Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20141227

Carried seemed to bother them and they charlie and you carried. Just worked. Yes. Charlie Julianne Moore and charlie i assumed meryl robert battle, when we continue. Streep. Who else . Oh, gosh. Well, i mean, meryl, meryl was on the cover of Time Magazine when i was a teenager. I held it up because i had a subscription. I showed my father. I said, you see this . I said, i want to be like her. Shes an actress and on the cover of Time Magazine. Charlie yeah. So, my gosh, meryl, i think and by bloomberg, a provider vanessa redgrave. Of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Charlie whats great about her and meryl, too, shes still doing it thats what i mean theres an example of someone captioning sponsored by Rose Communications like that whos worked from the time they were young and continues to work in tons of different venues. Oh, my gosh, its a great thing, from our studios in new york you know. City, this is charlie rose. Charlie do you consider yourself a late bloomer at all, either in terms of not so much charlie Julianne Moore has always disappeared into her roles but perhaps neverore so the skills but being appreciated than in her new film called still alice. She plays a linguistics professor confronted with early for the range because most people will say as one director onset alzhemers disease. Said about you, you know, she the magazine writes moore guides brings intelligence, gravidas, us through the tragic arc of how it must feel to disappear and an inner self. Through ones own eyes, thats the kind of thing they patriciaing one of her most powerful performance also. Say about meryl streep, too. The trail for still alice. Thats nice, thank you. Welcome, dr. Alice howland charlie but you also seem applause thank you. I hope to convince you that by to have a wider range, a bigger observing these baby steps into canvas now. I think my career has always the. Into been incremental. Where the hell were you . I was talking to somebody the other day about when i did my i hope you enjoyed that because you completely blew our dinner first movie, which was 29. Plans. Charlie a soap opera. I need to talk to you. A soap opera. I did a lot of off off broadway, i have something wrong with me. A lot of televisions, movies of the week, pilots. Whats going on . I dont care how cheap a oh, boy. Psychology, i still hate these you going to break up or stupid cr flowers. No. I have alzhemers disease. Early onset. What . I can see the words hanging in front of me, and i cant reach them and i dont know who it was a big surge. I am and i dont know what im charlie in some ways going to lose next. Thats great. Its like a mouse chewing through a wall one tiny bite at scope. A time but eventually youve millennium. Hedge hog. Eaten the whole wall. Charlie it not only buis experience, it builds talent id like to see you go to because you continue to learn and continue to be exposed to college. You cant use your situation new ideas, new people. To just get me to do anything yep. Charlie all of that you wasnt me to. Becomes a part of who you are. And theres nowhere to go. Why cant ei . Its not fair. Dont have to be fair. I mean, i always say that its im your mother. I hate this is happening to me. Interesting about life and death but we have to keep the important things in our life and were always in such a going. Merry christmas. We have to try or were going hurry, like, lets get to this part and that part. To go crazy. But if your hurry through it im going to get the last all charlie you dont appreciate it. And you dont want to get to the very end. Year out of myself. I think everything you have to please dont say that. I am not suffering. Do has to be something youre i am struggling. Enjoying doing at the time. Charlie thats been true struggling to be a part of for you. It has been. Things, stay connected to who i just try to be in the place once was. Youre in. Charlie any direct regrets about it all . To live in the moment, i tell i sometimes regret that i didnt go to graduate school for myself, is really all i can do. Acting. Reporter like yale. Live in the moment. Like yale. I didnt go to juilliard or something. Because i think, like, wow, that i spoke with Julianne Moore could have been i had a earlier this year in new york. Terrific undergrad education, and i thought that might be here is that conversation. Theres a lot of buzz about interesting to have a graduate this film. You went to toronto with the education and have that more film and all of a sudden there breadth of knowledge. Charlie but you look at was no distributor and now this as something you will do for the rest of your life. Theres a distributor because yeah. There was a sense of that this charlie theres no end point. Its a sense that its fulfilling for you. Was a really special role. Right. Charlie and you continue to do it. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Charlie hunger games charlie and that it was the right actress at the right markinmockingjay and still alic. Time for the right character. Well, we felt so fortunate. I mean, when you go to a Film Festival without a distributor, i just cant take it anymore, you never know whats going to happen. We had a 4 30 screening on a jacob, im so tired and its so pathetic. Charlie the director monday which was not particularly auspicious. Hes a lovely person, very so you go hoping people will see family oriented, highly the movie and respond to it. When we all walked out afterwards and heard the response from the audience, we intelligent amazingly prepared were so delighted. Charlie we have a chance. And incredibly precise about yeah, we felt like we had a everything he does but so soft chance. Charlie tell me about the film and your character. Spoken and really easy days and sometimes one or two takes. Well, the characters name is charlie what i think would alice howland, and she is a be great about being a director is if youve read a script you 50yearold professor of linguistics at Columbia Love is to see what an actor university and shes been adds to your own sense of married since she was quite young in her early 20s and has character because they had to whatever the says with their own interpretation. Three adult children. She started having children very my husband said something really interesting to me the young as well. She starts noticing little slips other day. He says when an actor surprises in her memory and doesnt you and youve written something mention it to her husband or and they start doing it, he said, you get so excited and you anyone. Gradually begins to realize feel like theyre holding something serious is going on. She goes to a neurologist and is dynamite. Which i thought was a really wonderful way to put it. Charlie i heard mike diagnosed with ear early onset t nichols say what do you want from an actor and he answered 50. Charlie that means what . The question by saying i want them to surprise me the same way when youre diagnosed with i want my architect to surprise me. Thats great. I think its about creativity, alzheimers under age 65, its considered early onset whats and you want to have the shock of creativity. Another word for it, too ill i have it when i work with another actor. Say early onset alzheimers. Its generally a different, more theyll start doing a scene and potent form of the disease, maybe you dont know them and you walk in and they do sometimes faster acting, so she something and you get all excited and youre, like, oh my is completely compromised at gosh thatponent in her life. You know, watching what they do. She ends up having to quit her charlie nominated for an oscar four times. Teaching position, spends time do you feel good about this with her husband, dealing with film . Yeah, i feel great. Her children and she is in i feel really grad fide that cognitive decline pretty people are so moved by it. Rapidly. Charlie so you have there the arc of a character. Yeah. And about, you know, who she, is thats whats been wonderful because thats what we wanted. What her essential self is, you you know, its very human. Know, who are we when we lose we wanted people to feel its how we define ourselves. This is someone whos primarily humanity. We wanted people to connect and understand and have seans of been defined by her intellect what this disease was like. And shes questioning about who charlie let me do a round she is when thats no longer her robin. Say what comes out of your mind. Strong point. Self image. Charlie and what do i do when i can no longer do what i good. laughter used to do. Yes, how does she present charlie obsessions. Herself, fight the decline and preserve her relationships. Furniture. Charlie what are the when i was a little girl, earliest moments you remember . Second grade, my teacher told me the first thing i remember is my mother told me i wasnt butterflies dont live a very long time, they live, like, a supposed to take off my shoes month or something. I was so upset and i went home and go down this hill, we were living in panama, and i took off and told my mother. My shoes and ran down the hill she says, yeah, but, you know, they have a nice life. And got a big sticker, like a they have a really beautiful big, you know, thorn in it or life. Charlie and how did you something and i came running prepare . Back up and asked to take it out it was pretty expensive. Of my foot. Charlie achievement. Whats been the biggest i was so struck by the achievement for you . Generosity of everyone i spoke i assume family. To. I spoke with the national yeah, beyond family, i think my career. Alzheimers association and they my family has been i cant put me in touch with three women believe im so lucky that i have i skyped with across the nation this Wonderful Group of people around me. My husband and my two beautiful and i talked with them about children. Their experience. One is a woman who was diagnosed so, yeah, i think my i thank my stars for that every day. At 45. Charlie but career because she looks like me. She ran an o. R. Its something you made and created yourself . Yeah. I have gone from being a kid who she started noticing when having liked to read, who tried out for difficulty learning a computer the school play and got parts program. Charlie diagnosed at 45 . Felt lucky to get parts in a 45. I spoke to them and went to school mount sinai and talked to researchers and clinicians. I took the memory test they give to people when they come in wondering whats going on. My results were normal, thankfully. Then i went to the new york Alzheimers Association and talked to people in support groups there, some women who were unbelievably helpful. When i asked them what they wanted to see depicted, what wouldnt i know charlie what did they say . They talked about the isolation, how difficult it was to find people who understood what was happening, the feeling of people not knowing who they were because people who didnt know them when they were socalled normal functioning didnt feel like they understood how to communicate. There was one woman who said she had always been so defined by her ability with language and her intellect, once it was gone, it was difficult for her to speak to people when they didnt treat her as someone who had motherdaughter bond, what were trying to communicate and how we miscommunicate early in the possessed that intellect. Film, even though both are so so what i came away with was how well intentioned and youre watching them just miss each other. So its not about them having a combative relationship. Hard people worked to its just about them somehow not seeing things the same way. But its not for a lack of love communicate and to kind of and thats what you see, you watch these two people who are maintain where they were. Kind of like this, manage to its not that sense of fading away. Come, you know, meet attend of people dont fade away. The movie. They continue to kind of move charlie if you werent doing what you do, what would forward, i think. Charlie and then there are you do . Can you imagine what profession terrible moments when someone might serve the same kind of living with alzheimers cant creative well, thats the thing, being an actor. Even recognize a child. Theres so much we get to yes. Charlie friends of mine experience. Sometimes i think, well, what if said it was the worst moment of their life. I were a librarian, you know, its really awful. Would that be enough . I dont think theres anything it might be because of all the people fear more than the lack of recognition. Stories. We have access to all these the interesting thing to me is stories. Its not just about memory loss. Sometimes i think, you know, i love furniture, i love interior there is a different kind of design, would have i liked that . Neurological reaction. I always thought i would have people have spatial issues. They may not understand which liked to be a doctor, the way a doorknob turns. Mystery of medicine, trying to a sense of dislocation. Figure something out. There are many symptoms we and then people, you talk to so really dont know a lot about. Many people. Charlie and you go to charlie requires a sense interesting places. Of empathy, doesnt it . Yeah. Yeah. Charlie you dont like to charlie someone once said cook, though. You have empathy. No, bart does the cooking. I think it was your husband. Did he . Hes cooking right now and im charlie yes. He said, shes got empty. Going to go home and eat. Charlie is he, really . I think thats whats great about acting is that you have yeah. But i clean. I do the cleaning. Charlie you do the it forces you all the time to put yourself in someone elses laundry. The organizing. Reporter the family schedules and all that . Shoes and say, you know, what is yes, the doctors appointments and this and that most universal . What do i understand that i know and the other thing, yeah. Charlie so if a young this other person understands . Actress comes up to you and says so how do i enter into that life suppose you were giving a last and try to understand it . Lecture, what would you you want i went to a longterm care to say about acting, this facility and i was sitting profession thats been so outside a singing circle and the interesting . Window was open next to me and well, i mean charlie proceed with the woman in front of me turned caution . Yeah. Charlie youve got to love it to do it. Around, was a patient there, and she said, you better get out of actually, i always say to the draft. People, if you dont like the i said, no, im okay. Process of sitting down and because she moved out of the doing the scenes and being on draft. I ran into her daughter and told the set or being on stage or whatever, if you dont like the her and she said, thats my mom, doing, dont do it, because shes always worrying about theres nothing snells thats other people. Exactly right. Somebody once said dont tell me what was interesting was seeing that you want to be a writer. How much that woman was like tell me you want to write. Herself, she was worried about people getting out of the draft. Exactly charlie you want to be charlie its a bit of action, too. Yes. Somebody. You want to do something. Charlie you watch the film and understand what its like i know you can get so wrapped living with alzheimers and at up in making stuff that you the same time one of the dont even know its not even executive producers maria like you like the people shriver yes, she has quite a bit of watching, though we want people to watch, you just like the experience with alzheimers in actual doing. I used to to have being in her family and i think has made it a mission to educate people acting class. About it and raise awareness and i loved rehearsal and that. I loved going to the film set in hopefully money to fight the the morning and seeing everybody disease. And saying hello and having charlie also playing your husband alec baldwin. Charlie im told that was everybody kind of come together your idea. And bring their own expertise to it was my idea. Something and figuring out and charlie casting director. Shooting the scene. We had worked together on 30 i like all of it. I like that. Rock and i adored working with afterwards, i sometimes dont even want to see it, because i him. I would get offered comedies and just like doing it. Charlie how many times do i would email him and say, would you watch your best performances . Twice at most. Charlie is that right . You do these with me . Yeah. He would read the script and charlie so if you know its going to be on television or netflix, youre not going to say, i just want to see it one more time . Politely decloin. No, and sometimes my family will see it and go, look, look and im, like, turn it off then he would read them and say, do you have a part with me . And i would let him read it and although every once in a while ill see something, because im say its small part and he said, much older than when i started, i went to see a document riabout ill do it. I felt so fortunate to have him Andre Gregory and they had clips there. He has such a huge passion for life. So much vitality, so much from 42nd street and there was a scene with me and wally shaw masculinity to see somebody like that in that kind of a in a and i was, like, who was that . Real marriage and in a that was a long time ago. Relationship of where people have depended on each other to so just seeing how physically see a man try to hold on to that changed i was, that was interesting. Reporter thank you for and deal with that loss, i think doing this. Thank you for having me. Its beautiful what he does. Fun to talk to you. Thank you. Really beautiful. Charlie the interesting thing about you as well is that people say you have chosen roles Charlie Robert battle is well. Here, the artistic director of oh, thanks. Charlie here you are getting to star in costar, alvin ailey dance theater. The late alvin ailey founded the whatever the word is, in the new company in 1958. He was posthumously awarded the hungry games. Two of them coming out. President ial medal of freedom last month. Alvin ailey was born during mockingjay. Part one and two. The depression in a small town charlie which is a huge in texas and by the time he was film. But you have chosen films like 27 he had founded a Dance Company of his own in new york this throughout your career, almost as if you said, this is a city. It became a place where artists role i want to play. Of all races had a home, all yeah. Charlie you know, this is something that i can really add that mattered was talent. Value to. The dances he choreographed were i never know what i want to a blend of ballet, modern jazz play until i see it on the page, and used blues as well and though. Thats whats interesting. Sometimes people will say, in africanamerican history was your ideal world, what do you told in a way it never had been want to play . Im, like, if i havent read it, before. The passionate performances that i dont know. Transfixed audiencens worldwide. But when i read something, i charlie performances in more than 70 countries. Want to do that next. U. S. Congress declared him charlie what was it here . Cultural ambassador to the world that was when i saw disease from the inside from the and will present 39 performances in its new season beginning perspective of theperson whos offering. So often we see it from the december 23rd. Point of view of the care take. Charlie its impact on the care taker. Yes and this was about what it means to experience this loss, how do you represent who that person is throughout all the stages of the disease. Charlie have you chosen well 90 of the time . Yeah, 90 is right. Theres maybe 10 or 15 where maybe i didnt choose well. Charlie because what happens if it doesnt work . If it doesnt work, for example, if im on the set and its not working, i might be miserable and grumpy because there wasnt an experience i wanted to have. Charlie if you were grumpy on set we know whats happening. Yes and sometimes im disappointed because its not become what i wanted it to. Charlie do you blame yourself or the director . I blame myself. I feel like im responsible for all my choices, my work, every situation, i think that ultimately im the only one who can control whether i do something or not. Its not the directors fault. Charlie someone said to me most of the time someone said to me that you are a literalist, that you really like the script. Yeah. Charlie you know, people who look for the Supreme Court and look for the original interpretation of the founders. Yeah. Charlie but you are a literalist in the sense that you like the script as written. Yes, i do. Charlie because you unless it can be better. Charlie yeah. There might be times ive worked with magnificent, really great writers, and then youre, like, oh, no, no, im not technical difficulty touching this. There might be times where you charlie something tha work with something where the script is not fully formed, and then you say lets figure out there is something in the restrictions. The language. I always say people, if theyre but im someone whos language shy, they end up being a great specific. I feel every word you use means public speaker. I think movement started with me something, theres power to that as something urgent and and shape and meaning. Necessary. But i have to say, though, it but i want to give the language was through singing soprano when that authority. Its really important to me, i i was little, and my mother think the words that People Choose to express themselves. Charlie have you been aggressive about your career or simply let it come to you . Played piano for church. Thats where i learned to speak i dont know that i well, in front of people. Which had to do poems on easter theres not a lot that we can do charlie i like this in terms of control. I always say the only control an my first poem actually was a actor has is to say yes or no lie. I was about this tiny, really tiny, and i had to stand up in because you cant make someone offer you something. My white suit and say my name is charlie its such a collaborative meeting. Robert battle and i stand 6 feet yes, they offer it or they tall and i just came to say dont. However, it is okay, i think, to happy easter day. Say you want to play something. laughter so there was something in that ive done several times in that my career. Charlie and you were about charlie tell me the story. Four feet or something. Its because of your children you ended up in hunger games. Yeah, right. I was lying then. And then i studied martial arts my son whos 16 now, he will because i grew up in a somewhat be 17 in december, had, you tough neighborhood, liberty city know, read hunger games. In miami, florida. Charlie hell appreciate and, so, i needed to learn how you saying that. I know, right . To defend myself. So i started taking martial arts so he read the hunger games which gave me a certain physical books when they first came out and i bought him the third one, confidence. And then i found dance through mockingjay. Imitating michael jackson. I said, heres the third book in my mother would watch old fred the series you like. A couple of years later my astaire and Ginger Rogers movies and i would imitate that. Daughter who started reading the hunger games, we were on i always wanted to please my vacation, i had nothing to read, mother so part of the dancing they were playing pingpong, and i looked around and picked up my came out of that and eventually found its way to my heart after i saw the alvin ailey american daughters book and tore through it. I downloaded the others on my dance theater. Charlie what happened when you say that . Ipad. I saw them when we were all i thought these are great. Bussed there. Charlie before juilliard . Theyre phenomenal political al before. Im still in miami going to high school, and we were bussed there allegory. The same way as now, we do outreach where if were in a i called my manager and told him different city and young people are bussed from there, their to cast me. Schools to see a mini charlie you were nominated performance in the morning. For Academy Award four times, and i sat in this darkened theater and my whole world was many expect five at the end of this. Luminated when i saw oh, thanks. Charlie would you test for it if they asked you . Revolutions. Alvin aileys masterpiece created. Charlie well see some of sure. That later. Charlie did they . Yeah, and i saw that and i they didnt. They gave me the part which is just knew that i had to follow nice. This. Charlie they said yes. I didnt know id follow it all the way to new york and now to the helm of the company, but so yeah. Be it. Francis is so great, generous charlie you said you knew and so prepared and articulate. You had to follow it. We had a meeting and i said, did you instantly try to set this is how i see her and how yourself on that course . Partly by instinct, i think. Id like to see her develop i was already taking dance because shes on the page, shes classes but it made me take it a a littl little bit of a cipher i little more seriously when i saw said i want to see a real people on the stage who looked like me, a dance that had to do political evolution with the with my upbringing in the church character. And realized in movement, a he agreed with me and i got the dance that had to do with the job. My kids were so happy. History i was learning about my people. My mother had a group called the she wont be able to handle afro americans where they did it. The games destroyed her. We need to unite these poetry and song relating to the black experience so when i saw people. Shes not facing this revelations, i felt like my life rebellion. Theyll follow her. Charlie your character and up till now was realized in that dance. So i think something about that drove me, and, so, juilliard tims are flu shot the main came to do auditions and i characters. No, theyre ancillary. Charlie to the young auditioned. I got a full scholarship and stars. Young, wonderful actors. Went on to juilliard, and theres Something Interesting about that, too. Juilliard, which is on 65th, i when i read the bach, i felt this is political allegory with believe, the Ailey Company at adolescent overtones. That time was rehearsing on 61st street in amsterdam. So in the summer i would go and it comes down to idea of whether or not you have free will. Study at the ailey school in the summer program. So i was getting closer and do we, in the world, have closer to this vision that i had free will. Charlie which is what and then it just continued to teenagers are about. Its the first time theyre grow that way. Going to be, like, im going to i ended up dancing with a make my own choices. Charlie whats going to Smaller Company after that, happen to me. Am i in control and am i a and called the parsons dance moral person. Company. I started to choreograph for the charlie these are all the questions. Second company, ailey two. These are all the questions in mockingjay. Charlie yeah. So i think as an actor, a Judith Jamison saw my work and person, a parent, its interesting to be in that kind asked me to do something for the of situation and to be ancillary First Company and brought me back again and again and and to know that youre eventually asked me to take the representing the adult world in company after she a sense. Charlie was what year when and that that was really fun, you first came in contact with them when you were at juilliard . Compelling. Charlie you actually this was 1990, 90, 91. Performed with phillip see moree charlie so ailey had been dead about a year. Yes. I just missed him, literally. Hoffman. Yes, in magnolia. Charlie but because of charlie its hard to take Judith Jamison and so much and the loss of someone with so much ththe president ial medal of freedom which you received talent. You cant necessarily understand their pain. No. Charlie but you can posthumously you get to know understand the loss of such an about the work and the man. Enormous talent. What was it about him lease i think we were all devastated. Emerged a sensational definer . I think everybody was completely i think he personified this devastated by his passing. He was to tremendously talented notion of what we think of as and so empathetic and so really the good of humanity. Special and clearly i mean, you know, he was a humanitarian. In retrospect, clearly in pain he was completely open, open to which is heartbreaking. Different languages, different i felt we all wished there was sounds, different music, poetry, something that could have been done. Charlie or you could have and open to the poetry in each individual. Reached out and made a he was all about giving, an difference. Yeah. Charlie when you look at your life, why did you become an actress . Because i like to read. Opportunity to express because i love to read. Themselves and there was charlie the curiosity something valid and freeing in that. Coming from books led you to he made ate Repertory Company film or acting . You know, i think i was i when he first started. Love roading because i like these days its not just the stories about people. I like the feeling of being choreography and one person, but inside the book. He had that as a vision early on i like the transformative thing i think because he was all about that literature does. Opportunity. When i started acting i felt, this company, when we think about arts and education, before when its working, when its the it became somewhat of a buzzward best it can be, you feel like to raise funds, it was a mission youre inside the book. Youre, like, im in the story, for alvin ailey that everybody in this little bubble, and had a seat at the table. He wanted this to connect with youre telling stories of who we are as human beings, what we can all peoples that it wasnt a accomplish, ho how we can help h highbrow art form. He believed in that and i other and damage each other. Believe that spirit judith behavior is fascinating. Jamison carried. Charlie and you carry. Charlie ill tell you a story about me. Yes. Charlie there have been okay. Only three. Charlie its something about you that makes you think you may have gone through the alvin, judith and you. Same thing. Amazing. Yeah. Charlie my parents had a charlie this is judith Country Store and i had to work jamison talking about alvin ailey and revolutions. This is back in 2008 at this there. But it was a world of adults. Very table. So you had to understand their world, tuck to them about their world and the most important here it is. Thing you could do is ask smart it was to celebrate the questions because you didnt africanamerican culture. Experienced in the modern day of have experience they cared a lot this country. That rolls off my tongue very about. But they cared about politics easily but thats exactly what and sports and goes pip and whats going on in the community. It is. Like you tell me whats he was specific about what we important. Charlie yes. Were supposed to be about that it seems to me, someone, your it became universal and we see a dad was in the military, a judge . Work like revelations which i uhhuh. My mother was a psychiatric know youve seen, one of our social worker. Charlie they moved around 20something times. Classic works, butio i so it and so you have to adjust to different circumstances . Realize revelations is about all different people, different of us, not just the cultures, different whatever. Africanamerican experience, but so, yeah, i think youre always all of us. Thinking, like, who are you . Its about childhood relations, you know, what do you like . Life, death, hope, spirit, joy, you learn that that behavior is not character. Charlie and you become all of that, and alvin ailey observational, too. You observe with a keen eye. Encompassed the fact that dance yeah. But i like to know, like you should be something more than just the performance, but that were talking to people in the it should be inclusive. Store, i was, like, whats going so we include you. On with you . Where are you from . Whats that accent . Are you married . Charlie you never become but we should be responsible to the people whom we serve. Unpopular by asking people to the communities we serve questions about themselves. Around the world. Charlie tell us about thats true, right . Charlie i learned that revelations, and why it is such early on. Thats great. A huge piece of work. Charlie even true about teenagers. People, when youre moving from i think so much i think that place to place. Yeah. Charlie once you decided, is in great art is this notion of trying to express a personal was it instant love, once you experience that through this had a chance to go on stage and masterpiece turned out to be a hear your voice and react to universal expression that had to another character and say words do with hope. And hear applause . I think it was very significant right. It was i read, pretty that he used spirituals, you know, that was called negro spirituals. Of course, we dont always say that, but thats the truth. But those songs were more than just songs. I think they were political. They were, of course, social. They spoke of triumph over despair. But also i think there was something important in that because you think about the Civil Rights Movement or before the Civil Rights Movement, to identify with these songs, some of the people who committed some of the atrocities of oppression would call themselves christian. So i think there was something about these spirituals and seeing these people who were africanamerican identify with their own christianity or spirituality that had to do with recognizing that im human, too. Charlie its interesting that the president ial medal of freedom was awarded to alvin ailey and, at the same time, to the three civil rights workers who had been killed so brutally in mississippi, posthumously as well. Yes. And how significant was that for me that moment. I think about revelations. I think i had my own revelation standing there, receiving this award on mr. Aileys behalf. Of course, looking at president obama, who is africanamerican, the first black president. I thought of the man who raised me, my great uncle willie horn, born 1904, died my second year of juilliard, i think of segregation, some of the things he experienced i looked out and looked at Judith Jamison who meant so much to little black girls who wanted to dance, there was something so significant about that moment it was overwhelming. Charlie lik take a look at this. This is revelations. You dont need the say anything. You feel it all. Here it is. Charlie you have said that seeing revelations is as important as knowing who Martin Luther king was. Mmhmm. Charlie these are two essential things. Yes. Charlie to understand america. Absolutely. I think about Martin Luther king, i think about his i have a dream speech. I think about what he was really doing in that speech was holding, as mr. Ailey said, and what he tried to do with his own work is hold up a mirror to our society so people could see how beautiful they are. I think theres something in revelations that does that. When i specially became artistic director, we were on tour in russia, and i had never been to russia and certainly not with the American Dance theater. And there we are in one of these wonderful old theaters, and you feel so far away from home, and then the curtain goes up on revelations, and by the time we hit rock my soul in the bosom of abraham, you see russian people in the aisles dancing and fraying to and froe and on beat, too, i might add, theres something about that that lets us know were more alike than unalike. Charlie you said about revelations its really about everything that the human being endures. Yes, yes, absolutely. You know, it starts with i have been rebuked and scorned. Who wasnt felt that in some way . We have something called in our arts and education program, we have something called the revelations curriculum where we use revelations as a way to look at, you know, english and social studies and humanities. So sometimes we have using i have been buked, i have been scorned, we use somebody whos never studied dance and they use their own words, i have been dissed. So no matter what your religion, your color or street across the ocean, people connect to that humanity. Charlie this is odetteta. This little light of mine im going to let it shine charlie you took over three years ago. Yes. Charlie is it Mission Different or does it simply build on the tradition thats been created . It builds on the tradition, the tradition of always discovering new voices. Celebrating our history, celebrating the history of modern dance, and then giving opportunity to these marvelous dancers to do their stuff, if you will. So mr. Ailey sort of laid it out in the beginning and it still works. You know, so and that way, for Judith Jamison and myself, she always says were standing on shoulders and it feels that way. Charlie how is she . She is great. She is divine. Charlie all that. Absolutely. We do revelations live, having it sung live for a few of the performances. So she was just at city center rehearsing with the musicians and singers. Charlie youve said, im interested in your conversations around how we view these dancers and their abilities. Yes. Charlie you know, looking at people who come to the theater. Yes, absolutely. And i think i try that with certain choices that i make for the repertory. For instance, this season, it starts tomorrow. Charlie yes. This season bringing in european choreographer schecter, his work will be new to the company, and it will sort of shed a different light on what these dancers are capable of. I love things that are outside of the box, unexpected. You dont have the last name battle and not have something unexpected every now and then. Charlie yeah. Thats been fun for me because these dancers can do almost anything. I watch them in the studio, when the audience doesnt get to see the amount of rigor it takes to do what they do to produce that amount of grace, so im driven by these magnificent dancers. Charlie this is something you choreographed yourself. Mmhmm. Charlie where did that come from in your head . Imcame from a lack of space, not in my head, but i made it in a living room in queens many, many years ago and so thats why most of the dance doesnt travel and now it traveled all over the world because of the alvin ailey American Dance theater. Gosh, somebody handed me this music, a cassette tape of this music by sheila shandra and i just thought it was so incredible. Of course, ive always admired indian dance. Its so complex and communicative, and, so, thats what it reminded me of. Listening to this also reminded me of ella fitzgerald. I love jazz and ella and scatting. Its a different version of scatting syllables. I can hear words in these syllables that seemed to not say anything. I could hear it, you know, so i was trying to interpret that. But in this dance, i see all of those things i talked about. I see the martial arts. I see the influence of michael jackson. You know, i see the influence of singing. Sometimes the mouth is moving or the eyes. So that was the inspiration for that dance. Charlie much success to you. Thank you very much. Charlie weve had on this program a Long Association with alvin ailey and the Theater Company in terms of shows weve done and judith being here. Its a great pleasure. Im sorry alvin ailey didnt live to see the idea that the president of the united states, an africanamerican, would put around his neck the highest honor that this country can give. Yes. Charlie so thank you. Thank you. Charlie thank you for joining us. See you next time. For more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. 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