FRIDAY

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Article on Mr. Rapaport
• The War at Home
• Mr. Rapaport's bio

E-mail a friend

Tavis: Michael Rapaport is an awfully talented actor who has a knack for picking intriguing roles and working with interesting directors. People like Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and John Singleton, just to name a few. Recently, he was at Sundance promoting a new film called 'Special.' More on that in a moment. But first, he's back on TV in a new sitcom called "The War At Home." The show Sunday nights at 8:30 on Fox. Here now, a scene from "The War At Home."

(laugh) Michael, glad to have you here.

Michael Rapaport: Glad to be here.

Tavis: You been all right?

Rapaport: I've been good, I've been good. I can't complain, but I do, Tavis.

Tavis: Yeah. (laugh) You can't complain, because you have a career that's, like, really taking off. And what I love about your work is that you have played, as I mentioned a moment ago, such a variety of characters.

Rapaport: Right.

Tavis: And now you got this comedy thing on Fox.

Rapaport: Right. Yeah, I've been fortunate that some good people have given me opportunities to try to push myself, and try to not do the same thing all the time. Although it's kind of inevitable. People always kind of want you to do things that they're comfortable, and that you're sort of comfortable doing. So, I've had some good opportunities and some good breaks, and been around some good, talented people, directors and stuff.

Tavis: For you, what specifically would that be? That thing that people, directors, producers, are comfortable seeing you do that they know you know how to do, that they want you to reprise?

Rapaport: Well, at one point, somebody labeled me the king of dumb White guys. (laugh) Which I was happy to be labeled the king of anything, but it just kind of felt like - I am dumb, and some people consider me White, depending on, or pink, or whatever. But just that. But you always sort of get labeled.

But that was sort of one thing early on and when I first started acting that they kind of. And I am comfortable doing it, but I know that I'm - I don't think I'm going to be playing any librarians any time soon. But I think I have more to offer than just dumb guys.

Tavis: So how do you navigate a career, then, where you know there are people out there trying to label you, trying to put this particular moniker on you, and you know you don't want to be stuck with that. So how do you work through that?

Rapaport: I think it's important to, first of all, when the opportunity comes, when it's a meeting or an audition, or you actually get the job, you have to be ready. You have to be, it's like a fighter. You have to bide your time that when the punch comes, you gotta be able to do that.

And it just has to be something, just for me, it's just like, I always feel like if you just set your mind to it, if you just focus, focus, focus and are clear on what you want to do, and clear on the kind of parts and clear on how you want to represent yourself, and have confidence that you could do it when the opportunity comes, that's it. But sometimes, you have to bide your time, and you just have to wait. But you just have to stay, like, in shape, so to speak.

Tavis: You know what's funny about this is that I was just giving a speech the other day, it's Black History Month, I'm giving speeches everywhere, as you can imagine.

Rapaport: Mm hmm. Me too.

Tavis: (laugh) I'm glad you said that, 'cause that's exactly where I wanted to go. To a particular group of people, you may have been known as the king of dumb White guys. To another group, you're something else. To Black folk, you're the White guy who does not shy away from being in Black projects. I mentioned Spike Lee earlier, I mentioned John Singleton earlier.

So to us, you represent, to Black people, that is, something woefully different, something very different, rather, not woefully, but very different. Do you get that?

Rapaport: I absolutely get it, and I'm happy and proud of those jobs and those films and that sort of representation. I think that I'm very comfortable with it. I feel like I have a lot to say.

Tavis: What makes you comfortable with that? 'Cause there are a lot of folk who may not be comfortable working in a Black project, especially with Spike or John Singleton.

Rapaport: I'm comfortable with it because it's just the way I was brought up. It's just the way, like, the neighborhoods that I hung out with, my friends. And I grew up in New York City, I played a lot of basketball, I'm from the east side of Manhattan. There wasn't there many good ball players over there. And when I was 12, my best friends were from Brownsville section of Brooklyn and from Harlem.

And it was just a natural thing. And when I was about 20 and I came back out here, my childhood, that's what it was. It was all basketball, hip-hop, Puerto Rican girls and Black girls and whatever. And it just was the way it was. It wasn't any agenda. And it just so happened my first film was this film 'Zebrahead,' which was about an interracial relationship. And then one thing led to another, and then the Spike Lees and the John Singletons.

And my association with Talib Quali and the rappers and all that stuff. It's just comfortable, and a lot of those guys I grew up with, and it's just the way it is. And I feel like I am not afraid to speak out from my point of view, from a quote, unquote, White dude's point of view in any kind of issue dealing with race and all that stuff. And I just, it's just something that's just come my way, and I've sort of looked for it, also.

Tavis: So you gotta speak, I got questions, let's roll. First of all, can White guys jump?

Rapaport: They're starting. There's a few of them. There's a couple of them that are coming along. There was that one dude who just got suspended from the NBA with the crazy hair? He was in the dunk contest, the Barry brothers? Every now and then, they come. And that White guy, Jeremy something, beat, he won the hundred meter race? I'm not saying things are changing, Tavis. I'm just saying. It was (word?) .

Tavis: All right, so that's basketball. Let's go to the music, since you mentioned hip-hop. You're a hip-hop head, you love hip-hop. What's your sense of the direction, or lack thereof, that hip-hop is moving in? I ask this question of you because as you well know, depending on the numbers you read, 72, 75 percent of rap music, hip hop music, is bought by White kids in the 'burbs.

Rapaport: The music itself, for me personally, I think is gotten too narrow. I think that it's too much grandiose, too much what I have. Like they were talking about, I mentioned to you about the Louisiana thing, and a lot of that southern rap, not all of it. 'Cause like, OutKast is from the south. But a lot of that southern rap is my gold teeth, my rims, my car.

And I remember when after Katrina happened, a bunch of southern rappers were talking about doing a show, a benefit. And I was, like, how are you guys gonna get up there and do a show when all your music is about what I have, what I got, the girls. And you're going to do a show for 100,000 people that have nothing?

Tavis: We're gonna change the lyrics.

Rapaport: What are you gonna do? Like, so that representation of the music, and which I think is the majority of it, of the mainstream stuff, 'cause there's a lot of independent stuff and underground stuff. And some of the mainstream stuff like the Kanyes and OutKasts, they squeeze in. And it's not about positivity. It's not about things have to be, let's make it great, hunky-dory, and all that stuff. But not so much about your teeth and what you have and all that stuff.

Especially now, when if you're representing the south, people don't have zip. They have nothing. They have less than they had before, and even before that, the poverty was tremendous. So, I think it needs to be balanced out a little bit. And I would prefer a little bit more of just not so much what I have, what I have. I know the hip-hop and all that stuff, it started off being a braggadocious thing. I got my, but it's just gone crazy with it.

Tavis: Commentary by Michael Rapaport on PBS. (interviewerlaughs) Maybe Jim Lehrer's gonna call you to start doing commentary on the news hour or something. (laugh)

Rapaport: Let's do it, man. Let's do it.

Tavis: That said, let me shift gears, somewhat dramatically. I mentioned you were at Sundance.

Rapaport: Yes.

Tavis: How do you luck up with a project called 'Special?' That's a special name for a project, isn't it?

Rapaport: Yeah, yeah. Or if the reviewers like it, it'll be good. But I can just see, there's nothing special about this movie. (laugh) Just, it's a good film, it's a small film. It's a truly, truly independent film. The budget was minuscule.

Tavis: Just give me a storyline.

Rapaport: It's about a guy who is sort of nowhere in his life, and he's sort of a nerdy guy. He's into comic books, he's into that whole world, superheroes, and all that stuff. He winds up taking an anti-depressant to help him kind of make him feel better, and the anti-depressant has an adverse reaction in his system, to the point he starts to think he has super powers.

He it's done, told in a very realistic way, and he dons a suit and he starts going out and thinking he's helping fight crime. And he goes into grocery stores and will tackle random people 'cause he thinks they're stealing. And it starts off sort of as a dark comedy, but it gets very sad, because you see that he really thinks, he's convinced that he's doing good and he's helping people.

And obviously, he realizes, when he comes down off the medication, he's destroyed his life and hurting himself. And it's a good film. I'm very proud of it.

Tavis: It got some buzz at Sundance.

Rapaport: Yeah, it got some good stuff.

Tavis: What was your sense of Sundance this year? And I ask that because I had a number of folk on the show who went this year, twenty-fifth anniversary. SO a lot of people critiquing what Sundance started out as, what it has become. It's supposed to be for the independent guy, the little guy, now it's very. What's your sense of it?

Rapaport: Well, it still is. The actual film festival itself, if you strip away all this stuff about the free stuff and the Paris Hilton showing up, and all the mayhem, 'cause there is mayhem around the festival, it still is about independent film. And when you go to a screening, I saw a great, great documentary called 'The Trials Of Darrell Hunt.'

It's about a guy who was in prison, you're gonna wind up hearing about it, 19 years.

Tavis: I know the story, yeah. It's a fascinating story.

Rapaport: And that documentary, and then after the film, the filmmaker, his lawyer, Darrell Hunt, they came out. And those experiences, and it was so moving, just seeing the movie and then seeing the actual guy. Those experiences are what Sundance is about. And those things still happen there. And people's lives and careers are changed forever because of their films being shown at Sundance.

And those things are still the things that are important about Sundance, and that still happen. All the free stuff and the phones and all that, it's crazy. And somehow, they need to control it somehow. But it also is a business. Just because it's an independent film festival, people need to make money off it. Robert Redford, the town, they're all figuring out ways to make money. And I just wish they could, it's just a little overload.

It is too much. But the actual film festival itself is still on point as far as I'm concerned. And as the week went along and all the chaos went away and it started to be more about the film, I started to come back on board. Because I was, when I was first out, I was, like, this has gone crazy. But it's a good place.

Tavis: Let me close our conversation with a note that I could have begun our conversation with. Your mother.

Rapaport: June Brody.

Tavis: June Brody. Give a shout to your moms.

Rapaport: She always likes to have her name said on television.

Tavis: Yeah. (laugh) June Brody, June Brody, June Brody. We'll say it three times. I will say it three times, because long before I ever met you or knew who you were, I knew your mother. You know this story.

Rapaport: Yes.

Tavis: I started...

Rapaport: I always get nervous when a guy says that to me, by the way. Like, yeah, I knew your mother.

Tavis: No, no. (laugh) About knowing your mom, no.

Rapaport: Really? That's interesting.

Tavis: I didn't mean it like that.

Rapaport: No, I know. (laugh) How well'd you know her, Tavis? (laugh)

Tavis: (laugh) Here's how well I knew her. I was just a local guy on a little small teeny tiny radio station here in L.A., long before (unintelligible) , long before BET, long before NPR and PRI and PBS. Just a little local station here in L.A. And your mother got to know of me, and I got to know of the work that they were doing, where they owned a syndication company.

So my very first syndicated radio deal came courtesy of June Brody and a company called SJS. Your mom, you told me, has since sold the company.

Rapaport: She sold the company. All she does is ride horses. 'Cause she did it on her own. My mom, when I was a kid, her job, she was a secretary. Was an independent woman, tough, tough, tough woman, and tough businesswoman, smart businesswoman. And she did it all by herself, so. She had nothing when I was a kid.

Tavis: Well, she is tough. I found that out during negotiations. (laugh) But anyway, she got me on radio across the country, and I thank her for that. And I'm glad to meet you.

Rapaport: It's my pleasure being here.

Tavis: Glad to have you on.

Rapaport: All right, cool.

Tavis: "The War At Home." I'm gonna do this one more time. "The War At Home," 8:30, Fox, Sunday. I just don't want the Fox people mad at me for not saying it.

Rapaport: Yes, yes.

Tavis: All right. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching. I appreciate you, June Brody, thank you. And keep the faith.