Between Riverside and Crazyis finally coming to Broadway after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015.
Pops is a retired New York City policeman and recent widower when Junior is released from jail.
In this case,cuddlyalso entails booze, drugs, and prostitutes."
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STEPHEN MCKINLEY HENDERSON:Common, how has it been?
This is your first Broadway show.
COMMON:It’s been one of the greatest lessons in life that I’ve had artistically.
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This is totally a new discipline, as far as theater goes.
The practice of it, the commitment and the attention to detail I really appreciate.
Once I began acting, I wanted to act every day.
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Just to work on the craft and learn and grow.
I’m still learning.
HENDERSON:I must say, you sure been able to hang.
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We’ve had some rough road.
COMMON:Oh, thank you, brother.
I got to ask you, this is my first one.
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I don’t know how many productions you’ve had, but it’s a long history.
What is anything that is new when you get into something?
You are a master.
HENDERSON:No, it masters me.
Because you have to give it all you got.
You got one standard and it’s your best.
Whatever stage you’re performing on, it’s your best.
What keeps coming back is that the amount of care is the amount of trepidation you have.
Because the more you care, the more you want it to be greater delivered.
You want to see to it you serve the play.
And we got such a great one.
But it is always show specific too.
It is really different from each play to each play.
Because each play demands something different.
And it’s a different part of your life that you got to bring to it.
COMMON:Does the language of writers make you have to use different types of muscles or skills?
HENDERSON:It’s thought groups and breath groups.
It’s like phrasing in a song or playing an instrument.
You’re matching thought groups and breath groups.
Like August Wilson is the blues, he’s got that blues meter.
He say, “I ain’t say that.
You ain’t hear me say that.
I ain’t say nothing like that.”
You know what I mean?
He got that repetition, that three.
It’s a joy to have the challenge of this particular writer.
I never thought about it, but I’m really paying attention to breath now.
And taking these thoughts in.
It’s a new understanding for me.
HENDERSON:We’ve got to talk about rock too.
Because Stephen has a great respect for rock music as well.
There’s times that you realize that’s the emotional level of it.
That emotional level takes over.
When you coming at me sometimes, woo, man, that’s hard rock.
Because I know it had to be some pressure.
Those first few days, what was that like?
COMMON:The first few days I felt you all embraced me.
That in itself made me know, “Okay, look, I’m welcome here.
I gotta deliver.”
That’s the family.'
But you doing your thing, man."
Liza don’t give compliments.
She’s straight, no chaser.
So, that was one of those, “You with us, we got you.
We see that you care.
We see that you’re going to give your best.
We know you coming in humbly.”
I always use the metaphor of being a freshman in high school and y’all like seniors, juniors.
Y’all been around each other and been doing it.
It was a lot of love more than anything.
I started eventually feeling like I’m part of the process and taking in everything.
One of the things I love to do most in life is learn.
I want to learn.
I’m a seeker.
Stephen, I’m the new cat.
There’s certain things that are required to play the role.
Your concern for society and civilization’s concern for human rights and so forth.
You really have a true concern for him.
That’s unique of you.
The other actors had that to do.
But it’s the humanity that you bring to the work because this is work thatyouactually do.
To bring that humanity with it, we grateful to have you.
COMMON:Thanks brother.
I’m grateful to be here.
The research side doesn’t change.
But film requires a different discipline than the stage requires.
The essence of it is acting.
Acting started as a language art.
Film started as an image, silently.
But the research into the character is an in-depth thing because you are also going into yourself.
You’re going into the character and what the character goes through.
But you are also saying, “Okay, now what part of that has a synchronicity with me?
Where do I find that?
Where does it coincide with something in my life?”
With the craft, there are things you have to be private about it.
Because you’ve giving something of yourself, and it’s in the work.
But is there anything you’d like to share about how you are finding Junior?
But then some of it is so sacred that it is not meant for that.
It’s so close to your spirit and your heart, it’s like your child.
You don’t let nobody touch your child.
I’ve had a rehearsal on a TV project or film, but never four or five weeks.
To have that much time allocated to rehearsal is great.
That’s one of the biggest differences.
And then also, you don’t get no trailer.
[Laughs] You share that dressing room sometimes.
HENDERSON:How are you adjusting to the different audiences?
Because every audience is not the same.
They’re clapping or they laughing.
Certain things, you’re like, “I didn’t know this was funny.”
Every audience member hears that.
That’s a part of the scene.
COMMON:Yeah, the audience is like part of the play at that point.
HENDERSON:The experience tonight, it’s their experience.
COMMON:That’s one of the things I really do love.
It’s no editing and no going back.
So that living organism that we got there is just for tonight.
It’s alive tonight.
This is what we feeling and what energy we bring at this moment.
It might come to you in that moment.
The fact that we only had that for that night is a beautiful thing to me.
That’s the beauty of theater.
Growing up, I always loved going to plays.
I would always feel inspired.
I would always feel like, “Man, I could be something in life.”
I grew up in Kansas.
All I had to do was go down the street and be in a play.
My first thing I loved was poetry.
That was the first thing that got me.
I remember I was a freshman in high school and this teacher asked me to be in this play.
It was being a part of something that was larger than me.
We knew that we were doing something in a unified way.
And it was creative, not destructive.
It pulls people into creative behavior and then they understood that they could be something.
Because if you could play a character, then you could have a profession.
you could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer.
I didn’t know how far I was going to go with it.
COMMON:One of the things I love most about acting is it’s a team effort.
I love that team camaraderie.
That’s why I say I want more creative programs in our communities.
It is divine because that’s how you get from this level to that level.
I went from Kansas City to Chicago and Chicago to New York.
COMMON:But it’s amazing how you find your purpose in something that you love.
God will take you on that path because that’s what’s supposed to be.
You’re supposed to distribute his divinity through the work you do.
