on larry king now luke cage star might we 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'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 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 were more fun being the villain oh yeah like i think like i like playing bad guys you know wore a hoodie i think we all thought that this was the time to sort of march to the things that were going on in society obviously trayvon martin going to

happen i think it touched everybody in a very very specific way plus if i had a role as far as solving you know poverty you know one had to be poor no one had to worry about those a few things i would take them take care of i like to be invisible all that would be great all next on larry king. larry king special guest is my goal to the star of netflix's superhero 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 think it's a myth that will be in theaters july twenty first and. that you're not busy no

other than that i get time a man's when they told you a little 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 the 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 the who you're trying to make the character work you know stanley is an old home because he started he did all of these in his ninety's yeah ninety ninety three i think he shares a brother of 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 over 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 because 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 you so this is this is is an endless commodity the characters a larger than life story 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 on 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 working as a superhero because not only did luke cage not want to be noticed by to know who he was it was a very casual everyday man kind of costume everybody has

a hoodie you know everybody gets a bit of money sometimes take a walk in the and 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 is 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 hard to find how strong is but he can do things that no man can 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 don't fly doesn't fly. no flying no tights no actually

vision now obama 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 been 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 in a bomb 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 owned up into what he had done which again being as it is one day but you've got to let the courts do their due process he didn't do that so he had to go back and deal with the first season close

was. virtually zero one. one he won an oscar for moonlight yeah what's it like going to 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 so i was in the villain and the good guy get together it's very sparingly it's spread out throughout the script because those are big moments and so but he had we had a great time working together professional you know guy came to work prepared 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 oh yeah like i think like i like plain bad guys today also starring in a marvel crossover series the defenders. and you're in the. 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 look age has its own series just go 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 try to work on life work you know doing bit roles in a lot of movies right yeah big roles join recurring zone on television a few series reg's sometimes a series would be cancelled but it was yeah 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 work and 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 then 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. i'll be honest i had a great experience i got lucky and 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 the late eighty's when i was and 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 were very encouraging to me you know. hear the 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 don't black white and black mostly white i mean a lot of my teachers were white and have had to be a pullman conductor no no they didn't and i know that that's what you know and it's probably goes on a lot and i just got really lucky so i was 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 actually just got back from moscow yesterday i went home to 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 yeah how did you get luke cage it 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 as does the job there was some conversations being had on the internet you know which i don't do a lot of internet you know blog you know social media people reach out and say hey the cast is locating i think could 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 and casting directors decide 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 could 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 mattered tell him anything about up an appointment but i had a feeling that i inquired i said what is shootin you know what's going on with this and they were you know one of many projects it's a metaphor and he said we don't know what we don't hear that we'll get back to you and 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 for you or yeah it was one of those things where. and i had been in business about a couple years and done like oh i think i've done some regional theater i'd done a couple of you know things on t.v. in l.a. 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 if you talk about this project when i got this role i first got it big 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 it's very methodical 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 good he's clean what he's got the credibility people trust him baby 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 and i don't know maybe mated i paid you do i paid my dues i think i'm still paying my dues to pay my dues but we'll talk see good talents and real life superpowers right after the break. it's. called the feeling of freedom. every the world should experience. and you'll get it on the old world. the world according to just. welcome to my world come along for the ride.

you. know. it looks like. it would. analyze the bottom. line. like you had not got. with. all the world this day and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are into america playing righty america offers more artsy american person.

in many ways a new landscape just like the real news big news good actors that act and in the end you could never appear on. so much parking all the world all the world all the world's a stage we are definitely a player. you know my cold girl strut alongside clean the teens 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 girl strip was a is a fun movie for the summer when i read the script i knew that it would be something 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 very long.

my character plays the husband of the lead character regina hall's character and so mike our union r r r r marriage is something that people really respect and they really look look at as a as an example of comedy but as a comedy as a college issue we shot neurons had a great time doing essence festival which is something that we have everything july going to happen again so hopefully we'll be down there promoting the film because that's when it's going to be released queen look to visit a hoot she is she's very sweet woman i like her a lot by all the days this is your cousin yeah yeah well figured pretty 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 things are calling me not really i think i figured it was going to be going to 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 joys it depends who's who say it you know have a little baby daughter right yeah to your vision 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 when he was a new jersey boy 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 some 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 working at labor ready labor ready where you work for a day and he would stand on a corner as the corner of goats as a lot was 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 adriel you do anything it's all you do you pick a rocket it's a typical box. guilty pleasure guilty pleasure. probably watchin millionaire listings that's kind of my thing i look at it real estate what never fails to make you less. absurd reality television you know. what is your real life superpower but i guess if i had a role as a power solving you know poverty you know but i could but i could i could just fix everything if no one had to go you know you know 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 be a better biggest perk of being a celebrity. getting

a table at a restaurant damn strange is fan encounter strange fan encounter once once a fan followed me the restroom. followed you enter the realm in a restroom she'd him along. something we all should be paying more attention to our diet. you keep in shape try which i would 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 always watching 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 fall you know people take advantage of it of 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 moshe take does the hall of them are a renaissance and fluence 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 dress the people things that people wear a lot of the way that people interact there's there's something that is very. very aware of it for fathers of 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 or people are not as as as smart as other people in the part of the world you know look down on so yeah yeah they look down to south that they think there's not a lot of good that comes from that why you go to what i was told that it was a good place to go based on a professor who i trusted as i've gone and he said you know i have 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 that i did tony branson have you met stanley i did i did i did i actually did stanley's comic-con in l.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 though he's got all those facilities were all he sharp as a tack and the opposite. 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 what is that this is a small town 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 do you think that i 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 two awards and i'm so glad she got her to just do she's amazing actress. you began in

the theater where in south carolina yeah yeah yeah i did i did some high school plays and then got into a school small school called going to college there met again and 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 theater and dance so we did a play anyway he said you know i think you should go to inverses of carolina 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 general 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 probably can. me on twitter at kings things see you next up. we're going to the american middle class has been railroaded by washington politics . big bloody cold war it really does throw down a lot of boys that's how we use them a new culture in this country well that's where i come in. i don't feel i've done art for you america i'll make sure you don't get railroad you'll get the breaks off in the break room. for free what. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last term. 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 are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to the claim that mainstream media has met its maker. is a real irony going. to show the way to lay a finger at it responds one voice unable until it is always well that's what goes on the other was always very expensive rails to

a new way of dealing. baltimore area no wholesale surveillance in sale you have all meanwhile osun to do so since then trump has used the social media site well i always saw the story goes it's garbage in real genuine. rejected tonight is a comedy news shoulda not de frank by the corporate media. would you go after the corporations that just more your lives profit over people at every turn. the redacted tonight for me is like medicine it's like a cancer joke from all the stress that the news puts you under redacted tonight is a show where you can go to cry from laughing about the stuff that's going on in the world as opposed to just regular crying we're going to find out what the corporate

mainstream media is not telling you about how we're going to filter it through some satirical comedic lenses to make it more digestible that's what we do every week hard hitting radical comedy news like redacted so night is where it's at. our culture is awash in lives dominated by streams of never ending electronic hallucinations that lurk fiction until they are indistinguishable we have become the most deluded society on politics it's a species of endless and needless political theater politicians have morphed into celebrity are two ruling parties are in reality one part of the corporate world and those who attempt to puncture this vast breathless universe of fake news just signed to push through the cruelty and exploitation of the neo liberal courts up

for so far to the ma. a society including by a public broadcasting system that has sold its soul for corporate money that we might as well be mice squeaking against an apple a squeak we must. all the world history and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are into american play r.t. america offers more artsy american personal. in many ways the news landscape is just like the field of real news big news good actors bad actors and in the end you could never know you're on. the park and all the world's a stage all the worlds.