Transcripts For KQEH Tavis Smiley 20130817

laughter tavis all right, so glad to have you, and so take it away. Right. Were glad you joined us. A conversation with eva mendes, coming up right now. Tavis eva mendess breakthrough as we opposite denzel work together, we can stamp hunger out. To youry contributions pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis eva mendess breakthrough role was opposite Denzel Washington in training day. She has since gone on to make her mark costarring with an array of actors, from johnny depp to matt damon. Shes now costarring with ryan gosling and Bradley Cooper in an emotionally charged movie called the place beyond the pines, about fathers, sons, and the consequences of the decisions they make. Eva plays a single mom trying the best way she can to navigate a life that didnt exactly turn out the way shed hoped. Lets take a look at a clip from the movie. [clip] tavis i almost didnt recognize you; youre all glammed up today. laughter you do whatever you need to do. What are you going to do . Wax i am going to do what i have to do. Going to go to school. I am going to take care of jason. I work here. That is what i am doing. That is my life. Tavis i almost didnt recognize you; youre all glammed up today. laughter tavis this flick, for those who havent seen it and will, obviously, youre not playing up all of the glam. No, no. Actually, thats the beauty of being an actress, is that you hopefully get to have different roles and really stretch yourself. This is really what ive been working for a while, i guess 14 years now. Ive been in the business for a minute, and its an opportunity like this that ive been really working towards. Tavis what specifically about it, when you say an opportunity that allows you to stretch yourself . What do you mean by that . Well, the raw nature of this character, but also working with a director like derek cianfrance. He directed blue valentine, and when i saw that film, i was so incredibly moved by the performances and by the unconventional style of filmmaking. Then i heard about how he actually worked and his process, and i was just, i immediately called my agent. Im like, can i get a meeting with this director . This is how i want to work; this is how i want to do it. I met with him and we had a coffee, and it was way before this script came around. I kind of planted a little seed there, and i was like, this is how i want to work. Can you just keep me in mind for the next one . Tavis and he did. Well, he did. I had to fight for it a bit, which i love. I love fighting for it. I love a challenge. He didnt see me quite right for he didnt think i was quite right for it at the beginning, but. Tavis yeah. You said a couple of things i want to go back and have you unpack for me. Number one, when you say that you read about his process yes. Tavis and i know every actor in this business has a process that they like to work inside of. So what was it about his process that so titillated you . Well, first of all, i still go to acting class. I love the craft. Its just so much fun for me, and im always a student. So when i heard about his process, i heard that hes really big on rehearsal and he creates a reality for the actors that its basically he likes as little acting as possible, basically. Tavis okay. So i think we all heard the kind of story that ryan gosling and Michelle Williams lived in a house because they played husband and wife and they lived in the house, and i was just like, wow, thats really interesting. Just reading about how he really pushes his actors and really, really challenges them, and i was just ready for that. Tavis yeah. Really, really hungry for it. Tavis what do you get these days from going to acting class . Whats the takeaway for you unintelligible . Its the scariest thing in the world, going to acting class. Tavis still scary . Its frightening. laughter scarier than being on set, because yeah, i know. Tavis okay, you got me on this. Why . Well, because first of all, theres a lot of pressure. You just any time im in the situation where im in a classroom environment and i take various classes in things, i just go back to being that fourth grader who couldnt, like, sit still in her seat, who had all the answers and was like, oh, and didnt always have the answers but thought she did. Im an overachiever in that way and a pleasure, and so i just want to do good by my teachers, so i kind of go back into that whole thing. Tavis right. But i love it, because its a chance for me to be creative and put something out there, and then your teachers right there to critique you, and its always i worked with ivana chubbuck. Shes an amazing, amazing teacher. Ive taken class with larry moss, whos more kind of in the theater world, so hes really educated me about playwrights. I love edward albee. I feel so lucky to kind of dip into the theater world now, certainly with the class and stuff. So its just all a bunch of its just so much fun for me. Tavis is that your way of subtly telling me that were going to see you on broadway pretty soon . I hope so. I keep looking for the right thing. I keep looking, so hopefully itll present itself. Tavis yeah. Without calling the name of a particular piece of work, unless you choose to do so, is there something that you have dreamt about, at least, or imagined the kind of project you would do when you make the broadway move . Well, im drawn to a lot of tragedies, and i love a greek tragedy, oh, boy. But i would think i start thinking realistically about it, and performing eight days a week, that would take a toll. I take things to heart. laughter i dont know if i could survive, like, medea. But i think it would be so fun to do some kind of comedy, something im not exactly sure, but Something Like i just did molieres tartuffe in class, and wow, what a stretch. Again, look, why go to classes . I get to play in molieres tartuffe, and i could never nobody laughter would ever think that they would be, id be right for that. Tavis casting you in that, huh . Yeah, yeah. So i get to explore all that stuff as well, but yeah, i think a comedy would be great. Some kind of satire. Yeah, thatd be great. Tavis i also want to go back, eva, to the comment you made a moment ago for this project and how you got it, and you had to fight for it. I am always amazed, and i think the audience may be amazed as well, because my assumption is and im in this town every day. But the assumption, i think, for most of us is that once you get to a certain place in your career youre not having to elbow and knock people around and audition for parts, so this is a twopart story. So before this project even comes along, youve already met the director, youve already put your bid in to try to work with him on something, and then when it comes around, you still have to go on and fight for the part. And were thinking eva mendes has to do all that . If youre not eva and youre trying to make it in this business, its like, well, theres no hope for me if she has to fight that hard for a part. No, its just the fighting never stops. Tavis right. I think when i stop fighting, i die in a sense. I love the fight. I dont its not a negative, its a positive, and i love the challenge. Theres that little part of me that i love proving someone wrong in that way when they have an image of me or something, or they think they have me figured out or they think im a certain way. You know what i mean, thats just so much fun for me as an actress. I get to, like, to really prove them wrong. laughter and have a blast while im doing it. Tavis speaking of proving them wrong, this is inside baseball, so i wont go too deep in these unintelligible . Okay. Tavis we wont submerge too deeply here, but this movie now is in limited release. Its about to go broad release here. Yes. Tavis but the perscreen average, the amount of money that you made per screen last weekend was, like, really, really, really good. So i wont go inside the baseball stuff, but the people that work with you at this studio happen to be very happy about that perscreen average was. Yes. Tavis whats your barometer for success . Because for the business, the barometer of success is ticket sales. As an actor, whats your barometer for the success of your work . For me, i tend to and i really had to train myself, but i leave it, when im done filming, i leave it. Im done with it. So much, in fact, that sometimes when im at the premiere and i see the film in its entirety, i forget plot, i forget the story, i forget what my character goes through, because i really do just let it go. I learned early on that its heartbreaking to theres the editor that comes in, and then they have to craft the movie together, and sometimes you give a whole performance thats just been cut up, and maybe its better for it, absolutely, but you still have to deal with the loss of that. I just kind of my kind of way to deal with it was to just accept, let it go the minute i was done. So to answer your question, for me is the way i feel like ive been successful after being done with the film is when i see it, if im embarrassed, if im slightly mortified, and if i feel supervulnerable, i think i did something. Tavis okay. The vulnerable part i get. The mortified and embarrassed part i dont get. For me, like when youve put yourself out there emotionally, physically, and youve really put yourself on the line, for me, that means ive really done something. That means i went to an uncomfortable place. Tavis okay. I went outside my comfort zone and i showed an ugly part of me, or maybe a not so ugly part of me, but something that i didnt want to reveal or something that was difficult for me in any way. So i grew. Going outside my comfort zone is a big one for me, yeah. Tavis so tell me this is a perfect leadin, then, perfect segue, thank you, to the part of the single mom that you play in this movie. How did you assess your work when you saw the product . Oh, i cried the first time i yeah, i cried the whole time, and i just thought of course, theres that feeling of like i always think im just the worst. My initial reaction is very negative, but ive accepted that. I dont even Pay Attention to that voice anymore. Tavis so youre a tough critic. Oh yeah. Tavis yeah. I do everything i watch, whether its like a big comic book film that ive done or something very serious and raw like this. I do have that initial feeling like im the worst, this is awful, my work is ive let everybody down. I definitely have that. But now that ive known that for, like, the last 10 years, i just let that voice come and i let her do all that shes going to do. Tavis so you cry, you move on past that. I move past it. But then thats where the real feelings come in after that, and for this one i just it was very personal for me, this film, for a host of reasons, and i really saw, i think for the first time i really saw myself portraying a real person, and i was really happy about that. Tavis you keep saying these things i this is a great conversation. Youre making my work very easy, because you keep saying things that i want to follow up on. Oh, good. laughter tavis so you say for the first time in your youve been at this 14, 15 years now. Yeah, a long time. Tavis this is the first time you have felt like you were playing a real person. Yes, absolutely. Tavis i think i know what you mean by that. You were raised by a single mom yourself; youre playing a single mom, but tell me more about what you mean by playing a real person, to your mind. I just saw somebody up there that was really struggling. I saw real struggle, i saw real emotion, and i saw somebody that wasnt hiding underneath anything. Certainly when i dressed up for you today tavis thank you. Its not, im not hiding under anything. Its a job. Im hoping to look nice. My mothers watching and i want her to think laughter shes a tough fashion critic. Of course its part of my job. But when i see myself like this, portraying, like, a real, raw person, i was just so it just made me so happy. I dont, im not sure how else to articulate it. I hope am i clear . Tavis you answered it. Okay. Tavis since were into it, tell me more about the character. Yeah, shes this single mother who well actually, before that shes this woman who has a fling with ryan goslings character, and i love it because the story doesnt get into it too much, like how it happened or what kind was it a weekend thing, was it a couple months. So its kind of left to the audiences imagination, but it was definitely a physical kind of just a fling. He went his separate ways. Hes a traveling stunt rider, motorcycle tavis rider. Rider. Why did that throw me off right now . laughter tavis i got a quick comeback to that, but im not going to go there. Okay, okay. Tavis why ryan threw you off . Im not going to go there. laughter were going to move right on past that. All right. Woo, okay. laughter thanks, tavis. Tavis all right. Then so he goes off his own way with his traveling circus, and i stay in my quiet town of schenectady, where we really shot the film. Then when we meet these characters in the film its about a year later, and theyve come together again. What he doesnt know is ive had his child since then, but what he also doesnt know is that i actually have another man in my life who is actually a very stable person, whos a loving man, and who wants to father my child like if it was his own. With ryans character, hes a very unstable character, very unfit to be a father, so i have this crazy dilemma on my hands, which is do i raise the child with a loving father thats not his biological father but that is going to provide the life that he should have as a kid, or should i try to make it work should i even let the biological father know that he has this child. Or is he so unfit and so insane that he shouldnt even know about theres this crazy moral conflict that im faced with. I found that really interesting, because i wasnt sure. Right before i went to go film, i thought, well, i dont have children, so my mind went to reason. I was like, well, of course you raise a child with the person whos going to love the child and whos going to provide. If the biological father is unfit in any way, you protect the child from that person. Thats where i was. So i had a bunch of women come over my home before i went to go film, who are mothers, friends of the family, my sisters, everybody. They came over, we ate. I often have, like, womens day, so it wasnt uncommon, but this time we had a subject, we had a topic of conversation. I said, okay, guys, so heres her situation. Tavis its just like the view in your living room. Yeah, exactly. Tavis you got hot topics at evas house. With a lot of cupcakes. Tavis okay. laughter yeah. And cuban coffee. Tavis okay. Exactly. So i posed the question. I said, heres the situation. Obviously i go with the person who is the stable, and all the women were like, uhuh, uhuh, and i was like what . Theyre like, something primal happens that you want to make it work with the biological father as much as you can. You want to see them together. They were just like enlightening me. I was just like, what . So anyway, it was just a very interesting afternoon. Tavis no, see, i want to go there. So now im in your acting class or inside your head as an actor. Okay. Oh, dont go inside of here. Its a lot of like tavis ill make it quick. laughter get out quickly, yes. Tavis yeah, ill dip in and dip out real fast. For your protection only. Tavis okay. laughter so youre hearing two different trains of thought here, because your girls are telling you oh, no, no, something primal happens and you want to make it work with the baby daddy if you can. Yeah, and if it doesnt work, then yeah. Tavis yeah. So youre hearing two different things. So how are you before you go to schenectady, wheres your head about how youre going to play the character . Im a mess. Tavis yeah. laughter but you know what . Im a mess, so i called derek, i called my director, and i said, derek, gasping all this actory stuff, and hes like and im like, im just a mess. I dont know what to do. He goes, well, guess what . Neither does romina. Tavis yeah. I was like, ah, okay. Tavis romina, the character you play, of course. The character, yes. Tavis sure, sure. So i was like right, neither does romina. So i just kind of let it take over me, and i was a mess, yeah. Tavis i want to hear about your mom, first of all, because its fascinating oh, my moms the best. Tavis i want to hear about your mom. Has your mom seen this yet . No. Tavis she hasnt seen it yet. Okay, so we dont give the plot away, of course, but what do you think or what do you expect the single mom who you were raised by, what do you think, expect, hope that shes going to say to you when she sees this . Well, i dont think she honestly, and not because shes not supportive but i dont think shes going to watch this one, because i think its going to be too emotional for her. Even seeing some of the stills she was crying already from the film. She was crying, and i think at the end of the day im her baby girl. If i could be in hitch forever, if i could be working with will smith again tavis she wants you to stay right there, huh . laughter in a romantic comedy forever, thats how she wants her baby girl. Tavis thats funny, yeah. So she doesnt want to see me up there struggling. So i think it would be difficult for her. There is violence in the film, which is wonderful, because its dealt with so beautifully. Theres two shots fired in the film, two gunshots only, and we follow those consequences tavis all the way through. All the way through. Derek dealt with that beautifully, but even for her its a lot, and i dont know if shell see this one. Tavis yeah. Yeah. Tavis i got a feeling your mamas going to see it at some point. At some point. Tavis at some point. You may not know about it, but i think shes going to see it at some point. Thats true. Youre right. You are in my head. Get out of here. Tavis tell me about your mom. Im curious about your mom. Oh, shes incredible. Shes the best. She was pretty much a single mother by the time i came around, but my father was around, and my father is great. He was around, but she had to do a lot on her own, and im the baby by nine or 10 years, and i have two sisters and a brother. Shes just a survivor. They left cuba right after the revolution and they went to miami, and then the story gets a little iffy like when they actually came to los angeles. I was born in miami, and then i think i was about two years old when we came to los angeles, but sometimes i hear it was for a job opportunity, sometimes i hear you know that family history, when its like, what happened between the years of tavis yes, it gets a little dysfunctional, a little crazy. So im not really sure. Tavis yeah. I think everybodys family has some of that in it, yeah. Yeah, theres like a little blind spot there somewhere. But anyhow, im so thankful that she moved to los angeles, and she was always about creating opportunity, like most just an amazing mom. Tavis when did the creative, artistic acting thing happen for you, and what did your mom say about that . Im asking because i know that parents, particularly if they are shouldering the responsibility and love you the way your mom loves you, they want to push you into a career thats going to be a lot more stable. Yes. Tavis so when did the acting thing happen for you, and what was your mom saying about it . Well, the acting thing didnt happen for me until later in life. I was 23 and although that obviously is very young, i still had gone to school and i had a proper childhood, i had a proper teenage, those teenage years were as normal as they get, and an early adulthood. So i think by the time i told them i wanted to be an actress, they were so like, thank god, shes going to do something. Go get em. So i have to say my mother, my father, my siblings, were just wonderful. None of that are you sure, or its a lot of rejection. From day one they were just like, go get em. Yeah. Im so thankful, because without that support some people can thrive on negativity. I thrive on love and support. Yeah. Tavis yeah. The fact that it happened at 23, you avoided all of that. I did. I did. I think i saved myself a little bit there. Tavis so i want to close, or move toward the close see how fast that goes . A whole show crosstalk . I cant believe it, because its been so beautiful. Tavis were just Getting Started unintelligible . I want to close where we began, or where i began, and that is with the fact that of all the things that you have done, i dont know whats left to come in your corpus of work, but all the stuff youve done already, the critics are really loving you in this. Everything i read about this is just giving you such high praise and these wonderful accolades for the way you set this one off. Is there a hope that you have for how you or your talents will be viewed on the other side of this project, or is that asking too much . Does that question make sense . Yes, oh, it completely makes sense, and tavis when you finally get that gritty role, i think theres got to be an expectation that you have, or hope, at least, that you have for what happens on the other side of this role. I think ive been doing this long enough to know that expectation is just trouble. Its heartache and its trouble. Tavis yeah, thats fair. It really is. But of course i want people to be moved by something i do. Of course, absolutely. Of course i would like people to enjoy it and the whole thing. But i do think once i get into expectations, ive just trained myself. Ive just trained myself to just move on to the next. Ive finished another film since then, so you know what i mean . Tavis youve passed crosstalk . Ive been past it for a while, but yeah, this opened some more doors and thatd be fantastic, of course. Tavis yeah. Yeah. Tavis so my time is up. Wheres the dog . Thats crazy, hugo the dog. Tavis hugo, yeah. Thank you for letting me bring him. Hes in the green room. Tavis hes around, yeah. Yeah, hes back there. Tavis all right. I know you dont go too far without without him, yeah. Tavis okay. Good. laughter its a great film. You did a wonderful job. Thank you so much. Tavis you did a wonderful job. Thank you so much. Tavis the place beyond the pines is the project, starring eva mendes and ryan gosling and Bradley Cooper. Of course, you dont need me to tell you that youll want to see this, because when you see the trailers, i think youll want to see it. Glad to have you here. Thank you. Tavis your first time, hopefully not your last. Oh, no will you have me back . Tavis of course i will. laughter will you come back . Then not my last, yeah. Tavis all right. We have a deal, then. Ooh. Tavis ill give you that. You went to bump and i went to shake. Tavis no, ill give you that. Thats good. laughter thats much more gentlemanly anyway. laughter thats our show for tonight. See you next time on pbs. Until then, good night from l. A. , thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. [clip] announcer for more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Wade hunt theres a saying how are you going to take care of it . I cannot inc. Of another line of work. You can do any wing anything you want. You want to provide for that kid, you got to do that using your skill set. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley time. Org. Join me next we will see you then. Theres a saying that dr. King had, and he said, theres always a right time to do the right thing. I just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. We know that were only about halfway to completely eliminate hunger, and we have a lot of work to do. And walmart committed 2 billion to fighting hunger in the u. S. As we work together, we can stamp hunger out. Announcer and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Did Hillary Clintons visit to San Francisco this week set the stage for a president ial run . Also in San Francisco, attorney general eric holder called for cutting back harsh prison sentences. We need to ensure incarceration is used to punish, to deter and to rehabilitate but not merely to warehouse and to forget. 1 billion plan to expand californias largest reservoir shasta dam caused a flood of controversy. Plus the greening of a billionaire who wants to help steer the companys energy policy. Energy and climate are going to be the challenge for o