but politicians do something illegal. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure. some want to. have to go right to be press it's like them before three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters in the. city. i've got to do just that and you're watching all of. us.

on larry king now luke cage star mike soul to hear the stories about people telling you can't do something and honestly sometimes you wish those people would tell you better than you could have a chip on your shoulder to keep you going and a lot of times i had to manifest was kind of thing because i had so many people who are supportive i'm very aware i was up going to represent a lot of people but i my journey was a little different you're only as good as the person you're working across from especially me talk about villains because they're good guy no one cares about the good guy if the villain is not a threat and so we needed that to work most fun be the villain oh yeah like i think like i like playing bad guys you laura. i think we all thought that this was the

time to sort of pay homage to the things that were going on in society obviously trayvon martin when it happened i think it touched everybody in a very very specific way plus if i had a role i suppose solving you know poverty you know one had to be poor no one had to worry about food those are two things i would think that take care of i like to be invisible all that would be great all next on larry king now. welcome to larry king our special guest is my goal to the start of netflix's super hero drama luke cage and the upcoming marvel crossover series the defenders the defenders premier's by the way august eighteenth on next and the second season of luke cage will be out in twenty eight teams you also know mike from the good wife regular million dollar baby and he could be seen in the upcoming comedy girl strip

alongside queen latifa and jaden pinkett smith that will be in theaters july twenty first under the night you're not busy no other than that i got time a man's when they told you you got to play a marvel superhero were you surprised. it was one of those things where took me a little while to realize the significance culturally for or the character as an actor you're trying to figure out what's the role you know what can i do with this what does it go and those are things you always ask yourself as an actor and and what's there to sink my teeth into and how do i make it work and then the other side of his it is going around the street and you basically bump into people who tell you this is a big deal and how much they are looking forward to and how much they need this character and how long they've been reading the comic books and it kind of gives you a clue to how important is and then you have to kind of turn that off because you don't want to think about your. and to make the character work you know stanley is

an old form because he started he did all of these in his ninety's yeah ninety ninety three i think he shares a burger with my father in law you know comic book we go i was i was i read as many comic books as i could get my hands on because i was from such a small town in south carolina that we didn't have a comic book store so i relied on all my my cousins from the north to come down and bring their used comic books to me what do you make of this resurgence of marvel and these comic books becoming feature movies i think producers are always looking for new properties and the big thing now is the trend is established properties there are books novels things that have a track record and have an audience already built and people have interest in it it's proving to be a bestseller and i guess comic books they qualify bestsellers i mean you know this it's a big deal people read them they they don't stop reading them they have a passion for it and so when you have that property you think yourself this is this is an endless commodity the characters

a larger the life the right i mean they're all superheroes yeah you wore a hoodie we had your idea it was it was it was it was my idea but i think everybody was kind of the same page i think we all thought that this was the time to sort of pay homage to the things that were going on in society obviously trayvon martin when it happened i think it touched everybody in a weird way in a very very specific way because it was a kid who was just wrong place wrong time minding his own business completely innocent he belonged there he wasn't intruding he was in trust passing he was an armed he couldn't have been more innocent and yet based off of his apparel this guy thought that he was a certain kind of. guy and it just really was is just devastated a lot of people so we thought it made sense that we use the hoodie as sort of a sort of a disguise. a sort of way of of working as

a superhero because not only did luke cage not want to be noticed didn't want anybody know who he was it was a very casual every day man kind of costume everybody has a hoodie you know everybody gets a bit more as times take a walk in them and they have a dog and it's made sense who is luke cage look age is a guy who. if he was a superhero he probably have a family and probably have a couple kids probably be. doing a number of things but. this whole thing that he does this this sort of affliction he would call it see these these abilities have changed his course in life he was in the police force he was military he was a lot of things before this happened and and i think this thing they has a sort of change the direction of his life what is his ability super strength. we don't really it's hard to find how strong is but he can do things that normal men can't do. like flip a car you know punch through

a concrete wall. walk through fire you know you can't burn him skin is a superman so much superman they don't fly doesn't fly no fly no tights no actually vision well bob i was present when the show first came out yeah now we have trump dead change anything about the show no because trump you know trump just got in office and it and it and we had we already released the first series season by the time. we were when we recently released it or when we were writing the first season or they rather it was still an obama era and that was obvious i don't know how much it'll be incorporated into this second sadly we'll probably a little bit a little get into the first season going to jail for what well he had things that he hadn't quite. made amends for basically he was a person who was wrongly convicted but if you're only convicted you still have to let the court do its due process and so he did not do that he uses superpowers

escape and lay low and he never really fessed up or own up into what he had done which again being as it is one day but you've got to let the courts do the due process he didn't do that so he had to go back and and do what in the first season closed. virtually zero one. one zero he won an oscar for moonlight yeah what's it like working with him you know we didn't share a lot of scenes together because he was playing the bad guy the villain and a lot of times in the villain and the good guy good. gether it's very sparingly it's spread out throughout the strip because there was a big moments and so but he had we had a great time working together professional you know guy came to work repaired he had a good work ethic we understood each other i gave me space to do whatever he was going to do as as a character because i knew coming into this if you're only as good as the person you're working across from especially when you talk about villains because the good guy no one cares about the good guy if the villain is not a threat and so we needed that to work more fun being the villain oh well yeah like

i think like i like playing bad guys today also starring in a marvel crossover series the defenders. and you're in with other superheroes right yeah so how do you work both well luckily marvel marvel has a the understanding that the we have all these soul series located has its own series jessica jones has their own series daredevil iron fist they knew that this was going to have to be a series that all of us would shoot together so they basically stop production all the solo series had us do this series is an eight episode series premiering august eighteenth then we're going to go back to doing our own series so jessica is already in production right now i'll be in production very soon and we'll go back to the same formula what is all this done for my cold made him a very busy man you know it's kind of maybe have to just trying to work on life work you know doing bit roles in a lot of movies right yeah big roles joint recurring zone on television a few series reg's sometimes

a series would be cancelled but it was it bouncing around doing the actors the actor thing so luke cage made it for you right it you're on some great series the good wife yeah. you're in million dollar baby yeah and these were directors yeah yeah yeah i was i was you know i was happy you know and you know i yeah yeah working in yeah just kind of sort of just enjoying the process you one of five kids growing up where they all interested in the audience for four kids or my mother had i had a fifth but she passed away early on so so yeah. well i was born there she was the first of the kids so way before my time but yeah what was it like growing up in south carolina south carolina it was for me a very interesting experience south carolina i'll be honest i had a great experience i got lucky i don't know i think my spirits was different than most people who didn't experience any bad races it was there you know it was there in d.c. when i was an i would call

a city was st matthew south carolina very small little town i got lucky because i told people you know along the way i had teachers that. very encouraging to me you know you hear these stories about people telling you can't do something and honestly sometimes you wish those people would tell you that so then you could have a chip on your shoulder to keep you going a lot of times i had to manifest this kind of thing because i had so many people who were supportive i didn't i didn't come into contact with as many adversaries in my educational you know journey as a lot of people did i can still remember my teachers telling me you know you can do this and you can do that and i've got white and black white and black mostly white i mean a lot of my teachers were white and have had to be a poem and no no they didn't and i know that that's what you know and that's probably goes on a lot and i just got really lucky so i'm very aware it was i want to represent a lot of people but i my journey was a little different you know you remain close with the family yeah i did actually just got back from south carolina yesterday i went home see my mom only for a day your career went to you had a lot of little roles in various little things and then the series came along how

did you get luke cage you kind of just happened to me you know i think sometimes things you things find you and when the series was being talked about and they were thinking about doing this does job there was some conversations being had only internet you know which i don't do a lot of internet you know blogging or social media people reach out and say hey the cast is locating i think i'd be really right for them going oh yeah i'm sure you think i'm i for a lot of things but you know thanks but i let my agent cast directors aside you know we'll talk about it and when it happened i went in the room and i read it. early on a couple sighs and something about it just kind of felt really right i'm not sure exactly sometimes you have these moments when you read something you think it really fits like a glove i think i can really do something with this is something i think really fits and i had that feeling when i went in and told i call my agent manager i never called my agent matter tell him anything about up an appointment but i had a feeling so i inquired i said what is shooting then you know what's going on with

this and they were you know one of many projects the same enough for and he said we don't know we will we don't hear they will get back to you like i said i said that you know here's something about this one i've got a feeling you know. worked out a million dollar baby important or yeah it was one of those things where. and i had been in business what a couple years and done like oh i think i'd done some regional theater i'd done a couple of you know things on t.v. in l a couple calls to get star costar and i just moved back to new york and so my wife could could finish your doctorate degree and that was something i had to compromise on because she was in still trying to finish her degree i got back and this came about and most of the most of what was so odd about it was you know this woman in philosophic. god rest her soul wonderful wonderful casting director passed away many years ago no she was clay's was cast an actor primarily for so many years . to make this outlaw josey wales or something like that. she had me come in she

had cast me in something before and she told about this project when i got the role i first got into it was impossible to get booked off of something yet but i'll even meeting you know what i did make sense to me but for me it was just such a big break in the business for me because it showed me how how things should be done and i never forget that experience it was like scenes i had several scenes and most of my stuff was in the beginning of film first thirty minutes and any kind of transition into his character but when i read the script and i knew a year before the movie's release that this movie was going to win several awards at least you know at least the top four for five awards when it comes in always on the budget very methodical yeah it's an actor's director oh absolutely absolutely i think i think what makes him work was what makes it work so well when you're on set with him he's got the credibility you know he's got he's claes what he's got the credibility people trust him they've been know his track record they believe him

and they feel comfortable with him and a lot of the eagles that people normally bring the set and you can't really bring it is that with equal ease what i mean he's the biggest you know he's the biggest legal there is on set not that he has an ego but he's not if he's not going to act like a you know what then why should you you know and have that really makes it go smoothly but you kind of really made it at forty. yeah i guess so i don't know maybe mated. i paid my dues i think i'll still pay my dues. but. if.

all the world. and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties aren t. american play. off much more american personal. in many ways the news landscape is just like the real news big news good actors bad actors and in the end you could never hear on. so much parking all the world's all the world's a stage all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. i do not know if the russian state hacked into john podesta emails and gave them to wiki leaks but i do know barack

obama's director of national intelligence has not provided. to support his claims. i also know he perjured himself in a senate hearing. for the revelations provided by edward snowden he denied to be n.s.a. was carrying out. wholesale surveillance of the u.s. . to hyperventilate corporate has once again proved to be an ethical government claims that cannot be verified you would have thought they would have learned something after serving as george w. bush's useful idiots in the lead up to invade iraq. it is vitally important that the press remains rooted in a fact based universe especially when we enter an era when truth and fiction are becoming interesting. your launching and our team.

basically everything that you think you know about civil society has broken down. there's always going to be somebody else one step ahead of the game. we should not be. normalizing. we don't need people that think like this on our planet. this is an incredibly tight situation. girls alongside clean the teams and opens in theaters july twenty first luke cage and the defenders got a lot of things going for we get to some of the if you only knew questions tell me about girl strip. is a fun movie for the summer when i read the script i knew that it would be something that i think it'll be something very commercially successful i think it's something that the ladies you know if you get the ladies in the movie theater then you but then you get the guys as well it's something that it's a fun movie it's about

a reconnection of friends from college they haven't seen each other for a very long time my character plays the husband of the lead character regina hall's character and so mike our union our our our marriage is something that people really respect and they really look look at as a as an example of comedy but is. the comedy yes the colleges shoot we shot neurons had a great time doing essence festival which is something that happened in july they're going to have it again so hopefully we'll be down there promoting the film because that's when it's going to be released queen live to visit a hoot she is she's very sweet woman i like her a lot by all the day this is your cousin yeah yeah well it's very good for the good genes yeah pretty good genes and never really never really met her and never had a long conversation with her at all but i just know we're cousins we have haven't talked to no no it's a funny thing as well as things where it's like she's had her journey has been a great one i'm having my journey and it's the other thing to call and not really i think i think it was going to bridge going to was going to open each other is going

to be what does your wife think of you being called a sex symbol. i think she probably thinks it's ok i don't know i don't know how much you joyce it depends who's who say it you know have a little baby daughter right yeah to your leisure wise doctor and then dr singh is in comparative literature she's we met at rutgers university so she will you know doctorates and i was getting my master's in acting and you had new jersey boys from south carolina knows when doors where the rockers yeah my first taste of the north we play a little game of if you only knew i just so questions that you thought was your childhood celebrity crush. danica mckellar see good talent who i'm. cooking pushing you trade places with for a day. you weed is job you've ever had. was work at a labor ready labor ready where you work for a day and he would stand on

a corner as the corner of goats as well off as but you get a job for a day minimum wage eight hours show me license you and whoever else is able bodied persons ready usually it's cons people who are a lot off and three you do anything it's all you do you pick up rocks and it's a typical box. guilty pleasure guilty pleasure. probably watchin millionaire listings that's kind of my thing i look at real estate what never fails to make you less. absurd reality television you know. what is your real life superpower i guess if i had a boss in power solving you know poverty you know like i could that i could i could just fix everything if no one had to go you know no one had to be poor no one had to worry about food those are two things i would think it would take care of it i like to be invisible oh that would be great best piece of advice you ever got always say please and thank you what is something you wish you were better at being

a listener good listener you know but it's biggest perk of being a celebrity. getting a table at a restaurant damn strangers fan encounter strange fan encounter once once a fan followed me the restroom followed you end of the reality in a restroom. long. something we all should be paying more attention to our diet. you keep in shape try trying to tend to gain weight no not not so much gain weight but but yeah it is because you look good you doesn't mean you're healthy you've got to always watch it some of the long believed to be true and realize wasn't. that that your parents are perfect. yeah tell me something we don't know about you. you know extremely. giving you like to give like to give to

a form to fall to a fault you know people take advantage of it course luke cage is in the defenders he was in the good wife he was in million dollar baby he's in girls' trip. he's a busy man and a talented man some social media questions william voce were you a fan of the original luke cage comic book. i was unaware of it did did not know the comic book existed i've heard about the character so i can't say i was a fan moishe take does the hall of them are a renaissance and flew into the setting of luke cage yeah certainly the show on a cio but our culture is as a historian of sorts and he definitely implements that into a lot of what we see you know a lot of the you know the club environment a lot of the dressed people things that people wear a lot of the way that people interact there's there's something that it's very own innocence he's very aware of it for fathers of must bring

a large black audience to the show sure sure does jill aberdeen as what do people get wrong about south carolina that people or i guess i guess i guess people people are not as as as smart as other people in the part of the world you know look down on and so yeah he had a look down a south that they think there's not a lot of good that comes from that why you go to rutgers i was told that it was a good place to go based on a professor who i trusted as soft on he said you know i have a friend there bill esper good acting teacher i think you'll do well there this is what i think should go you know you want to be an actor yeah yeah it was an eagle to his reputation it's what you get it's what you get out of it what you put into it and i think that's true true of anything because there are so many great programs across the country and across the world and if you don't put the effort in you're not going to walk out there any more prepared than you would if you walked in but you made your wife there i did tony branson have you met stanley i did i did

i did i actually did stanley's comic-con in l.a. . a few months several months ago but yeah i'm a consecration yeah it's crazy crazy it's a big deal stan is amazing oh he's got all those facilities were all his shop was attacked and there was attack. is it true that viola davis is is true she's just second cousin and as have you traded industry advice you've talked to have a smoker to know that's hard to believe well this isn't this is a small town and it is hard to believe but i but you know i'm sure our paths will cross that's all she know your her first cousin i'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure she knows of second thoughts a second cousin yeah she gave a powerful speech at the oscars were you watching yes or just think i thought it was you know it was something that it was moving and i thought it was something that you know she deserved i think i think her career and everything she's been doing up to this point has been so well received but there's so many things that go into towards and i'm glad she got her to just do she's amazing actress. you began

in the theater where in south carolina yeah yeah. i did i did some high school plays and then i got into a school small school called going to college their medical team scott blanks he was a theater instructor we did a play there because he didn't have a didn't have a department that was dedicated to theater and dance so we did a play anyway he said you know i think you should go to universe is after a lot of that's where i got my graduate program from and so he pointed me there and i got from there and i got to record this kind of you know people like scott blanks and you know and bill and joel conner people like that is how would you like to go to broadway i would i would i would love to do something new broadway i mean broadway is a very prestigious achievement and it's something i think a lot of actors want to do at some point so i would love to get a shot mike you're a great guy great meeting him pleasure you good luck thank you thanks to my guest my golden girls trip will be in theaters july twenty first the defenders premier's

all the state team done netflix and the second season of luke cage will be out next year as always you can find me on twitter at kings things see you next time. about your sudden passing i have only just learned your yourself and taken your last turn. your act caught up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath . but then my feelings started to change you talked about war like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our archive and i

secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. there's a real irony boy. show they are putting out a response was always new people and there is always a well that's what goes on as if it was always very expensive. to be a little ordinary and out wholesale surveillance you feel you have already while there's room to move to socialize and trump has used the social media site while i always always story cause it's garbage and real genuine soon.

i think the average viewer just after watching a couple segments understands that we're telling stories that our critics can't tell and you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth party's able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical chills people when a company in the environmental business ins up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every we can you know want their work in.

the u.s. military says friendly fire accidentally kills outgunned security forces hits by an air strike. three israelis some three fellas amiens lose their lives sanctions over a holy site in jerusalem continue to rise. alarm bells in the west over the first several joint russia china drills in european water day after the us and twenty other states companies massive war games send that reach and. we'll see you here at the top of the hour with the latest news but up next cross stuff.