- Hi, I'm Hermene Hartman with N'Digo Studio.

Today in the living room we've got a movie star.

I want you to meet Harry Lennix.

He's an American actor.

You may have seen him, you may have seen him on the theater stage, maybe in the movies, and even on television.

Well, let me tell you about him.

He's a native Chicagoan mixed with a little Creole, and his critics include "Man of Steel", "The Blacklist" and "The Barbershop".

His Broadway debut, well, it was with August Wilson's Tony nominated "Radio Golf".

His television role, you might remember "Commander in Chief".

It was a Golden Globe nominated.

And then his other appearances have included "The Matrix: Reloaded", "The Matrix Revolution" and then my favorite Adam Clayton Powell.

"Keep The Faith Baby".

You've seen him in "Law and Order" and you have seen him about to be on Broadway.

He's an award-winning actor, and we caught up with him in Chicago as he stars at the Goodman Theater in "Inherit the Wind".

He's a graduate Northwestern University where he majored in acting and directing N'digo Studio, N'digo Studio For more information about this show.

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Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The Chicago Community Trust.

Sin City Studios, Lamborghini Chicago, Gold Coast, and Downers Grove.

Blue cross, blue.

Shield of Illinois.

Commonwealth Edison and the Illinois Health Plan.

Dance studio.

Harry Lennix, welcome.

- It was great to be in the living room with you, Hermene.

- How are you?

- I'm well, I'm doing well.

- So you didn't start off wanting to be an actor?

- No.

- You were waiting for the baseball season to start.

Tell me about that.

- Well, I wasn't very good at baseball, I'm afraid to say.

But I was an enthusiastic player and I had made the freshman team and I was on my way to tryouts for the sophomore.

- High school - High school.

I saw these beautiful women girls from like Elizabeth Seton and Mother McCauley, and they came up to audition for the spring musical.

And I said, why not?

Why don't I audition for the play, and I got in.

- So the pretty girls led you into acting?

- That's right, they always-- - Works every time, works every time.

Took you right out that priesthood thing.

- That's right.

- Well, and then you taught English and music.

- Yes, in Chicago Public schools, primarily at Bass Elementary School on 66 and Racing in Englewood.

It turns out that on the crew here today, as a former student, I run into my former students a good deal.

But I did, I taught music and social studies.

How long do you do that?

About eight years.

Oh, wow.

Yes.

I was acting at night and, then teaching during the day.

So I would hop on the CTA and then a bus and get to make the curtain call.

- So how did Chicago, the city and these collective experiences, how did they prepare you for the stage?

- Well, Chicago has this motto of being the city that works, and that certainly was the case for me.

I was probably overworked at the time.

At one point I was doing two plays and teaching at multiple schools.

- At the same time?

- Yes, yes.

I just did two plays at the same time here in Chicago this past spring.

I was doing "How I Learned What I Learned" at the Broadway Playhouse and also doing "Purpose at the Steppenwolf".

And these were simultaneous productions.

So I took a little bit of time off of "Purpose" to do that other play.

- You must be genius level.

That's hard.

You got scripts to learn.

You got theatrical stuff to learn.

And you did both of them at the same time?

- I did, yes.

I would say at this point I probably have three plays in my head, actually four.

I just did "Macbeth" and "Portugal".

How did you do that?

How do you do that?

Well, you know, for some reason, whatever reason, my, there's no such thing as, photographic memory, but whatever's close to that, I've got that so I can.

I can look at something 4 or 5 times and then be able to pretty much recite the.

Memorized pretty.

Easily.

Did you is that did you learn that innate?

Did you learn that in school?

Did you learn that teaching?

How'd you learn that?

I honestly believe that it is, what I learned that quickly.

South.

You know, like learning different languages.

That's when I first started learning languages and scripture and, and, learning how the grammar, say, for example, Latin or Spanish.

When you do things by rote, you start to recognize patterns of, Of records.

Right?

Rote learning.

I don't have it for math, but I but I have a pretty good for words.

I have it for reading.

I can read like that.

I can take a book and knock it out two hours.

And it's from grammar school.

When you take the ruler.

Right?

Go through real quick when.

- Let's talk about the mediums.

You've been in all mediums.

- Yes.

- So being on stage theater versus television versus movies, what do you like best?

- Well, I think my answer's changed over the years.

If you'd asked me that question when I was first starting out in the Chicago Theater, it would've, it was theater.

I started doing movies in about 1990 with the "Five Heartbeats", et cetera.

And then it quickly became movies.

And then I gained great appreciation, respect for doing 10 years on "The Blacklist" on television.

And I started to appreciate the long form storytelling where you can live with a character for many years and really kinda get to know who that character is as opposed to doing it one time and then being done with that.

So I think at this point, I would say television, although I'm of the opinion that the easiest job in all of show business is the half hour sitcom.

- The half hour-- - Which I've never done.

- Okay so that's in your future ready to do.

Ready to do so you that's that's your so TV is your preference?

I think it is just because of the job stability.

You know, the, the the predictability of it.

You're yeah, I think it is at the moment.

Okay now you've done historic roles, - [Harry] Many.

- And you like to play historic roles I take it.

- I do.

- So how do you prepare, for example, the life of a Adam Clayton Powell or Malcolm X, how do you prepare for those type of roles?

- The great thing about modern his, well any history is that you can do the research.

So for me, getting the books, I remember I met, I read Will Haygoods, "King of Cats", that was my favorite.

Adam Powell book autobiography "Adam on Adam", I met his sons some actually close friends with Adam III and Adam IV.

So, there's a wealth of material that you could look at.

Of course when if they're young enough people like Adam Powell, Malcolm X, et cetera, you can look at tape and you can literally study them.

Now we try, I think as a rule, not to just do impersonations and copy them, manner for manner, but people talk about capturing the spirit of things.

But I try to make it a kind of delicate balance where you can recognize, oh, that's how Malcolm might say that word.

Where Adam Powell had a very thick New York accent.

So he says, my city of New York and these kinds of things where he pronounces New York in a certain way.

So it was those kinds of things where you hinge your characterization on what they actually did.

But of course, whenever you're doing a movie or a play of these, this is not real life.

It's it's, a kind of fantasy, as it were, or it's its own reality.

And so that's where you get to bring your own personality and, and flair into it.

I loved Adam Clayton Powell.

That's my that's my favorite.

So here's my second favorite politician.

Who was your first.

The great Harold Washington.

All right.

Now.

All right.

All right.

Number three is Bill Clinton.

So we go from Adam to hero.

Yes.

Yes, we did.

Come from Adam Clayton.

Yes we did when I was a little girl, maybe five, six, seven years old, I would read about Adam Clayton Powell and I'd tell my mother, I'm gonna marry somebody just like that one day.

And she said, oh, good for you.

- Yeah yes, I'm sure he wouldn't have had a problem with it.

- [Hermene] Oh, okay.

- How do you select your roles?

Are you very conscious about your selections?

Do you imagine or do you say, I want to play someone, a certain person?

How do you select your roles that she.

When I first started out, it was very much, you know, you're at the whim of the industry.

what was being offered.

And I knew things that I didn't want to do, like I didn't want to just be playing bad guys or thugs or this kind of thing.

- Cops and robbers.

- That kind, yeah.

Two dimensional parts.

So normally I just look for something if it's an interesting story or if it's an interesting project, if it's a great director, if it's a great script, even if it's a small role, I'm inclined to do it.

If it's a great character, as long as it's, not in any way a demeaning thing or-- - Conscious of the image.

of that and conscious of the medium.

Can't just do anything.

But I just normally look for, authenticity or interesting story.

That's kind of how I look at things is what story will I write?

But he's got to be the real thing.

I don't want to write the I don't want to write fiction, right?

Oh, you don't.

Look, I don't want to write fiction.

So what are some of the lessons you've learned from acting?

You've had a marvelous career.

What are some of the real lessons you've learned?

- You know, the, I guess the great thing about doing the research of characters, particularly with people like Adam Powell, Malcolm X, I just played Thurgood Marshall for example, is that you learn what the situation what the situation in which they were creating this legislation or policy.

The bravery, the courage that they had.

So, so really, what I love is the ability to go back in time and learn what it was like, that in many ways, it's a reminder of things that I've forgotten.

I mean, the world of politics now in Chicago is radically different than when I was growing up.

And Mayor Daley was the only mayor that anybody had ever known 'cause he was mayor for so long.

And then when Harold came on, and then since then, what the realities of the city have been.

So you get to go back in time and I think what I have learned more than anything is the more things change-- - The more they remain the same.

- The same.

- Which brings me to the current play that you're doing at the Goodman.

"Inherit the Wind", which is a historical play where you're looking at 100 years, hence, but bringing it right on up to some things that we're going through today.

And the character that you play is patterned after the great Clarence Darrow.

- That's right.

- Tell me about that role.

- Well, the role in the play is Henry Drummond.

The play was about 30 years after the actual trial.

The trial was 1925.

The play was produced in 1955.

- What was the trial about?

- The trial was the, so-called Scopes Monkey trial.

And in Dayton, Tennessee, there was a teacher put on trial and he volunteered to be put on trial for teaching evolution, Darwinian evolution and not biblical creationism.

And so, because this was a statute in their law, he knew that they knew they wanted to make hay out of this whole thing because it was really a tide that was turning.

Nobody was buying anymore that the earth could be created in seven days and in light of the scientific discoveries.

Personally, I'm not so sure about that.

I think that there's great evidence, perhaps a more, it makes more sense that some of the geographical things that we see, for example, the Grand Canyon, molten rock layers, rock layers being formed, it looks like it's quite consistent with what may have happened during a global flood.

You look at even the stones at the pyramids or in Stonehenge, how did those stones get hundreds of miles from point A to point B where they were built outside of, say, a alien technology or so, but it would make sense if it were a flood that carried these things a long distance.

So I'm not so sure about it.

I don't think the earth was seven days as we reckon the day.

But I do think that it makes more sense that it was a short event and of a rather cataclysmic nature.

But that said, I'm playing Darrow and he is very much a Darwinian, or at least wants to be open to the possibility.

And what I think more than anything is that this is a play about the right to express what we think and to be tolerant of different views.

- We're gonna take a look.

We're gonna take a quick clip and look at the play as we speak.

- Jury is just now returning to render its verdict in the famous Hillsborough Monkey trial case.

(upbeat music) The devil don't run this town.

- I am trying to establish, your honor that Howard or Colonel Brady or Charles Darwin, or anyone in this courtroom, or you sir, has the right to think.

Loneliest feeling in the world standing up when everybody else is sitting down.

Hollywood's changed since your career started?

- Yes, it has.

- The world of film and TV has changed and we've opened up tremendously with the creation of streaming.

- Yes.

- Netflix, Apple, Prime Video.

And this has given actors greater exposure, more roles, more opportunities, more acting.

What do you think of black Hollywood as it exists today?

- You know it's, I don't really know.

I've been a part of it.

I've been doing "The Five Heartbeats" and "Mo Money" and certain things like that.

I think that Spike Lee movies and if that is black Hollywood, whatever black Hollywood is, I'm not sure anymore.

There was a time when it was really kind of balkanized in that way where the black people were doing this and the Mexican people were doing this and Asians and so forth.

But I think more and more-- - It's changed now though.

I think it's more of a big tent and that, people have taken, you know, and folded those demographics into a bigger system.

So I think that everybody kind of took the buyout and that there and that I don't mean that in a bad way.

I just think that if you're going to have a Netflix or a Amazon or HBO or whatever, they understand that in order to keep their audience growing, they need to increase their viewership.

And so I think that, that that's where it is now, it's kind of hard to differentiate.

What do.

You think about AI.

Though?

How's that affecting your work or.

- Well, we just went on a strike.

- [Hermene] Just came off strike, I know.

- We came on a strike was this-- - [Hermene] And it was a AI strike.

- Yeah that was what they say was the big thing.

I mean, for us, for me, for the rank and file, it was where do we get our money anymore?

Like when we were doing, when I came into Hollywood, the VHS was huge and places like Blockbuster Video were huge.

And we got a much bigger share.

Even though it was a tiny percentage, it was a much bigger share of this stuff that we're getting now, we get a fraction of a penny.

And so that was really the issue, that we were a-- - Fraction of a penny?

- Of a penny for every time they show something.

So we're, let's just say I might have made, just for the sake of argument, $10,000 in the lifetime of "The Five Heartbeats".

The residual checks.

Now I'd be lucky if those things get you $1000 because when it went to DVD, it was a fraction of what the VHS tapes were or the re-airing on the actual network television.

That was very lucrative.

But it ain't that way no more 'cause now they've, they have manufactured in such a way were subsidiaries of, say, for example, NBC, where they have Peacock or they have other streaming.

Paramount, CBS all.

Of those things are less lucrative than broadcast television.

So rather, remember, it was really just for was ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

Now it's hundreds and those are, are not as lucrative.

And I understand that.

But the money has gone just like that, just as in music with the Spotify and the iTunes and the rest of it.

That's why the they have to the artists have to go out on tour to make any kind of decent money because they get very, very little money.

So somebody getting it for some entity is getting it, but not the artists.

Well, what do you think about it in the image side of it, in the voice side of it, in the I could take your image and duplicate it in such a way.

Yeah.

Where you may get some money or you may not, but the whole image of you could be changed.

What do you think about that?

I've seen I've seen it.

You know, we've all sort of experienced looking at it and seeing what the threat of it is and all that, but I'm not scared of it.

I don't I'm not.

Afraid of it.

I'm not.

I don't buy it for one second.

Well, I can tell when something is a real fire or a computer generated thing, so it doesn't fool me.

And I see these little demo movies that, the people make.

And you could look at, you know, the corner of the ceiling.

Or if you don't, you.

But I took that.

That's nonsense.

And I don't think people are going to buy it.

And I don't think anybody wants to see someone who's not the actual human being, being the actual human.

But authenticity still works.

There's something in the human spirit that knows and can differentiate between what is real and what is not.

This goes back.

This goes back, this is what "The Matrix" is about.

The original "Matrix" movie is based on a philosophical treatise.

There will be a time coming when the replication thing, the copy is more real than the real thing.

And I, but I don't think that.

- [Hermene] You don't think so?

- No, I do not.

You have to convince me of that so that I've yet to become that.

That's like saying the AI is going to be smarter than man ten by 10,000 fold.

Right?

And it's not it's not.

No, no, these.

Things make mistakes.

All that like, you know, you look at what's happened, they think they could predict the weather or, or other things, but perhaps with, you know, health outcomes and this kind of thing and predicting and probabilities and so but, These machines aren't so damn smart.

- They're still machines, aren't they?

- Yes, they are.

- And somebody's got to program that.

- That's right.

- That's right okay.

So who's your favorite actor?

- Probably Anthony Hopkins.

- Character actor, terrific.

- Yes, yes.

Character actor, lead actor.

He is probably my, there's so many though.

- I know.

But who's your favorite actress?

- Alfre Woodard.

I'd still have to say I think that she is the undiscovered jewel of the American theater and film.

Alfre Woodard.

- [Hermene] And your favorite movie?

- Of all time?

- Of all time.

I'll give you three.

All right.

Lawrence of Arabia.

The Godfather.

You like Marlon Brando?

I love father, brother, lover and friend.

One of my favorite.

Yeah.

And, I guess if I had to, to pick a third.

there's a movie called "Hobson's Choice" with the great Charles Lawton, who's probably my favorite actor of all time in terms of like, just acting, no longer with us, of course.

But I love, yeah, it's a great movie.

David Lean is my favorite director.

- David Lean.

Okay.

Now you are building a center.

- [Harry] Yes.

- South side Chicago.

- [Harry] Yes.

- Tell me about that project.

- So the center's called the Lilian Mercy Center for the Performing Arts.

And my goal for it is really to have in Chicago, the epicenter of a national black performing arts museum and show and center where people can actually see the performing arts that we have contributed as a people, the only indigenous cultural forms in these United States.

in these United States.

So black dance, black music, black theater, black oratory.

Performing, performing.

Yes.

And, and to have two stages there, to train people at any age, so taking them from babies to late in adulthood and to say that those people who don't have a place or a way or the method to express themselves in the beautiful way that we have invented that they could learn it here and that it could be the national, center for these Performing Arts.

You know, I'm, there's a beautiful line in the Bible, which is the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

And what I want to be able to do is to tell the children of Inglewood and Bronzeville and South Shore that where, you know, we want you, where you could not get into this school or on that stage or in this place.

We are looking to train you, to bring you up so that you would have a world class center from which to express yourself.

And that is, that's the Lily and Mercy Center.

So beyond the training, you will actually have performances too?

Yes, yes.

Of of all the performing arts, school, theater.

All of the performing arts.

So dance, we'll have a dance program, music program, hopefully even a symphony orchestra.

I know why we would not, a resident theater company or companies, resident dance companies, resident, and to get the archives, for example, of our great speakers and-- - Oratory.

- Orator.

- To celebrate it.

- All of that, yes.

And my real model has always been the Lincoln Center.

You know, that's 11 entities-- - In New York yes.

- Which are centered in one place.

Entities that had existed in other parts of the city until the Rockefellers, John Rockefeller Junior really, got some land in the center of the city, displaced some families, but it's a-- - But he brought it all together.

- He brought it all together and it's a marvel of engineering, of performance, showcasing and all of these things.

- Congratulations on that.

- Thank you.

We're working on it.

- That will be a cornerstone.

- It will be, we are-- - And it'll change the area.

It'll change the neighborhood.

It will, it will be a gift to the people.

- It'll change the world.

I think every day that it is not in existence, lives that could be saved are not being saved.

Souls that could be saved are not being saved.

And I, it's sad that at the moment we're kind of boggled down and red tape, but we are convinced that this is worth fighting for and that there's enough help out there that if God so wills it that we'll be able to get underway building it.

- Congratulations to you.

It's a heck of an idea.

And like any good idea, you gotta keep fighting for it.

You gotta keep pushing forward it, but it will be major and under your helm, it will be great.

- Thank you.

I wish, I can't take full credit for the idea, but I am happy to quarterback it.

- Good.

- Yes.

- Good.

Harry Lennix, it's been wonderful to talk to you.

And have you in the living room, catch up with you.

And thank you very much.

Always great to see you.

Thank you for for listening.

Thank you.

Thanks.

This is Indigo Studio with her Mean Hartman.

And today our guest has been Harry Linux.

Thank you for being with us.

And we look forward to seeing you next time.

For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The Chicago Community Trust.

Sin city Studios, Lamborghini Chicago, Gold Coast, and Downers Grove.

Blue cross, blue.

Shield of Illinois.

Commonwealth Edison and the Illinois Health Plan.

N'digo Studio.