E-mail a friendBruce Willis
airdate July 9, 2004
Actor Bruce Willis has come a long way - not bad for a kid who grew up with a stutter. He started acting in college, and his first entertainment job was harmonica player in the R&B group, Loose Goose. His break came in the hit TV show, Moonlighting, and the mega-hit film, Die Hard, made him a household name. President Bush tapped Willis, a children's advocate, to serve as national spokesperson for children in foster care.
Bruce Willis
Tavis: I'm delighted to end our week devoted to health-related issues with a look at juvenile mental health and the issue of foster care in America. Actor Bruce Willis is the national spokesperson for foster care, appointed by President Bush back in 2002. He's teamed up with my friend Cedric the Entertainer--that would be "Hey, Ceddie"--for a fund-raising theatrical event called 'Ephraim's Song.' The play opens this week at the Norman Pattiz Concert Hall here in Los Angeles and runs through July 18th. All proceeds go to the National Foster Care Fund. Bruce and Ceddie, nice to see you both.
Cedric the Entertainer: Good seeing you, man.
Bruce Willis: Thanks for having us--
Tavis: Bring energy. Come on.
Cedric: Yeah. Yeah! Ha ha!
Bruce: ESPN, 8:00.
Tavis: There you go.
Bruce: Ocho.
Tavis: OK, I was about to ask--
Cedric: Ocho. The ocho. Ha ha!
Tavis: Now I've started something here. OK. Last hour was the sh...s. Tonight it's the suit.
Cedric: Yeah. Yeah.
Tavis: Jonathan, is this thing strobing on you? Is that suit strobing on you?
Cedric: You just wanted to check. I went very Kwame Kilpatrick on you right here, man.
Tavis: Detroit, Motor 6.
Cedric: Oh, Detroit, man. Never know when I'm gonna run.
Tavis: What happened to the sh...s this time, man? Last time you had on some blue alligators.
Cedric: Yeah. I was in my throwback days--my retrofits, man, so I got, you know, uh, retro-air-force ones on.
Tavis: But not to be outdone, Bruce Willis shows up in the black suede sh...s. Don't step on my black suede sh...s.
Bruce: Smooth. It's the only thing I found that could go with this suit.
Tavis: Oh, you hold it down, Bruce. You hold it down.
Bruce: I'm very excited to be here.
Tavis: Speaking of holding it down, I'm glad you're here, too. You guys are holding it down, seriously, on the foster care front. Both of you could be doing a lot of other things with your time, but you decided for a variety of reasons, which I'll get to in a second here, to dedicate some of your time to foster care. I was stunned to read some of these stats about what happens in our foster care system. I thought I would start by sharing a few stats, because there may be some who've been watching our show all week long who are wondering how we chose to close this week called 'The Road to Health' talking about foster care. What does that got to do with health? Well, consider this. Over 500,000 children--half a million children--reside in foster care as we speak. 85% of those kids have an emotional disorder and/or a substance abuse problem. 85% of the half million. Juveniles in foster care have a higher prevalence of physical, developmental, dental, and behavioral health problems than any other group of kids in the country, including other poor children. Um...the highest percentage of kids coming out of the system end up in jail. A significant number of these kids coming out of foster care end up in jail. I don't know that I should ask, Bruce, how you got involved with this or why you got involved in it when you start to read those stats, but let me ask anyway. Why this issue for you?
Bruce: There are a lot of problems, uh...in Washington that seem insurmountable, that just seem like they can't be fixed. When I began to investigate foster care, uh, it seemed like some problems that--that could be helped--it may take 5 or 10 years, 15 years, but it needs these things. It needs cameras aimed at the problem and, you know, doing what you just did in letting--well, educating people as to what...the, you know, the--the, uh...what seem like simple problems, but are--are, you know, continue to, you know, to happen all the time. Uh...bless you.
Bruce: Uh...we need to bring the foster care program into the 21st century. It still--the files are still handwritten. The states don't talk to each other. It's not computerized. And every month, kids age out of the system, and unless they have help or direction, uh, end up in another system where they don't get any help at all.
Tavis: I suspect that you're probably right about the fact that there is a better way of approaching the problem and of dealing with it and having some--finding some success on the matter. But perhaps one of the reasons why we don't have greater success on it is because foster care is not a sexy issue, not that any of these health issues that we've discussed all week is, but foster care, for whatever reason, I'm curious to get your point of view, is not a sexy issue. I mean, people, maybe because they have their own kids and they're not concerned about other kids, but--and we live in a country where people act as if anything that has to do with kids gets our attention--yet the foster care issue doesn't rise to the top of the list of things that we care about. Why you think that is?
Bruce: I think people need to be educated about it more. I'll give you an example. It's a great...uh, metaphor for this problem. If there were half a million kids on a life raft out in the middle of the, you know, the Atlantic Ocean, everyone in the world would mobilize to go out there and try and save those kids. And yet we have, you know, a half a million young kids in this, you know--in the United States who need the same kind of help. And people want to help and just don't know how to do it. Uh, so that's why I'm here now. That's why we're here, you know, trying to educate people about it and trying to, uh, not only talk about the problems but also some solutions and how we could bring the people who want to help together with the kids who need help.
Tavis: There is, as you already know, a disproportionate number of kids of color, namely African-American kids, who find themselves involved, and they're caught up in the foster care system, and those kids, I said earlier, end up in jail, so you start to figure out why it is that so many black kids, so many black men start this lifetime of going in and out of jail, this recidivism issue. It's because there's so many of us on the front end, in the early stage of life, who find ourselves into the foster care system. You've decided to spend a great deal of your time working with kids. Let me ask you the same question I asked Bruce. Why?
Cedric: Well, I mean, I just see it as an opportunity to, uh, to have a voice. You have a voice in the mike and cameras, and you have to kind of put the spotlight on the issue. I think that, um, it becomes really cliched to say that "I believe children are the future," and people sing it in the song.
Tavis: Kinda like a song.
Cedric: Yeah. But, I mean, really, it is--it is what happens. I mean, we can't really protect ourselves unless we're trying to protect the next generation. We're trying to put something in place to help us keep the wheels moving. And you start to have this disproportionate huge number of kids who are in foster care, uh, huge number of kids who are going to jail, and it starts to show up. It shows up in our lifetime. You see--wow, we don't have enough, you know, people that you can offer jobs to in a certain way, or, nobody's really educated. You know. And we keep complaining about these numbers, but, uh, the more you fail the youth and you fail the--the opportunity to get them inspired or to get them help in the ways that they need, the more that we find ourselves in a detrimental situation as a society. So...my interest really started like that from a kid is that when I was a teenager, I just had, uh, relatives of mine and friends who didn't have the same situation I did. And then I looked up, and it was, like, several years later, and they were all gone. They were in jail. They were dead. And I just thought that was really strange. Like, this kid never really got the chance to see any of the stuff I saw. Otherwise, I think he would've made a different choice. So, uh--and then with getting involved with 'Ephraim's Song' from the entertainment aspect, I thought that the play took on a, um--the--the issues that really face foster care, the issues that face this Generation X, the things that they concern themselves with. In a very, um, you know, political and humanitarian kind of way, it crosses everything.
Tavis: I asked somebody this question early this week, and I'm forgetting at the moment what night it was and who I was talking to. It might've been the night we had, uh, Melissa Joan Hart from 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch.' She was on the program. And I asked her, because she's very outspoken about heart disease, what you make of the fact that we have to get celebrities, we have to get personalities on a show like this to make an effort to get people's attention about issues that we ought to care about anyway.
Cedric: Well, I mean, you know, I think that, you know, we live in a society where people can really, if it's not their personal problem, we really let it go. You think about it, you know, many of us barely know our neighbors now. We don't really speak. You know. If it's not on me, not my actual problem, I don't really care about it. I can sound like I do, but, you know, usually the celebrity has a, um, a broad-base audience or, you know, opinion, and people who appreciate what they have to say, and then they have the opportunity to come on shows, to get on the radio, to speak in the paper or whatever it is. And if you have the opportunity to say something, you should. But I think that it is a lot of people who do care, and you'll--you know, you--I was really, uh...uh, pleasantly surprised at the extent Bruce's organization--you know, you can hear about it, but it's real. You know, they go to work over there. So you know--
Tavis: Tell me more, Bruce, about what you do specifically, and while you're on that, talk to me about what you think is wrong with the system. I didn't forget about that. You mentioned earlier that you think the system is broken. How do we fix it?
Bruce: Up until, uh, 3 months ago, there wasn't, uh, uh, a national foster care fund. There was no, uh...overall program that serves all 50 states. Uh, there is now. There's a national foster care fund that, uh, is...um...a gathering spot for people in the industry, for other people who want to help. Um, there are, to quote one of our, uh, past presidents and a good friend of mine--George Bush Sr.--to use his metaphor of a thousand points of light--what I found in the last 2 years is that there are, uh...thousands, hundreds of thousands, of, uh, small, you know, grass roots, um, uh, outreach programs to help these kids in foster care, but it's not tied together, and that's our goal over the next, you know, the next couple of years, is to, uh, is to connect everybody via computer...uh, shows like this, and we need those cameras. We need, uh, cameras aimed at the problem...uh, at, you know, problems that some...you know, get in, you know, the--the, you know, the...newspapers, radio, because it's, you know, sensational because, uh, there's an abuse in the system. Some, you know, kid's got hurt or hit or, uh, um...You know, you hear about those kind of things. But the states need to talk to each other. This whole program needs to be put on a computer. It's happening slowly. Uh, but it's a--it's a ticking clock. Every month, 18-year-old kids age out of the system, and if they don't get help, then they're gonna go into the--the other bad system. You know, jail. Um...um...but there are--and it's easy, to, you know, talk about all the bad things that are happening in the system, but I would also like to talk about, you know, 'Ephraim's Song' and how well these kids have, you know, come together from schools all over Los Angeles and, you know, put together this really, really great show...uh...that...I think really comes--it just comes from their heart. And it's about their experiences. It's--it's--it's entertaining. It's done by the, you know, you know, these kids, and, uh...it, uh...it needs to...you know, it needs to be talked about.
Tavis: What do you think a program like this--like this play I speak of now, Ced, specifically can do to advance this issue?
Cedric: Well, I think it's one that it is, um...it is of the generation. And again, like you said, it's, uh--it's highly involved with the kids. The kids are, you know--they're highly involved all the way through the production, both onstage and behind the stage. And I just think that they talk about the issues the way they talk about it--in a very, um, hip-hop culture, Generation X kind of manner. And it helps to, uh--the kids want to help themselves and hopefully, uh, you know, we plan on doing forums, uh, you know, after performances and inviting other political dignitaries to become involved, to see how we can increase the awareness, increase the ways that we can help, um...um, these kids in the foster care system, so--
Tavis: What do you make of the fact, Bruce, that--let me take your earlier point. I think you're right--there is some good that's happening in the foster care system.
Bruce: A lot of good.
Tavis: A lot of good. The flip side of that is, though, that once this system that you are talking about is up in place and all the states are connected and the paperwork is no longer done by hand but we got it computerized, et cetera, et cetera--disabuse me of the notion that...Americans are still not going to be interested in adopting kids here at home. And I raise that because, as you well know, we got a long list of kids here in America in foster care who would love to have a home, who want to be adopted, and people will go outside of the country to places and parts around the world to adopt other kids before the fact they won't even take a look at our foster care system here at home. Why is that?
Bruce: Way too much red tape.
Tavis: Red tape? Is that it?
Bruce: Red tape is the number-one obstacle, I think. And there are--there are... millions of parents who, for one reason or another can't have kids who want to help. Uh... And, um...we need to bring--and those people are at opposite ends of the spectrum right now. We need to bring those people together and make it much simpler--much simpler to be able to help. And you don't have to adopt. You can be a...uh...um--a foster parent. You can be a big brother. You can be a mentor. There's so many ways to help, and what we need to do is in this sound byte culture we live in is to in a really--just a few sentences to say, "Here's how you can help. If you want to do this, you can do this. Here's a phone number to call. Call us up and help." And those kind of, uh--those kind of phone numbers don't exist right now. It's so hard to find. So--
Tavis: One could argue--to piggyback on something you said earlier--that in the culture and in the world that we live now, that people are turning more nativist--that is to suggest people are turning more inward now. They're concerned about their own welfare, their own condition. People are trying to fight their own, uh, social and economic and political and cultural disenfranchisement, again, turning more nativist and not concerned about other folk. How do you make a subject like this, then, to my earlier point, that's not altogether sexy? How do you get people to pay attention to it?
Bruce: There are a lot of people out there that want to help. I--I agree that there are a lot of people, but, look, everybody--everybody here's thinking about, "What am I gonna do today? How am I gonna solve my problems? How am I gonna do this?" But there are a lot of people that do want to help, who do open their hearts and, uh...we meet, uh, great people every year who have adopted not one but 7 kids and will open their hearts. And there are a lot of people out there like that. Uh, I--I have hope that--that, uh, uh, in those kind of folks that--that, uh...that do want to help. Um...it's not a problem that you're just gonna flip a switch andoesolve.
Cedric: I'll tell you how you make it sexy. You saw the NBA draft this year. Half the kids were right out of high school.
Tavis: Yeah.
Cedric: Coulda been one of yours.
Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha!
Cedric: Foster kids. You get your 6 or 7. That's sexy there.
Tavis: You get the right one.
Cedric: You get--you know, you play the numbers. Play the numbers out. Get your 10 or 12 foster kids.
Tavis: See, you're being funny about it. You're being--
Cedric: That's sexy, right?
Tavis: Yes, that's sexy. That's sexy.
Cedric: Right out of high school. No college or nothin'.
Tavis: You're being funny about this, and I don't want to get morbid or--or macabre or too serious about this, but you also know--I don't want to get too political, either, but I'm just trying to keep it real here. You know, though, that since there is a disproportionate number of kids of color--black kids--who are in the foster care system--they really are interested, those future hall of famers, those future NBA players, future NFL players. To your joke, those kids are the ones crying out the most to get some attention. Black folk are doing better now than we ever have before. We got a stronger middle class than we ever have had before. Maybe Bruce is right that it's red tape. But there's still a lot of black kids who crying out for some help and some attention, and we are ignoring the problem.
Cedric: We do, and I think we have to encourage again that, uh...you know, it is an encouragement and a strong drive pushing for family values. You may even think about, like our generation--we grew up that--we never really--it was very rare you heard about foster care kids. I mean, you know, if something happened to your mama and daddy, then you go and live with your aunt. I mean, you don't really do that now. I mean, it's like people are really, you know, they're just kinda into themselves, and so what we have to do is really, you know, again make sexy the opportunity and theotheouh--what family is--the growth of the friendship--sharing with one another, understanding that, and understanding that a child has something to offer if you can give them love and--and show them that, and usually you can get it reciprocated back, too. And so it's, um--it's just--I just think that we have to continue to do things like this. Uh, this is entertainment. It's live. 'Ephraim's Song' is--it's a show. It's Broadway, and it's energy. It's dance. And it has some life to it. It's not me preaching you the story of another...
Tavis: Foster kid.
Cedric: Another foster care child. I'm gonna show you. These kids, they have abilities. You know. They can do things, and they're gonna be enter--they're fun, and they light, and they write, and they direct, and it's real interesting to see this kind of--
Tavis: I need to come see it, and the one that has the most talent, maybe I'll adopt him or her. Ha ha ha! I'm just teasin'. Just teasin'. Lost your point. Ha ha ha! Let me shift gears somewhat slightly here. You're both parents. Let me move from foster care just slightly. Bruce, for you, and, Cedric, for you, what's the most rewarding thing about being a parent? And what's the most challenging thing about being a parent? Whether you're a foster care parent or not, what's the most rewarding thing about it? What's the most challenging thing about it?
Bruce: I think we're both fortunate in that we get to choose when we work and when we don't work. And when I don't work, I spend time with my 3 daughters. I can't predict what the gift of my time--what--what effect that's gonna have on my 3 daughters, but I can only go by the--go with the knowledge that--I didn't see my parents a lot. They were both, you know, working, both trying to knock out the rent. And I'm really blessed that I get to spend so much time with my kids and to have one-on-one time and to have that kind of input. And I see it, and they--they've really turned out great.
Tavis: Now, being a dad with 3 girls has to have some challenges with it as well.
Bruce: God's paying me back for something. I don't know what it is.
Tavis: You got it all figured out now, huh?
Bruce: Well, they're figurin' it out for me.
Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha! What's the best part, what's the most challenging part, Ced? You got 2 now. 3.
Cedric: Yeah, I have 3. Yeah. 2 girls and a boy. And I, you know, the best part is that, uh, a lot like what Bruce said--it's just being when you're there for them and you have the opportunity to, um, be a significant part of their lives and answer questions, whether it just means simple day-to-day things, to know that your influence and your guidance is gonna be instilled in this child as they continue to grow and that they need you. You know? And that they, you know, they show that they need you and you need them because--
Tavis: That unconditional love.
Cedric: Yeah. It just helps you grow just by being able to, you know, deal with the scenario. And then having, um, a teenage child as well, the most challenging thing now is just dealing with the influences of the world. I mean, it's a very fast world. I mean, so much video footage and, um, TV and--and music and--that's, you know, that's spinning all kinds of sexism and--I mean, you have to always be in there to, you know, to make a point with some of these things, and--and also defending that, you know, that, you know, this is the lifestyle that you are able to afford, too, is 'cause I go to work. You know what I'm saying? Ain't none of this yours.
Tavis: Without me, you're homeless.
Cedric: Hey.
Tavis: Yeah.
Cedric: Hey.
Tavis: With no bank account.
Cedric: We ain't got--
Tavis: We ain't got--ha ha!
Cedric: But I love 'em.
Tavis: Yeah, I can--
Tavis: All right, I got about a minute to go here. Uh, Ceddie, you first. What you working on? 'Cause you got a thousand things happening all at one time.
Cedric: Uh...well, we just, uh, finished, uh, 'Be Cool' with john Travolta, and 'Lemony Snicket'--it's, uh, with Jim Carrey, and it's coming out later this year around Christmas time. And then I'm about to start 'The Honeymooners' with, um, me and Mike Epps. That's gonna be a lot of fun. And so we're about to start that next month, and I'm excited about that. And I'm gonna perform at the, uh, Democratic National Convention.
Tavis: We're doing the TV show from there. We'll see you there.
Cedric: We're gonna do a show there.
Tavis: With another suit and some different sh...s.
Cedric: Yeah, different, man.
Tavis: I got you. Ha ha! And, Bruce, not that you need the money, 'cause every night when I can't sleep--when I can't sleep hard, I'll wake up, and 'Die Hard' is on some channel in reruns, so I know you're getting--ka-ching, ka-ching--paid all the time. But what's next on your list?
Bruce: They're talking about 'Die Hard 4.' There's--a script is being written. Uh, I have a film called, uh, 'Hostage.'
Cedric: You want some of that?
Bruce: Come on. Come on.
Tavis: Yeah, you should be in that. There you go.
Bruce: I did a film this spring called 'Hostage.' It comes out just after Thanksgiving. I just worked with Robert Rodriguez down in Austin on a really cool film called 'Sin City' that comes out right before Christmas. Um--
Tavis: That's enough.
Bruce: That's it.
Tavis: You guys got more work than you can shake a stick at. But you're welcome back anytime. Ceddie wants a role in 'Die Hard 4,' and I'll do a cameo if you need me. Anyway, that's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from L.A. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Cedric. Keep the faith.
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