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Tavis: Omar Epps is an awfully talented actor whose film career includes 'Love and Basketball,' 'Alfie,' and 'Against the Ropes.' He's also formed his own film and music production company called BKNY. His latest project, though, is for television, the critically-acclaimed medical drama 'House.' The show airs Tuesday nights at 9:00 on Fox. Here now a scene from 'House.'

House: Intubate or not to intubate? That is the big ethical question. Actually, I was hoping we could avoid it, maybe just practice some medicine.

Foreman: There is no question. It's the patient's decision--

House: If the patient is competent to make it. If his thyroid numbers aren't making him sad.

Foreman: Oh, my god! You don't believe that.

Cameron: His thyroid levels were a little--

Foreman: It's nothing. Do not defend him.

House: Why did he sign that D.N.R?

Foreman: I didn't talk him into--

House: No, he signed the D.N.R. because he didn't want a slow, painful death from A.L.S. What was happening to him had nothing to do with his A.L.S.

Foreman: Right! Exactly! It's the I.V.I.G. you screwed up! You're not gonna let him die because you screwed up!

Tavis: Omar Epps. Down, down, down! Go easy on 'em, boy. You all right?

Omar Epps: Pleasure, man.

Tavis: How you living, man? Nice to see you. First of all, you didn't get the memo: never, ever--Jonathan, back to Omar. Thank you. Never, ever upstage the host. You didn't get the memo: never come on the show dressed so fly that you upstage the host.

Epps: I had to wear something, you know. My mom is a huge fan of your show, so, you know, I couldn't do the jeans and the casual thing.

Tavis: See, I should've known. You walked in looking like that I said, "His mama must have made him put that on."

Epps: Yep.

Tavis: And I was expecting jeans and a t-shirt. But you looking good, though. How is your mama, by the way?

Epps: She's beautiful. She's retired now. She's the former deputy superintendent in Queens, and now she's in the ministry, the Bridge Street Church in Brooklyn. Yeah.

Tavis: My mom's a minister as well, so we have that in common. And what your mama and I have in common is that we're both Omar Epps fans. That's a good thing.

Epps: That's beautiful.

Tavis: What is about you and these medical dramas? You were posting up on 'ER' for a minute, and now you're on 'House' on Fox. You and medicine, what's the story here?

Epps: It's--I think, 'cause I'm squeamish in real life, you know. I can't really do blood. But, you know, 'ER,' had a great half a stint on there, and 'House' is just an incredible show. When we're putting the show together and I sat down with Bryan Singer, and he sort of pitched the show to me and where they want to go and why they were making this show, the characters, it was just all too good, you know, and once Hugh and I met and the cast bonded, it was like we felt we had something special.

Tavis: Talk to me about whether or not--and I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I want you to express yourself here, but it's important for me as an African-American to see people who look like me play quality characters. And when a brother gets a chance to post up on prime time as a physician or a lawyer or, you know, anything that we can point to, have young people point to as something else they can be other than an athlete--we'll come back to that, 'cause you played your share of athletes, too--but tell me whether or not it is significant for you when you consider what roles you want to play or you just took it because it was a great role? 'Cause I love seeing you as a physician.

Epps: Yeah. I--well, one, your humanness is there first, so you want to do quality work as an artist. And as a black man, yeah, you know, my role model was Denzel on 'St. Elsewhere.' Even though I was a kid, I remember seeing that face that sort of looked like mine, and then you had Eriq La Salle on 'ER,' and so I'm just carrying the torch, and hopefully there will be young people who will be inspired by me.

Tavis: To the athletes that you've played. I was just looking at your resume. I think you played every athlete--you played every sport. You played a boxer.

Epps: Boxer. Track, football, baseball. I'm just waiting for some hockey.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Epps: Badminton, you know?

Tavis: You know, got some great guys playing hockey now. Jarome Iginla comes to mind, some great brothers now who are playing hockey as well. But, talk to me about the affinity for playing these characters that are in the sports world.

Epps: It just turned out that way. My first one, I actually--I did a football film called 'The Program,' and football is my favorite sport. I used to play football when I was a kid, and so that was exciting. It was only my second film, and then the director from that, David Ward, was doing 'Major League 2,' so he said, you know, I want you to do this bit. So I didn't--I didn't give it much thought. You fast-forward, by the time 'Against the Ropes' came, everyone in my camp knew: no sports films, he's done with that stuff, he doesn't want to be, you know, typecast, and, you know, it was Meg Ryan, it was Roc, and I've done work with Roc before, so I just jumped in. I think I've retired from sports.

Tavis: You're retired from sports now?

Epps: Yeah.

Tavis: What is it that you'd like to do, since you played every athlete that exists, having played every sport? You've obviously done, the other end, you've done the doctor. Is there something that you're looking now--you mentioned your people a moment ago--so what are your people looking for--for Omar to do now?

Epps: Well, I want to work with, you know, A-list people. I'm actually putting together a romantic comedy that I wrote and I'm gonna rewrite with Tracee Ross from 'Girlfriends.' You know, it's a project for her and I, so that would be pretty cool. And just quality projects. I'm trying to put together a Miles Davis project.

Tavis: Would you play Miles?

Epps: I would love to play Miles. I got the beady eyes, so that's half the battle.

Tavis: All you gotta do is turn your back on the audience when you play. Miles was famous for that, you know, playing with his back to the crowd.

Epps: There's a myriad of stories to tell, you know. I'd love to tell the Geronimo Pratt story. There's just a myriad of stories to tell in our world, and so we're just trying to do as much as we can.

Tavis: What do you think the challenge would be for you of playing a real-life character like a Miles? You get a chance to create these characters in these TV dramas. What would it be like, you think, to play a character like a Miles Davis or even a Geronimo Pratt? You mentioned Geronimo Pratt, the person, the brother that served--

Epps: He has an incredible story.

Tavis: 25-26 years in prison. Johnnie Cochran stayed on that case. Johnnie lost the case, got him out 26-27 years later. He was here for Johnnie's funeral in town just a week or 2 ago. What would it be like, though, to play a real-life character?

Epps: Well, I mean--well, hopefully I could pull off what Jamie did, you know?

Tavis: Jamie did it, didn't he?

Epps: He did his thing. I mean, that's such an inspiration. And that's what you want to do. I've played--like I did a film about a guy named Carl Upchurch, who was a real-life guy. He wasn't a famous person. So, you know, I've played a guy who's alive before, and it's hard but it's easy 'cause you just want to stick within these boundaries. It's not like, you know, fictionally you can do whatever you want to do. But to play Miles, you know, for those jazz fans and people who are connoisseurs and know what he meant to jazz and to music abroad is, you know, certain things you gotta do as Miles. So, you know, I don't know. I don't think that there's any sort of--the only--well, he's passed away now, so the responsibility is to, you know, his estate and for people to see that and say, "OK, that was cool."

Tavis: I wonder whether or not you think--this is not completely disconnected, but I wonder whether you think, given the success of Jamie, you mentioned a moment ago--Jamie and the Ray Charles film--whether or not you think that Hollywood is ready now to give a chance for more biopics to be told about people of color? I keep hearing a lot of talk about the Jackie Robinson story, somebody's trying to work on that. You think this might open up the door for--

Epps: It can, you know. It's interesting, Tavis. A lot of these stories, a lot of our stories are intense. Ving Rhames and I were trying to put together this Nat Turner thing.

Tavis: Yeah, that's intense.

Epps: You know, but a lot of our stories--

Tavis: I would be of no use to anybody as a slave.

Epps: Danny Glover is trying to put together a project about one of the French--

Tavis: Touissant L'Ouverture.

Epps: And it's hard to do that. And I think at the end of the day, films like 'Ray' make money and receive the acclaim, but more importantly than that make money, then the studios don't care who you're telling it about. Those type of stories make money we'll buy 'em, you know. So I'm very proud of Jamie and what those guys did over there, Hackford, with their movies.

Tavis: Yeah. You've been talented for a long time and in fact went to the 'Fame' school. We all know the TV series, the movie 'Fame,' you actually went to the 'Fame' school. Tell me what that was like, actually being there?

Epps: It wasn't too far from what you saw on TV.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Epps: It was--it was, you know, a beautiful experience. I wouldn't take it back for the world 'cause basically you had 2,600 kids who are all artists. You had a building full of artistically inclined children and we're just all going our way, learning how to be free, learning how to hone your craft and learn to appreciate culture and to appreciate art and to appreciate one another. And I learned a lot from that school, man. I wouldn't take it back for the world.

Tavis: I wonder what you think, and this may be hard for you to answer 'cause you haven't had the experience of doing both 'cause you went to a school that was for kids who were focused and cared about and were trying to build careers around the arts, but since we know what the arts and exposure to the arts does for and can do for children, and we know that the school systems these days are cutting programs designed to give kids that kind of exposure, I wonder what you think the difference might have been in your life had you not been able to go to a school where you really were encouraged to perfect your artistic--

Epps: I have no idea. You know, I don't know, man. I mean, I have a hell of a strong mother, so I know I would have been doing something right, you know what I'm saying?

Tavis: 'Cause you would have had no choice.

Epps: Mama wasn't having that. But I tell you, man, it really--it gave me a purpose. You know, the arts, especially in the urban communities where there are no other places to go. We don't have the YMCA, we don't have the park. There is no baseball diamond. So mostly there's arts and craft, and, you know, to take this away from these kids now, I don't know. I don't know what I would have been. Maybe I would have been here but 20 years from now. You know, it taught me at an early age that I can do this, I can go after my dreams right now while it's real.

Tavis: You have a couple of kids now. You mentioned your mama a couple of times now, and you grew up in a single-parent family. A strong mother, who you mentioned a moment ago, was gonna make sure you succeeded at something. Tell me how the experience of growing up in a single-parent family has or is impacting how you father your kids.

Epps: It's been phenomenal. I've got a 5-year-old and I have a 10-month-old, 2 little girls, beautiful little girls, and for me to not have a father, it makes me understand, 'cause, you know, when I first had my girls, every man that has a child on the way is, "My boy is coming, my boy." and the doctor is like, "It's a girl" and you're like, "Oh. OK."

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Epps: Healthy kid is a healthy kid. Got the 2 girls, I'm like, I figured out, I said, "Maybe I wasn't man enough to have a boy yet."

Tavis: Or maybe you're a ladies' man?

Epps: Maybe. That's what I'm trying to tell everybody, but they won't listen.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Epps: But, you know, it's been an interesting experience for me. I recently-- I'm 31 now, before I turned 30, I reached out to my father. I found him. And it was sort of like, you know what? Our book isn't done.

Tavis: Had you not had a relationship with him at all?

Epps: At all. I had met my father one time in my life, when I was 12, and for a week. And, you know, it's just--it just never got on the right track. But, going into my 30s and having these children I was just like, "You know what? It's time for me to finish this chapter." The book isn't finished. Time to turn the page and go into the next chapter, and in order for me to be full as a man, I have to forgive, and now we have a responsibility to see what's in the future, because you're still alive, I'm still alive, doing all right. And here's how, you know, the forgiveness is the first thing and acceptance is the other. You have to accept the guilt of not being there, and once he does that, we'll be able to fly. But what it taught me was that I'd never be anything like that. I can't understand a person having a child in this world and not being there. It can be hell with the spouse or with the ex-girl, the guy, whatever it is, but that child has nothing to do with that. That child is your choice, your responsibility.

Tavis: So how territorial are you gonna be in a few years when these girls grow up?

Epps: Oh, man. You know, it's gonna be tough, man.

Tavis: You'll be packin'?

Epps: I've got a bunch of--she's got a lot of "uncles." I got my shotgun, you know. I got my bullets ready, so, you know. Hopefully she'll bring home a nice guy.

Tavis: Omar Epps can be seen every Tuesday night at 9:00 on Fox's show 'House.' Omar, glad you're in the house tonight.

Epps: Pleasure.

Tavis: Good to see you. Tell your mama I said hi. I'll just tell her now. "Hey!" and to say hi to her right now.

Epps: There you go.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. A reminder: starting April 29 you can catch me back on public radio. We can talk on the radio now again. Public Radio International, P.R.I. Check your local listings. We'll talk on the radio, but I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.