And by contributions to your pbs stion from viewers like you. Thank you. What might be starting at the top, will forte is making his dramatic acting a few in debut in nebraska, which was nominated for six academy awards. He was known for his emmy nominated role in 30 rock. Lets take a look at a clip from nebraska. How long did it take you to get here . I do not know. We got waylaid in rapid city. That is where dad had his little accident. Quick how long total . A couple of days i guess. From billings . Yeah. How far is that . Probably 750 miles. Drivetook you two days to 750 miles. What were you driving, a dump truck or something . [laughter] restaurantnd outback . I had done that in eight hours. At over 100 miles an hour. Bart was little then. Tavis this is a good example of starting at the top where dramatic roles are concerned. Does it feel that way for you . I cannot believe i got to be in this movie. I am proud of the stuff i have got it in gotten to be part of in my life. I had no business being in this movie. To have gotten the opportunity to do this i am so thankful. In hisfor a guy who is own words he should not have it, you killed it. How did you end up in the project . I put myself on tape, sent it in. My agent had told me about the script. Tavis you auditioned for this. Absolutely. I loved the script and i am a huge fan of Alexander Payne. I thought theres no chance i could get this part out what the heck. I was playing video games and stuff. I am a little ocd. It was hard to wrench myself away from the video games. I put myself on tape and sent it in and did not think anything about it. I thought there is very little chance of anything coming from it. 4. 5 months later i got a call from somebody saying that alexander had seen the tape and liked it enough to call me in person. I went in and read the scenes and his casting director did it once and found out i got the job a month later. It was amazing. Tavis what was it about the script that so compelled you . To classify his movies because they are dramatic , very dramatic and ways, very comedic at the same time. You cannot call it a comedy. You cannot call it a drama. It is a little bit of everything. Tavis a dramedy. Even calling it a drama edy seems weird. This brought up in comedy system, i went through the groundlings and went to snl. Is somedy he does different from stuff i do. It is grounded in based in reality. I have always had so much respect for it. That is something obviously i was interested in. And the dramatic arts also were very interesting. I never had gotten a chance to do Something Like that. I read in a conversation you had with someone not long ago where you said you had to how not to beet afraid to be vulnerable. What did you mean by that . Stuff. Like in comedy embarrassing, disgusting things. I can see you are troubled i that. My family is troubled i that. Im ok with it. For that reason some reason that stuff is not that hard. In nebraska, youre acting like a real person. A lot of times you are reading ever in a way you only say things like this and very personal moments so it feels very revealing. It is way harder to kind of be yourself and to be a real person and to be some than to be some crazy, naked character. Have in some ways you just been getting started. This is the first or medic role and you establish that in this conversation. The interesting thing for me is that you are in a film with two persons who my grandmother did not like the word old, she preferred chronologically gifted. There are two members were chronologically gifted who are getting the love that they deserve. Getting the respect they deserve. What do you make of being in a film with both of them . It was an amazing learning experience. They were so good to share all their wisdom with me and it was intimidating going and. I knew how much experience they had. I knew all these amazing people they had worked with. Thatt wanted to make sure having not done this kind of thing before, i wanted to make sure that i did not ruin their movie. They were so good to me and treated me with respect and patience. Became this comfortable experience and all the wisdom that they had, they passed on to me. Tavis i would assume that when you get a chance to work with veterans, there are some things that you take away from the project he on the joy of getting to work with them. Takeaway, do you have some takeaways in working with these veterans . You mean personally or professionally . Everything about it. It was eating little tidbits of advice. I spent hours and hours in a car with brewster and every day. Dern every day. He would teach me tons of things that helped me out. Just listening to him it was like the history of film classes in time and then on the relationship, the that we had pretty much mirrored the relationship that we had in the movie, that was mirroring the relationship we had off camera. That got to be pretty close. As much as i will remember eating to be in this movie and getting to watch him do this getting to be in this movie and getting to watch him do this performance. He is a very special person to me now. Just everything about this experience is something i will never forget. Tavis i will assume the director is cool with that. When you get the part you have to spend as much time as you can together to make that the coffin to gun camera. He totally encouraged it. We startedbefore filming, we went in for week of reversal time. We will run to the scenes and do this and that but all we did was drive around nebraska and look at the geography of it and Alexander Payne took us two different places where we would be shooting. That was it. We got to know each other as people so we would be comfortable working with each other. The first time that we worked on anything was the day we started shooting. We read through the script once just sitting around the table and that was it. Learn it is one thing to how not to be afraid to be vulnerable. Was there one point were you were intimidated by these stars you were working alongside . All the time. All the time. Always find something to worry about. They made me feel very comfortable from the getgo but there would be Little Things here and there that i would worry about. With states he stacy keach, i had to punch him. He was on the program and he talked about that. The terrifying thing is thinking i would actually connect with him. I am a peaceful person. I played football and that was the extent of my physical experience. I have never punched anybody. I guess i punched my sister in the arm as a youngster. Never as a grown man punched my sister. There is the stuntman who is teaching us how to make it look like i am throwing a punch. Ify block it in such a way the camera is behind you they show you where to through it so it looks like it is connecting. They block it out from four feet away and when it came time to do it for the cameras, we were about two feet away. I was scared my arm would connect and i would with his face. Looking back it would have done way more damage to my hand. He is a man. Tavis he is a big guy. What has the experience done for you in terms of your future as a thespian . The chops are there. Debatable. Tavis has the dramatic bug officially bitten you now . What an experience to get to have. I would obviously like to do more stuff like this, to be part of a project like this. I just never dreamt i would have gotten to. Pike,ething came down the i would jump at it. I also realize not a lot of people get an opportunity to be in one movie like this so i am so appreciative and if i do not get an opportunity like this again, i am totally satisfied with having this be the one opportunity i got. Tavis i am sure it will happen again. It is nice at this point in your career to know that you are in something that ob viewed as a classic years from now. That will be viewed as a classic year from now. I am proud to be in it. Tavis you should be. Ll forte is in nebraska on the see will forte set. Run out and see nebraska, i am sure you will enjoy. Coming up, a performance from earl klugh. Stay with us. Started recording at the age of 15. Since then, his guitar artistry has resulted in 13 grammy nominations including this year for his cd handpicked. His skillmonstrate alfie. Classic song 15, did you have any other choice . Was there anything else you wanted to do . Actually, no. I started on pn oh. My mom wanted me and my brother some form of music. It stuck with me. It is the story. Tavis why was it so important that music be integral into the lives of you and your brother . My dad died was 15. En i he had cancer. Lung cancer. And so i decided, my mom was a registered nurse, i just figured, i got to find something to do to help this thing along. So i started playing in the clubs in detroit. That was a very musical time. I grew up with a reporter, junior and all of the detroit kids. And all ofer, jr. The detroit kids. Lucky all of us got enough to have careers in music. We stuck together through all the years and everything. It was a special time. We really treated it like a profession. We were good kids. Tavis the instrument that you play but more importantly, the sound that you get out of it, one would not immediately match to motown. Or torespect to you motown. It is just that the two sounds, there is Stevie Wonder and motown. Earl klugh is a great artist but you do not think motown even though you are both coming out of detroit. How did you perfect the kind of song stylings of earl klugh . That is an interesting question. When i was 15, 16, i was thinking, i have got to create my own voice on my instrument. At the time, there was a lot of, and montgomery was popular, guitar. Ated to the a couple of the guys, ray, and a couple of my other friends said you got to plugin somewhere. No, i think i am going to keep going. This is going to be just right over sometime. Tavis they meant electric. Yeah. George benson played at the lounge in detroit. He would come in and play like four nights and he would go to another city. This was the early george benson. All your instruments in the back and youre going from city to city. Mentorrge was a great and taught me a lot of things and really was a true mentor to meet because there were things that were happening in my life, what do you think . Daddy i didthe not have at that time. I am forever grateful for that. He had kids too. It worked out really great. Is a great guy. That was great that he spent so much time nurturing you. You did not have a father at the time. Right. Tavis and artistically as well. Tell me about this new project, handpicked. I it is almost all solo, but have some interesting friends with me on the album, and it kind of goes out of genre. Vince gill is on one. And i do not know if you know he is the japanese ukulele player. He did this thing in central park and he had over 10 million hits. Interesting. I just call whoever is available and i was trying to get a lock on it and i was just so happy because we were able to get everybody that we needed. Tavis you mentioned you got some good collaborations but a good part of this is so low. What is the joy for you, not to demonize your friends who hang out with you, what is at this age, youre not 13, what is the joy for you in doing the solo thing . It is liberating to me. Making the music and plotting out my improvisations. It aches me all the way back to my beginning, whenever takes me all the way back to my beginning whenever i do the solo. I have done a couple of albums that were solo. I figured i would step out and do something a little bit different and put a couple people on it so it worked out very well. Tavis what do you make all these years later, starting out as that 15yearold kid in detroit, what do you make of how good this instrument has been to you over the years . Wax it has been like a friend. Truly. I am always with my instrument. When i go on vacation, whenever. It has carried me through. Tavis you still practice . Yeah. Tavis after all these years. I play three or four hours a day anyway. Tavis wow. I likeg with that, what to do a lot of times with my instrument was a fear yeah no player. Player. Piano maybe there is only six strings here but maybe i can emulate the sound of a ppiano. I could play clusters and everything. I said i can probably play this way,e guitar, too, in some and that is how my just ale jazz style came along. Tavis is it easier to write on the guitar or the piano . They are equal. , i cani am earl klugh do it either way. I love the artistic genius of earl klugh and the sound he gets out of this acoustic is music to my ear. Anything he does i want to add it to my collection. Handpicked is a good one. Earl klugh will perform alfie, the bird that correct classic Burt Bacharach classic. And thank good night you for watching and as always, keep the faith. Do not go anywhere because earl klugh will play for you in just a second. [applause] for more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with awardwinning documentarian Robert Greenwald and singer dianne reeves. That is next time. We will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Pbs. Be more. Pbs. Be more. Pbs. Cer matt elmore welcome to imagemakers a weekly showcase featuring the best short films from around the world. Stay tuned and enjoy the filmmakers of tomorrow today on imagemakers. Imagemakers is made possible in part by a grant from celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image. And by the dramatic music music gets louder