secret code and he can't tell me nothing. >> no, no. >> when i saw this film for the first time i could not speak and later lee calls, i'm very upset you with you. you didn't say anything about the film. i couldn't speak because all i could feel was the essence of what he had done. he allowed us to see the soul of that guy, to the just eugene allen, who he portrays, but that guy is my father, my uncles and everybody from that generation that got up and went to work every day and that was their way of fighting the war. they go to work every day, and they experience either directly or indirectly exactly what "the butler," cecil experiences when

he goes in and asks and says, i think the colored need to be paid the same as the whites and the guy doesn't even look at him. this movie is about two ways to protest. the butler in his own way, hanging in there, maintain the dignity, the hard work, the perseverance that multitudes of african-american families have shown over the years in spite of the face of racism. >> and we were talking about the talk, that african-american fathers still have to have with their sons, how frightening for a father. >> yes. >> even in the film when they say you better get yourself here, back home because they're going to kill you. that talk was pervasive then. >> i don't know that i'm man enough to have take an bullet for a cause.

i don't know that i would be man enough to stop from swinging at the cop. that's the decision that the butler made. keep working. lee daniels the butler. keep working. while his son decided he just had to go another route. >> you know why the son would feel that, because that's what evolution is. that's what evolving really is.

the son didn't grow up on a share cropper's rotation. the son lived in washington, d.c. the son saw the open door to possibility in his life. the father still is carrying the pain and the burdens of the past and feels like you know the son didn't have to get off the street. so he's thinking, what are you doing that for. >> in a way, the son as a response is doing what he's doing ultimately for what he sees as an injustice or for his father. i would like to hear about some of the other cameos. it's incredible. even short -- like interludes in the movie, you have incredible names. >> robin williams as ike. i never saw that one coming. >> mariah. >> vanessa redgrave. >> those powerful words to begin our film with. >> jane fonda. he had jane fonda. listen, as nancy reagan.

my scenes were were jane. jane said to me after the first day, who is, who is this guy, this guy has me terrified. i go, oh, he just does that on purpose. >> i don't. >> what does he do to terrify jane fonda? >> first of all, you'll be in the middle of a scene. because jane said the same thing i said the first time. he keeps saying, no acting. throw it away. give me half of that. now throw it away. at the end of the movie, i gave him three t-shirts that said. half of that. now throw it away. >> i would like to ask her about own. >> you should. i would love to tell you. >> things are going really well right now. >> yes, things are going really well. >> when everything wasn't going well -- >> i had no idea but, you

know -- because we went into own. we own own. if i'd gone down another hallway, there was actually -- there was like this huge like glass that said in case of danger, you know, crack the glass and out walks tyler perry. you know, that guy. holy cow. what a team you guys make. >> that was fantastic. having tyler perry to come to join us on own really helped us to turn things around. we were in the process of doing that even before "have nots" arrived and "love thy neighbor." i have this will team who were with me when i was doing the oprah show all those years. we just dug in. last year, said we were climbing kilimanjaro. now we are profitable. >> what has been the steepest

learning curve for you starting a network? >> the steepest learning curve is you've got to surround yourself with people who don't just talk about the vision but know how to execute. that's the truth for anything. whether you're starting a c cupcake company. >> what you're telling me is you fired all the men at own. i always said, early on, if you want people to talk about get things done, hire a man. if you want people to get things done -- >> get the women. >> hire the women. other then "lee daniels the butler." >> i think it's leadership. first of all, me putting myself in the position of ceo. i was reluctant to do that. but i think when you're starting something that means this month to you, just anybody who's ever started a business knows this, that you've got to get in there yourself and in the beginning, certainly, not maintain -- not try to control everything, but

you've got to at least give direction to people so the vision is yours. >> what are you going to talk her into acting again? what's next? >> i'm reeling her in. reeling her in. >> "lee daniels the butler" is out in theaters now. >> thanks for joining us on "morning joe." have a happy, happy labor day. we're so glad you were able to sit around the house with your family early in the morning -- >> must be nice. >> starting those ribs. i can't wait. i'm going to eat the ribs. >> someone cooking ribs for you? i guess i'll go home and cook ribs. >> you going to cook ribs for your family too? >> i guess so. someone's got to cook. >> that's exciting. i guess. >> have a good day. >> have a great day. we'll see you back here tomorrow. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." with the spark miles card from capital one,

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hello, everyone. the battlefield on this labor day not only in syria but also cl capitol hill. the white house seeks a green light to strike. leading charge the here secretary of state john kerry who was sent to run the gauntlet of weekend political talk shows. secretary kerry, his role here, laying out the administration's case. >> we are saying that the high confidence that the intelligence community has expressed and the case that i laid out the other day is growing stronger by the day. we know where this attack came from. we know exactly where