E-mail a friendAnthony Edwards
airdate October 22, 2009
Although Anthony Edwards is best known for his role in the hit NBC series E.R., the talented actor-director has shown his versatility in everything from serious drama to thrillers. He caught the acting bug early and, encouraged by his parents, acted in dozens of plays by age 16. He also studied his craft in London and the University of Southern California. Edwards is a passionate activist. He's on the Cure for Autism Now Foundation board and plans to run in the upcoming ING NYC Marathon to raise funds for Shoe4Africa, which he chairs.
E.R. vet explains why he is running in the New York Marathon. (2:38)
Full Interview (13:34)
Anthony Edwards
Tavis: Anthony Edwards is a four-time Emmy-nominated actor who, of course, played Dr. Mark Greene on the very popular hospital drama, ER. He now serves as Chairman of the Board for Shoe4Africa, a nonprofit organization currently raising money to build the first public children's hospital in Kenya. More on that in a moment. You can also catch him opposite Uma Thurman in the new film, Motherhood. The movie opens this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Here now a scene from Motherhood.
[Clip]
Tavis: (Laughter) I'm gonna have you explain two things. What mom jeans are, number one. But the movie's called Motherhood and we see you, though, pushing the baby down the street in the stroller.
Anthony Edwards: That's right.
Tavis: You gonna explain this to me?
Edwards: Well, it's motherhood in 2009. I think what's nice here is you have a story that was written by Katherine Dieckmann, the writer-director. It's really about her life and the world of being a modern mother and you kind of take all of these problems of relationship with work, relationship with your husband, relationship with your children, all that, and she put it all together in this fable-like venue of 24 hours in the day of the life of.
For me, it was a bit like being in a western where I was the saloon girl because this is a movie that was written by women, directed by a woman, starring a woman and, you know, they had to have the token guy in it, so I filled that role then.
Tavis: Just like being at home for you then.
Edwards: Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tavis: How do you know when you read comedic material that you can - I mean, you're a great actor, but how do you know when you read comedic material that you can pull that off, given that so many of your fans, of course, know you from your dramatic work on something like ER?
Edwards: You know, I think it starts from if it genuinely makes you laugh. If you relate to it and it makes you laugh, then you'll have a connection to it. You know, good comedy is just stuff that you believe that, you know, tickles you, but it's all based on the idea that you believe it.
So the foundation of the acting is always the same. The result is either funny or sad and, if you're playing it for sad or playing it for funny, you'll probably get neither, so it's better just to stay to the truth and know that the writing is gonna take you there.
Tavis: This is kind of inside baseball, but I'm always curious as to peoples' process. I love process questions. You all forgive me for this. I love process questions. So you decided to leave ER before its run was up. I'm always curious as to why people make those kinds of decisions.
Obviously, you got a huge audience, you're making really good money, you got a pretty standard schedule that you know pretty well, all the stuff that you already know. Take me inside your head. How do you make a decision to leave a vehicle like that, number one, and number two, what's the process for navigating forward? How do you move beyond that?
Edwards: In a simple way, it's really about what life is. For me, I'm only gonna work well as an actor if I'm happy and feeling fulfilled in my life and responsible that way. ER was pretty simple in that it was a lot of commitment at that time, eight years.
My wife and I wanted to raise the children in New York. We had this bizarre experience of having four children over eight years, the whole time I was on the show. So family and working and all that was equal. It wasn't, "Oh, I have a TV show and that's all I'm gonna worry about." The truth is, I felt like I had done it.
We had made this deal and eight years was a long time and I had now this opportunity to be with my kids. So we were able to take that, you know, give them a good farewell on the show and move to New York. I've spent the last six years - made several movies and stuff, but I've also had that opportunity that I didn't want to pass up, which is when I've met older parents or met older men, I've never heard one say, "I wish I spent less time with my kids when they were younger."
So I had this opportunity and I took it. It's been a spectacular bunch of years. I mean, one of the things we did is we took a year off and we went around the world for a year. You can't do that kind of thing when you got to be back at Warner Bros. in July.
Tavis: So on balance, you don't regret that decision at all.
Edwards: The simple part of the story is, my wife said (laughter).
Tavis: (Laughter) We're going to New York.
Edwards: Yeah, we're going to New York. Yes, dear, of course we are.
Tavis: A much simpler answer.
Edwards: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tavis: Speaking of New York, we have coming up on this program a few days from now, Ed Norton, actor, of course, as you know. One of the EPs, one of the executive producers, on this new documentary on Obama's campaign, on HBO it's gonna be aired.
Edwards: Right, right.
Tavis: So we're gonna talk to Ed Norton in a few days. I happen to know, though, that Norton is running the New York Marathon this year for a particular worthy cause. We'll talk to him about that when he sits in this chair. But I hear that you also are running the New York Marathon.
Edwards: I am.
Tavis: Tell me why you're doing it and what you're doing it for?
Edwards: It's funny because we just exchanged emails about it.
Tavis: How funny is that (laughter)?
Edwards: I've run a couple before and -
Tavis: - this is first one?
Edwards: This is his first one.
Tavis: He told me, yeah, yeah.
Edwards: So I was just telling him, you know, it does hurt as much as they say it does. You know, I think he'll relate to the same thing. But I had the experience when we went around the world of falling in love with Africa. I was able to work - I had met a man who had started an organization that was using the sport of running as a way to empower women in Africa, so he puts on running races for women and for children and gives them a pair of shoes and a t-shirt and creates a huge running event.
Through those running events, you then get education on AIDS, HIV, different health components because you've got that group together through the joy of sport. I just thought that's a great venue actually for change, so I got involved and I started working with him. From the last three years, I've become the Chairman of the organization and we continue to do that work.
But something else came up while we were doing that after the post-election violence last year, which was the incredible need that the government and Kenya has for a public children's hospital. They had the plans in place. They just needed the funding.
So we've partnered with them and we're spearheading this effort to raise $15 million dollars to build the first public children's hospital in Africa and it will be the largest children's hospital in Africa, first public in Kenya, excuse me. So there's a rendering of it.
It is something that we take for granted here. We think, oh, if you have a sick kid, I mean, here we are in Los Angeles. You know, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. My daughter's life was saved in that hospital. You know, I didn't have to think, oh, we have availability of healthcare. The problems that we have of healthcare in this country are things that, you know, people in Kenya would love to have those problems.
So as a result, one of the ways we're doing it is we're using what we do and what we talk about doing, which is running, so we've got a group of 30 people and we, like Ed Norton, are running the New York City Marathon with that, although we're doing it in hospital scrubs. So the idea is that Dr. Greene has come back to life to -
Tavis: - to run the marathon (laughter).
Edwards: Yeah, to build the hospital.
Tavis: I've done three marathons and I had trouble doing it in the regular gear. Running it in scrubs, I really can't imagine doing that. Two questions, though, based upon what you just said to me about this hospital. One - and you started to answer this, but I want to just let you unpack this a little bit more.
I've heard this before and I'm sure you may have, Americans who will say to somebody like you, "Oh, it's nice that Anthony Edwards is doing that in Kenya, but there's so many issues that we have here in the country that we ought to be focusing our attention on. Why can't people do this and why can't people do this and why couldn't he have done this and why couldn't he have done that?" Your response to those persons is what?
Edwards: Well, one of the things I learned from going around the world, one of the things that struck me from going around the world for the year, when I came back to this country is the overwhelming feeling and ability to see that there is so much excess in this country. We have more than enough excess to take care not only of ourselves, but of the globe.
What I'm reminded of is probably what this country felt like in the 20s during the Depression when, all of a sudden, people were reaching out for the first time to take care of ghettos within this country that they didn't have anything to do with before. But they knew as a country, the strength of the country was only gonna be helped if the ghettos could be strong, if the people in poverty could rise up.
We are a global community now and African is an under-served part of this planet that we live on. The fact is, there is no pediatric healthcare there. So if we want Africa to not be a drain on the world financially, if you want to do it for just financial reasons, we've got to get it healthy and strong.
The amazing thing that's overwhelming when you're in Africa is they're just lacking the opportunity. The will, the power, the passion is really moving. What we can do there for $15 million dollars in Africa would cost $250 million dollars to do in this country. You know, I think there's plenty of room for a lot of good causes. I worked for years in autism research and raising money for that and awareness to it and you realize there isn't a competition.
It's great that Ed Norton's doing this. I'm not in competition with Ed Norton because of his - what you realize is only through individual passions does anything get done. I love running, I love Africa, I love the opportunity of empowering women and making a difference there, and pediatric health has always been something I've been concerned about, so that's what I should be doing.
Tavis: You've said twice now, by my count, that you love Africa. We've been talking specifically about your work in Kenya. I don't want to run past that another time, so let me just slow down because you and I were talking before we came on the air here about the various trips we've taken to the Continent. I know what my reasons are and part of it may be obvious because I'm an African American. But how did you fall in love with Africa?
Edwards: Well, you know, I mean, it's simple and maybe people have said it before, but the truth is, it's really where we're all from, you know. I mean, what was it, 10,000, 20,000 people made their way from that belt all the way up through Africa and started populating the rest of the world.
Maybe there is some inherent long-term, deep connection that we have to taking care of where we're from. On a simple level, it's a beautiful country. It's a beautiful country. These are some clips. I was able to work with a Masai who I'd met there. Two years ago, I brought him over and he ran the New York City Marathon. He'd never been out of there before.
But the way in which people will give you the last thing they have as a welcome to their home, it's inspirational. That's what I want my kids to see. I want my kids to open up their hearts and their homes the way I've had so many African families and people do for me. It's like the Grand Canyon. Words don't explain it.
Tavis: You got to see it.
Edwards: You know, you got to see it and feel it, and that's the trick. Our trick is, if we could get everybody to Africa once, then a lot of things would happen. But since you can't you got to tell the stories, make the films, bring the enthusiasm and show how what a difference it makes when people give their five dollars or their ten dollars.
Tavis: Let me close our conversation, which I could do for hours. I'm enjoying talking to you. Since you raised your kids, again a couple of times in this conversation, I want to connect these two things and get your take on it because every parent I think in one way, shape or form wrestles with this, particularly those and especially those who have a heart for humanity and I mean all of humanity, as you obviously do.
How do you, in a world of excess, as a parent who has been blessed beyond measure because of the Hollywood opportunities, how do you instill that? How do you get that through to your children?
Edwards: You know, you got to lead by example. I think you have to - in our case, traveling has been a big part of it, seeing the world, seeing how people live. I think, you know, generosity and compassion are things that can be done in subtle, simple ways, and it's as simple as, you know, when I'm on the subway with my kids, how do you deal with other people? How do you take them in? Do you deal with them like, oh, we live on the Upper Eastside and we've got all this or do you live a life in which everybody's equal?
That's all you can do as a parent because the truth is, just being born in this country, you're already so blessed in a way. I mean, that's what we talked about in the hospital all the time. It's like we don't get to choose where we're born, so if you're lucky enough to have a lot, then you'd better do a lot.
Tavis: Perfect note on which to end. Anthony Edwards is in the new film, Motherhood, opposite one Uma Thurman, and running the New York City Marathon and finishing in record time in his scrubs to raise money for Shoe4Africa. Anthony, I'm delighted to have met you.
Edwards: Oh, my pleasure, Tavis.
Tavis: Glad to have you on the show.
Edwards: Like I said, I've been listening to you for so many years and it's great to get to meet you in 3D.
Tavis: I'm honored to have you on. Come back any time and good luck in the race.
Edwards: I will. We'll give you an update.
Tavis: All right. Let me know.
Back to October 22, 2009