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• Mr. Smits' bio
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Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Brooklyn's own Jimmy Smits to this program. The talented, Emmy-winning actor has enjoyed a terrific run of great roles on hit shows “L.A. Law,” “NYPD Blue,” and now “The West Wing.” I'm mad at you, Jimmy. This summer, you can catch him in a little movie called “Star Wars,” the sixth and final installment of George Lucas' space masterpiece. But back to “The West Wing” and a show with so many great characters and talented actors. He's made an immediate impact in what critics have called one of the show's best seasons. Here now, a scene from “The West Wing.”

[Clip]

Tavis: Ha ha ha. Jimmy, nice to see you.

Jimmy Smits: Good to be here, Tavis, thank you.

Tavis: No, please, glad to have you on the program. I told a couple of female friends of mine that I had Jimmy Smits on the program. They said, "When?" I said, "April first." They said, "You foolin'." I said, "No. It's not an April Fool's. He really will be here." So I'm glad you're here.

Smits: Glad to be here.

Tavis: Glad to have you. So I guess quittin' the football team was worth it, huh?

Smits: I think I did OK. I have a 17-inch neck, not a 27-inch neck.

Tavis: We should explain this story. I mean, it's an inside joke. But tell the story.

Smits: Well, I played football in high school and was on a team in a school in the East New York section of Brooklyn that's known for their high school football. But you couldn't be on the drama club and football team at the same time.

Tavis: And you did what, Jimmy?

Smits: I went to the drama club.

Tavis: Ha ha ha. Jimmy quit the football team.

Smits: That was major. Give that jacket up.

Tavis: I see. So it was clearly worth it in retrospect. But take me back to high school. What did the boys say? What did the brothers say when you said, "I'm quittin' the team, goin' to drama class?"

Smits: They were not understanding.

Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Smits: They were not understanding. But I do admit that at the end of that year when we did the last high school play and everything, the football team sat in the whole first couple of rows of the theater, and I swore it was gonna be like tomatoes. You know, they tried to pull pranks, and everybody got up and, you know, "Jim!" So that's...

Tavis: You have become not just a standout actor, but indeed the pride of the Latino community in this country and around the world.

Smits: Oh, my shoulders.

Tavis: On your shoulders, yes. That's a lot to bear, ain't it? That's a whole lot to bear. But I raise that-I'm glad you did that. I raise that for that very reason. Do you, after all these years, still feel-obviously, you feel some responsibility. Because you're so engaged and involved in Latino issues, education issues to be specific, as you just mentioned. You still feeling any pressure or any responsibility to be a representative of your community, or are you just Jimmy Smits doin' your thing now?

Smits: Well, it's something that you-I don't think it really changes, you know? You walk the fine line as an artist. Because you want to be able to, especially as an actor, you want to be able to show your versatility, and so that might mean conceivably playing the worst kind of character that's written. But I think that people understand enough now the comfort level that I have in terms of the body of work that I've done, you know, a fair amount of stuff that have portrayed us in a kind of positive light.

Tavis: I want to ask you the obligatory or the typical question which is to assess for me how well Hollywood is doing. We could have that debate all day long, and I think your answer on that's pretty predictable. So I won't waste good PBS time asking that question. Let me ask you, though, what you think Hollywood is missing. I was in a conversation similar the other day with someone. A multi-culture, multi-racial, multi-ethic American effort. It's clear. It's obvious. America gets that. Certainly, anyone who's selling consumer products gets that. What does Hollywood not get about that? What are they not getting?

Smits: I think it's about realizing that the next level or step is to acquiesce a little bit more control in terms of what the content is gonna be.

Tavis: That's the one thing nobody wants to give up, though, Jimmy. Nobody wants to give up control. You guys had better-see, now you done gone too far. You askin' for too much. We can give you a role on “The West Wing,” put you on “NYPD Blue,” we can give you a role on “L.A. Law.” But don't ask for control, Jimmy.

Smits: But don't give me a piece.

Tavis: [Laughs] You're asking for the wrong thing. Now you want control.

Smits: Well, we can start talkin' about the social implications of what that really means...

Tavis: Well, talk about it.

Smits: On a lot-well, I mean, isn't that like a plantation mentality in-

Tavis: Hey, you said it. I didn't say it.

Smits: [Laughs] No, no, no.

Tavis: But I agree with you, though.

Smits: Well, but I think that, you know, we have to take steps, and what you see in terms of the population numbers in this country, they're ever increasing in terms of our multi-culturalness, and the stories hopefully should be reflecting of that on all levels, and I don't have problems with a storyline that might be seemingly negative if somebody can get some value out of it by saying, "Well, I don't want to live my life that way." But what my problem is that I want to be able to see stories that are good, that are positive also.

Tavis: I want to break down-I want to throw 3 shows at you, the 3 I just mentioned—“West Wing,” “L.A. Law,” “NYPD Blue.” I got a question I want to ask about each of those. Before I do that, though, ask a question about each of those characters specifically on those shows. One thing is I've always wanted to say to you, and I do admire this about you. I think that-was it Kenny Rogers who wrote the song "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run." You have this uncanny ability...

Smits: I know when to walk, huh?

Tavis: You know when to-exactly. You knew what I was gonna say.

Smits: That's debatable, though, Tavis.

Tavis: But you've done-we all hit and miss. But you've done better than most people I know at knowing when to walk away from a character, and every time you do it, I find myself sayin' "Has Jimmy lost his mind?" He's got a great gig here, and he keeps walkin' away from all these shows. But I, on the other hand, respect that you know when to step. You know when to step. How do you process that?

Smits: Well, on some level, people say it's like commitment phobia...

Tavis: Yeah.

Smits: In my life. I guess there is a certain level of that. I'll go back to where we first started-was dealing with the fact that as an actor and an artist, you want to be able to try to show different sides of yourself, and to be versatile to me is something that is important in my life, and that's not giving any aspirations to people who, you know, make a career doing one particular role.

I mean, that's great. But in terms of a television show, 5 years, you get to say-you get to show a lot of different sides, and I start wondering, "Is this all I, you know, have we said everything there is to say about this particular character?" And I start gettin' a little bit itchy to delve into another kind of world.

Tavis: “L.A. Law,” you blew the first audition.

Smits: I did.

Tavis: Take me back.

Smits: Oh, I was-it was in New York, and it was for some talent executive in the network, and they just kinda plopped this whole legal closing argument, and I wasn't prepared, basically. So I was bad. Thank you very much.

Tavis: I thought you said you liked the preparation part, though, Jimmy.

Smits: Well, but, no. But this was, like, I didn't know it was gonna be this particular-no, I had prepared-

Tavis: Jimmy, it was called “L.A. Law.”

Smits: I had prepared-wait a minute, Tavis. I had prepared something, and they gave me something else.

Tavis: I got you. OK.

Smits: It just didn't work, and to the credit of some friends of mine who live here, it was, like, “Well, you didn't meet the producers. You met some executive that was basically tryin' to just weed people out.”

Tavis: Yeah.

Smits: You know? So at that time, what people expressed was the cheap airline, and my buddy said, you know, "Save your $99. Come into L.A. and then try to get an appointment with the people who can make the decision.”

Tavis: With Bochco.

Smits: That's right.

Tavis: “NYPD Blue,” Bochco, speaking of Steven, offers you the gig. You turn it down initially. You later found your way on “NYPD Blue.” What'd you turn down the first time, and why'd you turn it down?

Smits: I was in the middle of doing-I had 2 projects that were lined up, that one of them would have-I would have not been able to do that.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Smits: And that was a mistake.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Smits: But these things come around, you know?

Tavis: God must love you. He protects babies and fools. So the second-

Smits: There you go.

Tavis: You got a chance there the second time around. “The West Wing,” which everybody's talkin' about these days. How did this come about, and what can you tell me about your presidential run? We're all excited about this.

Smits: I was working on a play in New York. Well, I spent the whole year last year doing plays in New York-one on Broadway and Shakespeare in the Park this summer, and John Wells, who's the executive producer of “E.R.” and one of the creators on “West Wing,” had an idea for a story arc, and he came to New York, and we spent a couple nights talkin' about what we've been talking about. You know, the power of the medium, the whole thing about image and young people aspiring and how people feel about the political situation in this country, and he wanted to kind of delve into a character arc of someone who's aspiring-who's a public servant who is aspiring to that higher level of office, and, you know, the ins and outs of what goes into debates and caucuses and primaries, things that we really don't see. It was a time of the convention, and Barack had just spoke-Barack Obama, and, I mean, when you look at what conventions have become, you know, very much well-produced television shows, and people just staying on message and not veering from that, he electrified that week, I think, and that was very influential in terms of me...

Tavis: Deciding to do the role?

Smits: Well, considering it.

Tavis: But you know, with all due respect to Barack, there are a number of Latinos, a number of Hispanics who have risen to the highest levels. Now I want to pick your brain on that right quick. You got Gonzalez over at the justice department, Alberto Gonzalez. A number of them that Mr. Bush has put into his cabinet. But beyond that, you got a lot of talk now about if, in fact, Bush gets a Supreme Court pick, and he will. A lot of talk that he's gonna put a Hispanic on the Supreme Court. On the one hand, you see Hispanics moving higher up in the political circles. On the other hand, in this last election, the Democrats-I'm tellin' you stuff like you don't know this-the Democrats typically have the Hispanic community overwhelmingly in their pocket. That vote got split this last time around.

Smits: It did, indeed.

Tavis: What's your sense of what's happening to the Hispanic vote in America?

Smits: I think that-much the same as the African American community in this country. It's a process of assimilation and change and social strata and how that affects the economics of what people make, and definitely there's a regionalism with regards to the Latino vote, which is a little different in the southern Florida area than it is, you know, east and in the southwest. But we do-what we need to think about as a community is that we do share a lot of common problems in terms of education, you know, the immigration problem and the things that we have in common with each other which are on the positive tip or the togetherness of the family, the religious, you know, aspects, the fact that we're very loyal in terms of, like, product loyalty with regards to commercialism. So we gotta use those things to empower us and not split us up.

Tavis: See? Now you see why the guy plays a politician on television.

Smits: No, no, no, no.

Tavis: 'Cause he knows this stuff. He really-I ask him a real serious political question, he gives you a really serious answer about politics. He knows this stuff, and that's why he plays Representative Matt Santos on “The West Wing.” I say Matt Santos for president. Is that gonna happen?

Smits: We'll see.

Tavis: All right.

Smits: We'll see.

Tavis: So they told you how to stay on message, didn't they?

Smits: No, no, no, no!

Tavis: They told you to stay on message. You did that well, though. You stayed on message quite well. You wouldn't tell me what I really wanted to know. Nice to have you on.

Smits: Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Tavis: Love this guy, Jimmy Smits. Check out “The West Wing.” Matt Santos for president. That's our show for tonight.