Make a movie about childhood but even thenr best ones take 400 blows, pick any of your favorite coming of age movies that have this inherpt lie that you come of age in one moment whereas, when you think about your childhood, its a series of moments that come to feel like one, but it doesnt happen in one moment. He was talking about tolstoys childhood boy hood and youth which is a wonderful book and said what if we could do that on film. Charlie common and ethan hawke when we continue. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Charlie common is here. He is a grammy awardwinning hiphop artist an actor, plays civil rights leader james bevel in selma, his song glory is nominated for an academy award. One day when the glory comes it will be ours itni will be ours oh, one day, one when the war is won we will be sure we will be here sure oh glory, glory oh, glory, glory hands to the heavens no man, no weapon formed against, yes glory is destined everyday women and men become legends sins that go against cor skin become blessings the movement is a rhythm to us freedom is like religion toni us justice is juxtaposition in us justice for all aint just specific enough one son died, his spirit is revisiting us truant living living in us, resistance is us thats why rosa sat on the bus co thats why we walk through ferguson with our hands up when it go down we woman and man up they say stay down and we stand up shots, we on the ground the camera panned up king pointed to the mountain top and we ran up one day when the glory comes it will be ours it will be ours oh, glory charlie common released his tenth album last coupler called nobody is smiling nominated for two grammys and best album. Glad to have him at the table far the first time welcome. Thank you for having me, mr. Rose. Charlie oh, you make me seem so rose. No, just a matter of respect. Charlie tell me what selma, being part of this film, you know, this song which has been so praised and nominated, what does it mean for you . Its a lifechanging experience for me. From the first day we sat at rehearsal and ambassador an andrew young talked to us after we did like, our table read, he started talking to us about the philosophies of the sclc and the people to have the Civil Rights Movement. Charlie southern christian Leadership Conference. Yes sir. And one of the things he said that really was it for me is he said, what are you willing to die for . You know, all of us are thinking, what will i die for . And he said, live for that. So that was their whole philosophy, what are you willing to die for . Live for that. So it made me, every day, think about, like, what am i doing with my life . What do i really want my purpose to be and what is my purpose . And through these experiences, you know, obviously, the people of the Civil Rights Movement were willing to die for justice and for freedom. So it made me examine myself and just really, honestly, getting to experience a film that was im really connected to the Civil Rights Movement because i always wanted to be able to help people improve lives and dr. King was a hero of mine but to get to learn about the people of selma and what happened to selma and even to study that and live that really enriched me as a human being. Charlie was your father a hero for you . Yes, he definitely was a hero. My father was a hero because he was one to have the most authentic human beings ive ever been around. He would tell me the problems he had with drugs. He would talk to me about spirituality. I could call him up and say, man, im nervous about this audition. I remember going on my first day filming the movie. He was, like, just go kick ass. You know, those simple things sometimes. But then he would talk to me about the bible and the quran and my ancestors. He was a really balanced human being. He was a gemini so he was a special guy. Charlie his last words were. My fathers last words were he said, you will feel the arms of the angel wrapped around your neck. Thats what he told me. Charlie im not going to be here but you will feel an angel wrapped around your neck. Yeah. And, i mean, obviously he knew he wasnt going to be here. I knew he was very sick with cancer, and i was on my way to do a performance to stand up for cancer, performing the song that i wrote to him, and i called him to tell him to watch it burks at that time each time, you know, because it was recently during the later part of last year, the summer we found out that it could be, you know, he could be leaving us at anytime, every time i would see him, i would feel like this could be the last time. When he said those words i was, like, if thats the last time that i speak to him, i feel at peace. Charlie take a look at this. This is you playing james bevel in selma. Here it is. singing nice. Mr. Bevel . Selmas the place. A lot of groundworks already been made by the people here, and theyre ready. Charlie this is when king was saying theyre going to take a stand in selma. Yes and james bevel being part of the southern christian Leadership Conference was one of the great strategists and a brilliant human being really the person who was the salt of the earth type of gentleman. Thats why you see him wearing the overalls and the yamaka. He was a unique individual. I really was honored to play this person and just to be a part of this charlie because he was who he was . Yeah, it was because he was who he was, and i felt really like these people have contributed so much to American History that its an honor to be able to carry their tradition and express who these human beings were. Charlie how did you get this role . Ava dove nay who directed the film had a film at sundance called middle of nowhere, at the same time i was in a film called love and both our films were directed and she ended up winning best director for the competition. She saw my work. I knew this film was happening but i didnt know i was in the running. We died a skype meeting and she told me the character she wanted me to play, the person she wanted me to be and what type of vision she had for the film. As soon as i got off the call, i started finding out information. James bevel lived in chicago, where i was from. He was from mississippi but moved to chicago. Twoint something called the i went to something called the million man march in 1995, and he was one of the speakers there, and i kind of remembered it was like something in my subconscious that knew james bevel, but i didnt know where. Charlie who organized the million man march . James bevel along with minister farrakhan. Charlie louis farrakhan. Yeah. It was called a day of reconciliation in which a lot of men from across the country were coming to be like hey, lets forget the things we put up to separate ourselves and come together. Charlie acting gives you another outlet for your own creative expression. Yes. Charlie what does it do for you . It makes me search inside myself and find out things about me that i sometimes am afraid to go to, afraid to be and express, maybe because of the way i was raised, maybe because of my own fears. Charlie how were you raised . I was raised to be very respectful, to be loving which is great. But i also was raised in the midwest, traditional way where i wasnt, like, around a lot of arts, and my mom didnt play a lot of music. My mother was, like go to school, do well. She was an educator. Charlie right. Do well and im going to make sure you have the things that you need. She worked very hard. But im saying, some of the going outside of the box was not really part of my home and i think acting allows me to go places that i wouldnt go as a human being and also relate to other human beings because once i get the opportunity to walk in the shoes of any character that i play, i have a newfound compassion for people that come from that walk of life. Charlie how did you come to write the song for selma . Well, as you know, i experienced selma as an actor so it touched my life. One day i was on the phone, specifically monday, i was laying in the bed talking to my manager and i said, ava had already talked to me about doing the song. She said, we want you to contribute a song. But they were busy editing. So i said, i dont want them to ask and tell me what to do at the last minute, so i was thinking, like, i need to call john legend and we need to create a song for selma. And i told my manager im going to call you back. And i texted john legend and said, im going to call you in a few minutes. He was in london. We had our conversation and from that point i sent him three titles and one was glory that was the third title, and he got inspired by the title and we just created the song from there. Charlie its done well, hasnt it . Its been an incredible blessing, im going to tell you. Ive had 8yearold white kids to 64yearold men adult black men come up to me and say i really love that song. So charlie what were you thinking when you wrote it . Where did the inspiration come from . Well, i was thinking, how can i be an extension of dr. King and the people of the Civil Rights Movement now . How can i really be a voice for them . And from what i see going on. And how can i really Say Something thats inspirational, thats truthful, and thats, like allencompassing because obviously, dr. King s message and to my understanding, it stakes all of us to improve it takes all of us to improve things. It takes black white latino asian, native american, people from different religious background it takes people just putting love into the pot. So i just wanted to put love into the song and create something saying love is not always just sitting back being, like passive. Love is, like, standing up for what you believe in, too. So thats what i wanted to put in the song, and i actually you know, john legends vocal which was the first vocal before i wrote my part which was his vocal and piano so it kind of led me, too. It was the spirit. I wanted to carry the spirit of dr. King and the people of the Civil Rights Movement. Charlie thats whats important about the performance, that David Oyelowo does. I talked to andy young about it. We were together at the last broadcast of colbert and andy was there. Oh, yeah. Charlie and he said, its not dr. King , but its his spirit. Yeah. Charlie thats whats important. He said, you felt that david caught the spirit of Martin Luther king. Thats what the film carries, is the spirit. Charlie its not an imitation. Its the spirit. Its the spirit. As ambassador young told you hes not emulating dr. King hes just carrying what the energy is and what the spirit brought across. That spirit brought across a lot of great things from love forgiveness, courage, belief in the oneness and also just i think the humanity of him, of things that existed in dr. King that werent perfect obviously, david was able to bring that and ava did a wonderful job in showing all these people were people. And that inspired me because that was one of the things charlie that none of them were perfect. Nobody in the whole film was perfect. That was likely inspirational because it made me say, look somewhere we got dr. King in us. You know it could be a young lady, a 10yearold girl who has dr. King in her. We all have some of that, meaning the good and the bad and we can achieve that greatness. Charlie yeah, some people youve got to make sure that you give greatness an opportunity to come forward. Yes. One of my favorite words is greatness. When i do and i speak at different colleges or high schools, i talk about greatness because i really learned theres a period in my life where i was happy with being good and then i was, like i want to be great. Charlie how was it to sing at the edmont pettus bridge . That was one of the greatest moments in my life because i didnt get to go to filming the moving because of scheduling things, i couldnt film the march across the bridge when they filmed it and that was one of the most hurtful things in my artistic career because we had been through this journey together as people and actors because, mind you while we were filming this, dr. Myia angelou passed ruby d. Passed, and all of these moments we were experiencing together, and there was a certain bond we had and because i couldnt be on the bridge during the filming to be able to go back i had never been to selma to be able to go to selma and perform a song that i never even knew would be created while we were filming the movie and to look across and see all these people of the town just being inspired and to see my mother and Oprah Winfrey and my daughter and just all these people i love, it was one of the greatest moment. The sun was setting behind us. It was, like, i couldnt have wrote a better story and setting. Charlie you just released your tenth album. Yes. Charlie its called nobodys smiling. Yeah. That, as i said im from chicago, so there is been a lot of violence and a lot of just things happening that people are in need there. I was around kids because i have a foundation, a Common Ground foundation and i was realizing these kids are missing something from my generation. We havent reached out the way we could. So i just looked at the situation, and i looked at and entitled my nobodys smiling to describe the situation but not for us to stay there but to really just give a voice for the people who are there and hopefully offer some hope and solutions. To me, its like the way marvin gay said, whats going on and miles did an album describing what he saw. I think for me in music and art, if you talk about a problem you want to offer a solution too. I do my best to offer solutions. I dont have all the answer also. Charlie you and kanya whats the relationship . Brotherhood friendship. Hes someone i learned from as an artist. He produced some of my greatest music. The album i did called be. And finding forever. I met kanye when he was 19 and i was 23, 24, and i was out with albums in chicago and i was kind of like the chicago guy, and kanye, he would come around and want to battle me. You know, but he was really still charlie wanting to battle you . Battle me. Its like charlie take it to you . Yeah, he wanted to take it to me on a hiphop level. Charlie yeah. On a rap level because that was part of the art of hiphop was like boxing like im going to win. Charlie i mean, we shouldnt even try to square this sort of largerthanlife sort of ego and personality with the music. Are they one and the same, or is one simply a performance thing and the other is a Creative Genius . I think its both things as far as Creative Genius and the ego of wanting to be the greatest, wanting to never wanting to be less than great. And i think a lot of us possess that ego. But he expresses his in the way that he does. I can say he has it honest because i got to see his grandfather once and i was, like, this guy has this type of confidence. When i met him when he was 19 years old, kanye was the same type really confident and i honestly appreciate it. I always called it i call it the muhammad ali philosophy. Sometimes youve just got to speak greatness into existence and really claim it. That doesnt mean you knock over anybody else in life. You dont have to knock over people to do it, to sea, hey im great and let your light shine. But its okay with saying that. Thats what i was telling you when i was saying fears, like sometimes the fear of being like, im a great artist and actor, you have to claim it. Charlie because of ferguson and new york and other places, weve had focus here on conflict between the Africanamerican Community and police. Yes. Charlie what are your thoughts on that . I bring up the song you know yeah, well, i think the history of the police force and dealing with black people has been a conflict there for a long time, and that history, it goes for generations, so the experience isex the experiences the police have had with black people and the experiences black people have had with the police have made us automatically be, like, okay, they arent going to treat us well, and probably has created a sense of the police like i think black people will be violent towards me. So i think its the history that we have to get past and say, okay, we have had instances where black people were wrongfully shot and killed and we have had instances where Police Officers lives were threatened by black people. So its like, really getting to that place of understanding where we cant just judge a person just by the way they look, their skin, and we cant just judge a person because theyre in uniform. Charlie could a song for asata be as interpreted as promoting violence against police . No, because when i read asadas book which likely influenced me and was a beautiful book, you know, her being a black panther, i never believed she killed a police officer. I never believed she killed a state trooper. You know, i believed what she said happened. So thats why, you know, i was standing up for somebody i feel was wrongfully accused. Charlie whats next for you . Well, i want to keep creating, keep putting out love in the world doing some, you know, art that means something. I am i do have my foundation, which is very important to me Common Ground foundation. But along with that, you know, im working on new music and new films. I havent solidified a new film project im going to do, but i want to continue to grow and be out there as an actor, keep creating music. Charlie stop back and see us. I will. Thank you for having me. Charlie pleasure. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Charlie ethan hawke is here. His performance in Richard Linklaters boyhood earned him an o o oscarni nomination. He directed seymourco an introduction. Great to have you. Thank you for having me. Charlie tell me when they approached you about boyhood. About this time of the year, linklater came to me aboutni 13, 14 years ago. My son was about to be born, and rick had been you know, we made three or four movies together and he was struggling with the idea of wanting to make a movie about childhood but even the best ones take 400 whose or pick anyr one of your favorite coming of age movies, they have this inherent lie to them that you come of age at one moment whereas when you really think about your childhood, its these series of moments that come to feel like one, but it doesnt happen at one moment. He was talking about tolstoys childhood boy hood and youth, which is a really wonderful book. He said, what if we could do that on film where we cast a 6yearold actor and well