Masiela Lusha - My Life As A Refugee

Full transcript: Masiela Lusha on London Real

3:37 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Masiela Lucia, the actress, author, and humanitarian. At 14, you gained worldwide recognition on the sitcom George Lopez and have starred in over 20 films, including the cult movie series Sharknado alongside David Hasselhoff. In 2010, you were appointed Ambassador of Prince Harry’s Charity, Centabale.

4:54 And in 2014, appointed as the World Assembly of Youth Goodwill Ambassador. You’ve written five books on poetry, two children’s books and have translated prayers and poems by Mother Teresa from your native Albania language, Masiela. Welcome to London. Hello. You like that?

5:10 I have a lot to learn and further to go and grow. Thank you. You’re welcome. Welcome to London. Thank you. I love it here.

5:18 London, to me, maybe this is reflecting back on my childhood, growing up in Vienna and Budapest, but it feels like home. There’s a very familiar energy, and it feels very intuitive being here, so I love coming back. Like a European feel to it, right? It could be that. Yeah.

5:36 Could be a past life, I don’t know. Could be. One thing I didn’t mention in all of that is kind of where you were born and then your transit kind of through Europe before you got to Michigan and then to LA. Oh, boy. We’re in Europe.

5:47 I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your familiarity with places like Vienna and things like that. Well, that’s a whole other interview. Yeah. Actually, I started in Albania. I was born in Tanana, the capital city, and it was just my mother and I.

6:02 I was about three years old when we left as refugees, and I lived in Budapest from there. That’s our first stop, then Vienna in Austria, then Michigan and then Los Angeles. But I’ve spent more time in LA than anywhere else in the world, so I do consider myself more of an Angelino. Okay. What was going on in Albania at the time to cause refugees?

6:21 Was the U.S. doing some bombing there? What was happening? No, the U.S. was not bombing.

6:26 Okay. This particular moment in my life, I think, impacted me more than anything, any other experience I’ve had. And I’ve had the vicissitudes ups and downs in my life, and this particularly defined me. So we were refugees. My mother had one dream, and that dream was to be an American, and she wanted to take her daughter there.

6:47 And this is at the time during communism, during the crumbling of the walls, to say you wanted to be an American and bring your daughter there to be an actress was similar to saying I’m going to the moon. So nobody believed her, and the doors were finally opened for one embassy, the Hungarian embassy opened their doors, and that was her opportunity. Actually, her journey is quite phenomenal. At 28 years old, 29, she went into the embassy doors. She had me in her arms, and actually she was run over by a car about a year before, so she was in crutches.

7:22 So she was recovering from that, and she told the guard, she said, look over there. Do you see? I think someone’s trying to get your attention. Can you see him? And he turned around, and she ran into the embassy, because even though they had opened the doors symbolically, there was no way to enter as an Albanian.

7:37 So that’s where we started. And we took one bus with 30 other refugees, and this particular moment here is what really defined me. In that bus, there were foreigners that weren’t Albanian. And I later found out when I was about 10 years old, my mom told me, she said those foreigners were American volunteers, because there was a threat to bomb the bus. And that threat came from the Albanian government, because we were considered traitors.

8:04 We left the country. You can’t leave the country. And they were American volunteers who sat by the window to protect us in case there was a bombing on the bus, complete strangers from a different end of the world with different cultures and different expectations in life. And they volunteered for us. And from that moment, I was dedicated to philanthropy because I felt if I was saved from philanthropy, what kind of person?

8:29 What kind of human being could I be if I couldn’t contribute for the rest of my life to make up for this life that potentially that I was saved from? So, yeah, that was it. That was our journey. Then we stayed in Budapest for about a year and Vienna for another year and a half. I learned each language out of necessity.

8:46 My mom told me, if you’re in the country, you owe them the credit to learn their language and to learn their culture and respect them in that way. You’re their guest. And I absorbed it completely. Eventually we came to Michigan. My great uncle lived in Macomb, Michigan.

9:03 He was a colonel in the army. He was a doctor. And he sponsored our trip. So immediately I was introduced to the American dream and the promises that we could aspire to. So that’s where I started.

9:13 Then L.A., I was discovered by… I mean, this could keep going. What are you doing next? Going to Mars or something? Ideally, no.

9:21 There’s a lot of pretty incredible things happening to you along the way. Let me ask, why did your mother have dreams of America? Because I’m guessing when she grew up in Albania, kind of behind the iron curtain, the wall came down in 89 in Berlin, right? So then things slowly started opening up and you left there around 90 or in the early 90s. You left Albania, right?

9:40 Yes. Okay. Do you know why she was always fascinated or that was a goal? She was… The older I get, the more I realize I could never match her in her courage.

9:51 I can’t. She was her own species of a woman and she defined her own rules and she was unapologetic about her dream and that was her dream. And if you told her she couldn’t go to Mars, she would find a way to get to Mars. Unfortunately for me, I’m more, you know, practical. I can’t find those big aspirations, but she could.

10:09 So she’s been inspiring me my entire life. I mean, like you said, the walls crumbled and the country imploded. It was anarchy. Because it was part of Yugoslavia and then it broke down in all these other small countries, right? And each one had their own religions, fiefdoms, histories.

10:26 That’s right. And they shouldn’t have even maybe necessarily been one country in the first place. So it was probably very chaotic times. And what’s heartbreaking is we have so many beautiful traditions as Albanians that we’re still trying to repair. We’re still trying to define our identity here in the global world, in the global environment.

10:44 But it’s such a beautiful country and the language is beautiful and the people are so gentle. They’re gentle souls. And I just wish the rest of the world could just see this more and more. And I think we’re trying. We’re building it.

10:56 We’re building our identity again because we completely lost it. We built it from the ground up. Yeah. I think a lot of the countries in former Yugoslavia are still struggling, whether it’s Serbia, Montenegro, you know, a lot of these countries, you know, trying to find their identity and who they are. And so, yeah, it’s a strange situation.

11:13 That whole country had a strange history. And so, you know, it makes sense that that was happening. Do you get to go back? So I’ve been back twice. I came back and I visited Pogradet, which is another city within Albania that I’m familiar with through my ancestry.

11:30 I visited Pogradet and I visited Tirana at the capital that I was born in. And one particular part of my life was I visited Albania for a film that I did, Time of the Comet. It was a completely Albanian film. They needed it in a specific dialect that I wasn’t familiar with, but I learned over the summer. And I spent three months in the Balkans in Skopje, Macedonia and a bit in Albania.

11:55 And the second time was I was an ambassador for a charity, the World Assembly of Youth. And we held our conference in Tirana. And again, stepping onto that platform, it just felt like home. The air felt familiar. And I don’t know why.

12:12 Even though you were so small. I was so small. Do you remember anything from there? I remember raspberries and I remember the bus. The bus, yeah.

12:18 Probably because there were so many emotions happening around with you that you probably remember that. There’s actually a YouTube video. I can’t find it now. I can’t locate it anymore. But there’s a video of my mom and I coming off the bus, her holding me in her arms.

12:31 And then I lost the link. Okay. From like some news broadcast. Some news archival something. Okay.

12:37 I mean, you have a unique perspective on refugees because you were one. You lived through it. And you said you feel this kind of calling and connection to Europe. What, you know, what light can you shine on the present day? I mean, I think the biggest thing we see here is Syrian refugees.

12:53 And we see this a lot in London because they have to kind of cross sometimes the Mediterranean and they’re coming through EU borders and like no one knows how to feel about it. And when this little boy washes up, you know, dead on the beach with like his Sunday clothes on, like everybody just, you know, they don’t know what to say and we don’t know how to help. But can you give us some perspective on just even the concept of refugees? That image of that boy, I still carry it.

13:20 What would it take for a human being to leave behind every figment of their identity and their history and their comfort? What would it take? What kind of torture did they have to go through to get to that point in their life where they said, nothing is worth it. I either live or I die and I need to get out of here. And to take a child through that journey as well is they can never take it out of them.

13:43 That will be part of their identity. I think without being political, because I’m not a political person, I don’t intend to imbue any conversations with politics at the moment. But on a human level, just to open up perspective and humanity and a sense of comfort and to say, you are welcome here because we are one Earth. In the end, if you reduce us, we are one humanity. And regardless of these borders and these policies, see, now I’m going back to politics.

14:14 It’s hard not to. It’s so hard not to. It’s so sad that humanity has to be so interlinked with policies. Why? Why can’t we just love?

14:25 And these children are not asking for it. They didn’t want it. They don’t even understand it. Why are they put in a position where they’re judged or they’re forced into exile or into a position where they don’t even have a home? They weren’t asked.

14:37 They didn’t have a vote. At some point, I think we need to pull that aside and just peel back that layer of that surface and just say, what is deeper that we can connect with? And I don’t know if we found it yet. Yeah. I mean, do you think we should be borderless as a world?

14:53 No, I don’t think so. I don’t know. See, this is why. I know. It’s complicated.

14:58 I feel like I always have this anxiety where I’m either I misread information in the news or I misled or I don’t know enough and I need to research more. So I’m not going to impose any of my ideas. Yeah. But you’re speaking from your heart as in like this is obviously a tragedy and a travesty. It is.

15:16 People, it’s not like, like you said, it’s not like they’re just trying to be opportunists. They’re leaving their whole family identity and culture behind. What does that take to do that? Yeah, taking dangerous votes with their children. And regardless of whether in America, whether you’re liberal or conservative, I think in the end, we can understand.

15:33 That is the basis of it. We can fathom it. We just have to find a way to navigate it. Yeah. All right.

15:39 Not to get into politics, but I do want to say that the tone has changed recently in America. Obviously, Trump’s been elected and I haven’t been there since, but also apparently they’re really looking after people that are not legally in the country now. And like those people might be sent home. Is it tense in America? Is it?

15:57 And also LA and the West Coast is probably the most vocal about this new policy and this new person. But does that stress you out? Is that a similar thing or is that like a different policy than say refugees? Well, the air has changed. It feels more there’s a static change in the air.

16:12 I can feel it in America, especially it’s I am a strong believer because I love history. I love and I love biographies, autobiographies, memoirs. And I feel that through all my absorbing of that, I can sense that we as a humanity, we move in an upward growth. When we move forward, we move forward towards progress and towards justice. And whatever the seismic shifts that we’re going through right now as a country, I do believe it’ll settle.

16:41 And I do think we’ll find ourselves again with one uniform direction at some point. And until that happens, I don’t know, I’m either misinformed or uninformed. I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know where to get my information. So right now, I just still want to step back and absorb.

16:55 But I do have a lot of hope. We’ve recovered a bit in the past as well. And I think we can do it again. Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting time to say the least. I mean, we had a Brexit vote here, you know, three or four months before the election.

17:08 And, you know, when you’re in London, as I was reminded by one of my guests, London is not England, you know, and just why New York and LA are not America. And so sometimes we’re probably more liberal minded, more open minded. Sometimes being in this crazy urban environment where we’re like, let’s open up all of Europe. And then the rest of the country says, no, let’s not. So sometimes it’s hard to hear those things because you’re thinking, well, shouldn’t we be going to this, you know, more open society?

17:33 Right. Maybe there’s going to be a few bumps along the way. I think it’s inevitable at some point with technology, with sentiments. I think people are just more open in general. And I don’t understand this new transition, but I do feel I think in the end we will recover to some degree.

17:50 Okay. But when you hear that like refugees from seven countries aren’t being allowed into the country, you must have flashbacks to you and your mom thinking, what if Trump was really hungry and said, no, you got to go back to Albania? Well, I was so young. And I have very limited memories, except my mom did everything she could to give me a healthy and comfortable life. I don’t know what it’s like to go hungry to bed, but yet there’s a scar.

18:13 And it’s more me projecting through my mom, which she felt, and me understanding it from her perspective than it is my own personal experience because I was so young. But in the end, it just made us grow closer together. She’s my best friend. And I learned every day I ask her for advice. What’s she like as an American?

18:34 She’s an amazing writer. She’s the biggest patriot. She loves America. She hangs her flag. You cannot take her away from America.

18:42 There’s no way she is. In her mind, she is born and raised there, and that’s it. There’s no question. Okay. You’ve always been very creative.

18:50 Even when you’re not acting, you’ve been writing. And you wrote, like, your first book of poetry when you were 12, and was it published in two languages? I mean, like, that’s pretty crazy. I mean, weren’t you the youngest person to ever have a book published in two languages or something crazy? Well, look…

19:04 This is before self-publishing, so let’s not get too crazy. Right, right. But still, I mean, that’s pretty young to be writing. Where does that come from? It comes from just…

19:11 I considered writing as if kids were playing and riding their bike. To me, there was no chore. It wasn’t a chore. It was a sense of just expressing myself and loving what I did. A lot of this came from my English teacher in seventh grade, Mrs. Presta.

19:25 And she brought me in front of the class, and she said, you need to recite these poems that you’re writing, because we had to submit poems for assignments. And I wouldn’t. She said, you have to. They’re amazing. And seeing the immediate reaction from the classmates, and they actually…

19:36 They congratulated me. They loved it. They clapped, and that was the catalyst behind me writing passionately after that. I needed that validation to some degree. But to me, it was a joy.

19:47 I was reading or writing. And while I had friends and I loved to play, to me, that was what I enjoyed the most. What were you reading? Oh, gosh. What was I reading?

19:56 My mom’s poetry. She recited me her poetry, and she published her own book, so she was able to read to me her life experiences through her poems, and I was inspired then to write my own. And they were about cats. You know, they were about trying to be a model at 12 years old, but they were my poems. Yeah, damn right.

20:14 She writes in English? She wrote in Albanian. Okay. Do you speak in Albanian again? I still do.

20:21 Fuck. Fit and fuck. But I spoke more fluently from the moment I left up until I was about 18, 19 years old. And then I took a two-year break without speaking Albanian, but then the movie, they requested me to play one of the leads for Time of the Comet, and they said, by the way, this is completely in Albanian, and it’s in a specific dialect. So I brought it all back three months in Albania.

20:46 Okay. I brought it back. You relearned it all. I learned it all. It’s intuitive.

20:51 Okay. All right. So you get to America, you’re eight. Yes. You love reading, writing poetry.

20:56 Yes. All that good stuff. How do we come to this next turn in your life where you go west? How did that happen? In retrospect, you look at it.

21:02 Like, how does that happen? So I was attending classes on theater, and there was an agent who was combing the Midwest, looking for fresh faces. He originated from Los Angeles, and he landed in Detroit, Michigan. I lived about one hour north of Detroit. So my mom and I, we drove down, and there were about six.

21:21 Mom. Mom’s at it again. She’s amazing. Right? She’s part of my identity.

21:26 I just wish I had her courage, but. So he held an open call. Six hundred kids attended. He met every single one of them. And I think that was the very first impression I had of Hollywood, which was dedication from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. meeting every single child.

21:43 Six hundred of them. And in the end, he picked three to return with him to Los Angeles, and that was one of the three. And within a week, we packed our bags and left. That’s it. You always hear about these people that are scouring the country for talent, but I always thought that was just some tale.

21:57 And I didn’t quite understand the concept of acting. I didn’t know what the industry was. I knew I loved theater and dance. I danced since I was seven, ballet, jazz, tab, lyrical. But I didn’t understand that in a scene, you had cameras, and you needed to do a take multiple times.

22:11 I thought there were just hidden cameras everywhere. I didn’t understand it. So it was for me, from the ground up, I was building my identity in Hollywood. I didn’t have any connections, obviously. I didn’t have any understanding.

22:22 Within a few months, I booked the Alanis Morissette music video, Hands Clean. How old were you again? Thirteen. Thirteen, okay. At that time.

22:32 And you’ve done some modeling before that. I did. Ben Affleck. I did my very first modeling, and he came on his bike. And he was just so handsome.

22:39 I remember that day. Still is. Still is so handsome. So you did it. That was in L.A.

22:44 You did a modeling shoot with him. I did. Okay, and then it’ll let us Morissette video. So things started happening right away. JCPenney commercial.

22:50 Okay. For America and South America. What did that scout see in you? I don’t know. Come on.

22:57 I don’t know. But in retrospect. Sometimes I wonder to this day. Booking that much talent, is it just that thing they can’t put their finger on? Is it?

23:04 I think it’s an energy maybe. I was very bubbly and unapologetic. And I think I received that from my mom. And I think they like that edge. Okay.

23:14 That’s my guess. Okay. And were you the all-American girl? Quite ironically. Quite ironically.

23:19 Yeah. Until I booked George Lopez’s show and then I was Hispanic. Okay. That worked too. Okay.

23:25 You said something very strange there. You said that that scout reminded you or taught you what L.A. was all about. Mm-hmm. Which is an incredible work ethic.

23:32 Yep. Incredible work ethic. Is that what L.A. is all about? To me, that is what L.A. is.

23:37 I hear these unfortunate stories of some of my friends who spiral into an identity that they couldn’t even fathom a year before. And I don’t understand it. If somebody were to ask me, how did you stay so disconnected from that world? And so I, to this day, I don’t drink. I don’t drink.

23:55 I don’t understand any of that. And I don’t know. I wouldn’t be able to answer them because I’ve never even, it’s never even been addressed to me as an option. And to me, it’s such a foreign world. It’s as if saying, you know, how are you, like, in China?

24:08 Like, why aren’t you part of that culture? It’s like, I’ve never really, I’ve filmed there for two weeks, but I’ve never really been absorbed in that. I don’t understand how you can be. So you keep to yourself in L.A.? No, no, no, I have plenty of friends.

24:21 And I go out and went to a lot of parties, but not to that degree where I dug so deep into that culture. I don’t understand that culture. Did your mom come with you? To the parties? She was the first one dancing.

24:34 I mean, like, when she was with you in L.A.? Of course. Okay, so just having her around was helpful. She was a protective force, really reliable. And she never forced me into any position.

24:45 She would say, you know, you have two options. This is what will happen if you do this. This is what will happen if you do that. You pick. Okay, okay.

24:51 And I always tended to pick one that didn’t hurt me. Okay. There’s always that old wives tale in L.A. that as soon as someone becomes famous, that’s when they stop maturing. They said that about Michael Jackson because he was like 10.

25:02 Oh, that’s interesting. You know, when these child stars like Macaulay Culkin, they never actually end up growing up past that date. But why is that? They’re content? It’s just a theory.

25:10 It’s a theory. I think because you’ve become famous then, and maybe you don’t have to grow up. Ah, I don’t know. You heard that? I feel unsettled, though.

25:17 I feel like there’s so much more I can do and so much more I can learn. Like, I can’t fathom that either. That never happened to you. Ah, no. When I did the George Lopez show, we were fortunate to do 120 episodes on that show.

25:29 And when I left, I thought to myself, there has to be more. It was a beautiful experience, but I want to do a different genre. So every time I push myself, and I think I’ve done pretty much every genre imaginable at this point because I just needed to. I needed to see what else is there. Okay.

25:45 George Lopez, huge part of your life. Yes. There’s actually, sorry. There’s the before the George Lopez days and after. So I’ll say, oh, that was before George Lopez.

25:55 So that was after George Lopez. That’s how big it was. And just in case you’re wondering about me, I didn’t get famous until I was 43. So I don’t need to age anymore. But George Lopez, how old are you when you get that show?

26:05 I was 14, I believe. And you went until 18? No. 14, 15, 16, 17, 19. Okay. All right.

26:13 Tell me about that, the experience, how it changed you. You told me before we started that you’re really that character and that character is you in a weird way. Can you explain that? So I remember the day I received the sides for the audition. And to me, the very first thing I did is I nearly pulled my hair out because the description was, okay, Carmen, Carmen Lopez, prepubescent.

26:34 Okay. By this time I was like 15, so okay. So not that. Not that. Okay.

26:39 Check. She’s wise, but she’s immature. Okay. Whatever that means. Check.

26:47 She’s passionate, but she’s distant. And there are so many diametrically opposing comments on who she was that I just said, you know what, they want someone real. They want someone dynamic and someone authentic. I’m not going to put on a part, I’m just going to be me. And I walked in, I didn’t impose an accent.

27:03 I just, I was myself. And I felt there was such a, the writers were so authentic that it was so easy for me to dive completely into that story and understand where my character was coming from without having to affect any notes on the sides of the script. It just felt natural. Two months passed by, I didn’t hear anything. Okay.

27:23 Well, you did the, that was the test. That was the test, the audition. And I didn’t hear anything. And finally they said, what did my manager call me? She said, what did you think of the George Lopez show?

27:33 I said, I loved it. It was, it felt so real to be in there. And she said, okay, well they want to test you, ABC and Warner Brothers. All right. So I met with Warner Brothers and we were four actresses for the part and we were all nervous.

27:46 And they’re all wonderful. And I knew some of them. Oh my gosh, you’re going to get it. I know you. You’re amazing.

27:51 And then they called me back the next day. They said, okay, now you’re testing for ABC. And they reduced it to two girls. Okay. So the other girl that came in, I’m like, oh, you’re going to get it.

28:00 I know you will. And two hours later they offered me the part. And that was it. And that was life changing. And I remember that day I said, mom, can I cry?

28:08 And she said, you can cry. And that was it. Why did you ask her if you could cry? I don’t know. Was there much crying in your house?

28:15 No, actually no. Tough. That was tough. Mom’s very tough. Yeah, I figured.

28:20 Okay. Did you know the show was going to be big? I knew that it was valued in the community. I knew it was something that we needed. I didn’t anticipate anything because I was so young as far as like understanding where the trajectory could go with the show.

28:35 But I wasn’t surprised. When they said that the show was being picked up, every year it was less of a surprise. I just knew it. It resonated with the audience on a human level. And I think that’s what we needed.

28:45 Okay. Well, that’s 120 episodes for people watching, and for me too, because I don’t know what it’s like to really live and work in LA as an actress. Right. What’s it really like? What is the day-to-day struggles?

28:57 What are the hard parts? What are the easy parts? What would we be surprised to learn that we wouldn’t know about it? It’s work, and it’s defined by an incredible work ethic. And to this day, the most successful people that we’ve had the pleasure of working with are the kindest.

29:12 They truly are the kindest, and they are the hardest working. To be the lead in a film or a TV show, you’re usually the first one and last one to go, and you have to be cheerful, because in some sense, you’re defining what that energy will be like on set. And that’s one of the most thankful things that I have in my life, is the sense of I’ve learned from the best, from the most talented and the strongest, and working with ABC and Warner Brothers with some of the most talented people in the industry, I couldn’t have had a better education.

29:41 Wow. We always hear people say bad things about LA. I don’t know why. Honestly, I don’t know why. Is it people that maybe aren’t really at the top, working with these great people, doing these great things?

29:52 I don’t know. Okay. Now, you were in London just now for three days, filming Sharknado. Yes. You’re one of the leads.

29:59 Yes. What? There are a lot of leads. There are a lot of leads. Okay.

30:04 A lot of talented people. But it means that, like you said, when you’re on set, you have to have the energy to be a lead, to be professional, to bring the energy up for everybody, right? Absolutely. And that’s one of the things I loved about Sharknado. Stepping into it was immediately it felt like a family.

30:18 And they brought me in with open arms, literally. They said, come here, give me a hug. And they brought me in. They said, welcome to the Shepherd’s family. And so even though I came in during the fourth installment, I felt like I was there from the very beginning.

30:32 Okay. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of learning identities or personalities, just immediate. And yeah, so what was the question? I’m jumping around a little bit. And I want to come back to Lopez in your younger years in L.A.

30:44 But what is Sharknado for people that don’t know? So Sharknado is one of those, it’s like a pet project of mine because I’ve done so many serious and comedy. To me, this is something that was out of the comfort zone that I’ve had. So Sharknado is about a tornado that draws in sharks and mayhem ensues. And these sharks just chomp on everybody.

31:06 Okay. And my character fillets sharks for breakfast. She has her machete. She has her bow and arrow. She’s good to go.

31:13 She high kicks the sharks out of there and she’s good. Okay, so it’s pretty physical. It is pretty physical. Okay. And it’s like a cult, has a cult following and a lot of cameos and people come in there, right?

31:24 Yeah. And I think that’s why. It’s become such a phenomenon. And it trends number one on Twitter for a week when it airs. And that’s amazing to me.

31:32 And I love being a part of that family. I love it. Very different than probably any other kind of movie you would do. It is. And in a sense, it writes itself.

31:40 So usually you experience this during sitcom days where the lines are changed. But in Sharknado, it’s hard to memorize the lines because the next day when you’re about to film them, everything changes. Anthony, our director, he’s great about coming up with lines right on the spot and he’s just calling them out to you and you just go with it. You can’t question. You can’t ask.

32:01 You just go. Okay. And he’ll say, shark, look to the left. Look to the right. Shark’s just behind you.

32:06 Turn around slowly. And you just go with it. It’s like a short film. Like silent era films where they just call out these actions. And it’s a comedy.

32:14 Well, it’s a comedy. But that’s the beauty of it is it doesn’t take itself seriously but it’s actually an Armageddon-esque film. But no, it doesn’t take itself seriously. I’ve heard of other comedy films where the director’s just shouting things out just to get everybody finding out what’s funny in the moment. Yeah, you have to trust the director.

32:31 And we trust Anthony. He’s carried this film franchise from the very beginning and he helped write every single episode. I call it episode because at this point we’re having so many of them. But every single film. Okay.

32:43 And what’s a typical day like for you in the last couple days where you’re filming like, you know, just like as if I was there. Like, you know, it’s hard, right? Or long days? Long days. But, you know, when you’re loving what you do, it’s hard to put a time stamp on it.

32:58 But long days and essentially as soon as you enter that film or any film, you immediately get calls from production. You have wardrobe fittings. You have to meet the cast. You have to go through table reads. You have to meet the director.

33:09 And this happens in a cycle of, you know, maybe three, four days. And then you’re filming and that’s it. Wow, that fast. That fast. Okay.

33:20 My call time was 6 a.m. And I didn’t come home to my room until about 8 p.m., 9. Okay. And what’s it like working with David Hasselhoff? Well, he’s amazing.

33:30 Right? He’s amazing. I always, I love to learn from these veterans. And whether they know it or not, they teach me a lot. Right.

33:39 Well, he’s been doing TV forever. He’s a legend. Right? He is. When was Night Rider in the 80s?

33:45 Yeah. I remember that, yeah. I watched it. All right. So that’s start NATO.

33:50 Cool. And just back to Lopez, you said that like you became that character during. So you got the part. You’re super happy. Oh, yes.

33:58 And then it starts to become more popular, more popular. And it’s just more episodes and the character becomes you. You become the character. Tell me the pros and cons of that happening. Well, it’s inevitable.

34:07 When you’re building a character for five years span and you meet the writers and it’s a very personal connection you have with the entire team. At some point, your character will be imbued with your sense of identity and who you are and your storyline. And that’s exactly what happened when I initially got the show. Within a season, they made her a poet, like I’m a poet. And they pulled in some personal stories in my own life.

34:31 And they brought it and I had to perform it. I didn’t think it was going to happen, but it did. And I had to just enjoy it and film it and think this is exactly what’s happening in my life right now. And I’m going to have to act it out for America. That’s weird.

34:45 It’s weird. It’s exhilarating. And it’s comforting to know that the character is that connected. Okay. But these writers.

34:51 Did you recite your poetry on there? I did. It wasn’t my poetry because they needed it to be bad. And my poetry is just so good. Just kidding.

34:58 But no, it wasn’t my poetry. But the writers were so dedicated to their craft. I mean, I even heard that one of the writers would go home and just pick a fight with his wife just to see what he could pull out of that material-wise. That’s how dedicated these creative people are. And I learned from that.

35:14 And I realize that’s what you need to do in this industry. It is work. It’s not a lifestyle. Okay. Say that again.

35:20 So it’s work. It’s not a lifestyle. What does that mean? Hollywood is an industry. It’s work.

35:26 We all have choices. But in the end, when it comes to the craft and acting, there’s no denying it. It’s work. It’s hard work. It’s working a muscle.

35:35 It’s showing up on time prepared because a lot depends on the actor and the crew, the team individually. But you cannot know your lines that show up because then everybody suffers. That’s not fair. But it is work. One hundred percent work.

35:50 Right. And the rest of the world sometimes probably thinks it’s just talent. No. I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

35:57 I think all my favorite actresses that are my friends and I grew up with, I know how hard they worked. And I’ve seen the press describe them as overnight successes. No. These actresses have been acting since they were four years old. Five.

36:11 And they love it. One of my childhood friends, Hilary Duff, she did Lizzie McGuire at the time. She was 12 and I was on set with her. And I remember vividly, she was the first one on set at 6 a.m., 12 years old. 6 a.m. and during her lunch break, she had to do the voiceover for the character.

36:28 And then she kept working until her last scene, which was, she was almost every single scene. That’s what I grew up seeing. So I don’t understand when people say it’s a lifestyle and I don’t understand when people say it’s just talent. I think there is definitely luck, absolutely. An opportunity when it meets, then it explodes into something magical.

36:45 But leading up to that, you need to be prepared. Yeah. I think it’s a bit the nature of the medium as well. Yes. It’s on the theaters, it’s on the screens.

36:54 Yes. People probably don’t know the difference between you and the character sometimes. Yes. So I guess it happens that way. Absolutely.

37:02 What do you love about L.A.? Then what do you hate about L.A.? What do I love about L.A.? I love that we’re surrounded, and I think you can say this about many cities, but you’re surrounded with so many intelligent, creative people who love what they do, who genuinely wake up in the morning because this is their passion in life and they’re going to accomplish something. And I love that energy.

37:22 What don’t I like about L.A.? That it doesn’t have four seasons. That was two seasons, spring and summer, with a little bit of drizzle in between. You missed the Michigan snow. I missed the Michigan snow.

37:33 Okay. So you went five years on Lopez until you were 19, something like that. Yes. And then you’re done with that. What happens to people when they get done with the sitcom?

37:44 Depending. Some people want to rest. I didn’t. And some people say, what’s next? What can I do now?

37:51 What muscle can I… What acting muscle can I work on? So I did the sitcom comedy route. I loved it. And then I ended up doing…

38:00 From the producers of Crouching Tiger and Dragon. Well, The Last Vampire, which was Kendo Styx, and it was an action-packed film that we filmed in China. And then what was next after that? In The Balkans, filming Time of the Comet, which was a period piece in Albanian. Right.

38:18 And after that, it was producing. So there’s always what’s more, what’s left. Okay. You mentioned Lizzie McGuire earlier and some of these shows where they get a lot of child actors, right? Yes.

38:29 And this is kind of standard. Isn’t it Justin Timberlake and… Yes. What was his girlfriend’s name? Why do I know her name?

38:35 Britney Spears. Britney Spears. She was also on a lot of these younger kids’ shows. And then later, sometimes people are like, that was a good experience or it was a bad experience. What do you make of…

38:46 Well, I think either experience, if you don’t have a united family front, whether it’s with your closest friends or your, in my case, my own mother. Right. If you don’t have that, then it’s easy to feel like you’re disintegrating into culture somehow. Like you’re not part of that compact identity of who you are and what you’re worth. Okay.

39:07 So some people kind of lose their identity. And I think it’s because they lose their family or they lose their connections with the closest near them who care about them. Okay. And most child actors probably don’t have their intense Albanian mother. She’s amazing.

39:23 You know, the funny thing is she never grounded me. She never punished me. She never decided I couldn’t do something. She always gave me that option, but I think the fear of disappointing her just tormented me. Okay.

39:35 All right. And the people that didn’t have her, they just sometimes disintegrate. No, no, no. I think in the end, you lose perspective sometimes, and you just need someone to ground you and bring you right back. Okay.

39:48 Unapologetically. Because as a child on set, you’re in the movies, you’re probably famous with your friends, and sometimes it’s hard to know reality. It’s hard to know reality. Being a teenager, you’re inherently insecure. And there was a point in my life where I was on the show every week, and I wasn’t entirely…

40:07 I couldn’t confirm whether those closest to me were there because of me appearing on a show or because of Masiela, as myself. And, you know, that’s where the parents come in. That’s where your closest friends come in, and they ground you, and they pull you back to perspective and say, you are worth this, and you are special to us because of this. And enlisting all these qualities, once I was able to regain that, it didn’t matter anymore. It was just white noise.

40:33 Everything, all the insecurities felt like white noise. All the people around me that didn’t impact me in a positive way just completely disappeared. Okay. Okay. Now, Hollywood is kind of littered with child actors that stayed child actors, or things kind of didn’t go any further.

40:48 Right. And so I guess you’re very aware of that. Absolutely. And I think that has to do with losing a passion for acting. I think feeling worn out, feeling drained, and feeling like there’s nothing left to learn in the industry, I think that can discourage a lot of people, and they don’t push themselves to grow from that.

41:04 I don’t know where I stand. I just know that I keep wanting to learn, and I’m always ready for the next opportunity to stretch my acting muscle. Do you have to go out and get projects? I mean, we had RJ Midian here, who just done Breaking Bad, and now he’s doing like fashion modeling and Milan and stuff. And he’s like, Brian, he’s like, you can’t wait for the phone call, the phone to ring.

41:24 He’s like, you got to go out there, and not only just audition, you got to go and mix with different types of creatives in all sorts of ways. Otherwise, it’s not going to happen. And he’s on the Breaking Bad, right? He was probably in more scenes, as many scenes as Walter White, and yet it’s not like the phone’s ringing for him either. He’s like, I got to go do things.

41:42 Absolutely. Is that true? One hundred percent. I agree. My own definition of that, though, is I have to pull myself outside of my own shell.

41:53 I tend to be more introverted in that way because I think this comes from my writing background where I want to study people, and this is also being an actress. If I could, I would be silent right here and just watch you for an hour and a half. Thank you. You’re welcome. Okay.

42:07 So pull myself out of that comfort and then interact and network. I don’t even like that word, network. You have to do it, yes. And I try, and it’s one of my biggest struggles in life. Okay.

42:20 So you’re naturally an introvert. You’d rather write poetry, perhaps. Or study people. I study people. I love people.

42:27 But interacting for the sake of getting a job, I don’t know how to navigate that authentically. Okay. Yet. So right now, I’m lucky enough to think that the jobs are coming to me. And I love the jobs, and there are times where I’ve turned it down because it didn’t impact society in a positive way.

42:43 And I vowed to myself, based on my experiences in Albania and leaving the country, I will never do something that will reduce our culture in any way. I will never contribute to a poem that is just negative for the sake of being negative, unless it’s cathartic, unless you can grow, unless there’s a positive perspective tied to it. And I will never do a project, a film, that I won’t be proud to show my grandkids. Okay. What’s an example of something you might have turned down?

43:09 It doesn’t have to be a specific name, but like, what are you talking about? Because I’m not in LA. My agents are not happy. Okay. I’m not your agent, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.

43:17 What kind of films? Like the movie about the stripper or something? No, because you can find beauty and growth in that. The wrestler. Absolutely.

43:25 No, no. That’s not what I’m referring to. I’m referring to storylines that are so real and so base, and they’re just there for shock value. In that way. And they’re not there to impact.

43:37 They’re not there to elevate. Okay. And unless I see some positive note in those dialogues, I can’t in that dialogue. I can’t. Okay.

43:45 Which makes your agents unhappy. It’s the shock value. That would be it. Okay. When it’s there just to entertain and nothing more, but in a way that makes other people feel better for watching it because it’s not their own life.

43:56 Okay. And let’s see how far we can take it with the scenes and with the graphics and all that. Then I say that’s not impactful. Okay. All right.

44:06 And that’s like a role you’re talking about or like a whole movie? Genre. Genre. Okay. This is like meaningless action slash?

44:12 No, no. Not even that. I think there’s value in just simple entertainment, but I’m talking about a sense of, let me see how I can describe it, pushing the envelope for the sake of pushing the envelope, but not creatively, just in vulgarity. Okay. Like how far can we take it?

44:29 Let’s see. Okay. There’s a few movies like that in LA. Fair enough. Before we sat down, I was like, how come there’s no video on you out there except for these short clips and things like that?

44:39 How come you don’t talk more about you and your experiences? Because you’re obviously fascinated. Everyone’s on the edge of their seats. So why not? Oof.

44:48 Gosh. I am actually, this ties back to being an introvert, but I’m not very comfortable with exposing my life. And I’m learning. And I know in this industry, you absolutely need to. So I’m forcing that characteristic in me.

45:04 But by nature, I wouldn’t feel comfortable just talking about my personal life. I wouldn’t feel comfortable expressing what I had for breakfast to people, politics. I just, there’s a block. And I don’t know if this has to do with growing up in the industry at such a young age, where I’ve seen where my words were either misconstrued or misinterpreted or maliciously done so, or they just didn’t understand what I was talking about. But there are times where I thought, why would I keep talking then?

45:31 Why don’t I just throw away the key? And so if I could right now, I would. So I’m really pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And, you know, it’s invigorating. But at the same time, it’s not intuitive.

45:45 Okay. Well, if it makes you feel better, I’m doing the same thing. And I have been for five years. Really. What makes a poet?

45:54 What is a poet? I think a poet frames reality into a piece of art. I think that’s what a poet is. I think a poet can find beauty in a leaf falling into an abandoned fountain. I think a poet can find beauty in a gray hair and a pail of water.

46:12 I think that’s what a poet is. And the lessons I learned by writing poetry is how to look at the world with more vibrancy and more color, and to see the hidden meanings in the smallest detail, close reading the world and life and details and experiences. Okay. Are you going to recite any poems for us? Ooh. Can I recite any poems?

46:33 No. Come back to me on that. Is a rapper a poet? A rapper is definitely a poet. I think it connects on that level of reinterpreting humanity and reinterpreting one’s experiences into something that can be repeated and can convey a meaning that impacts people.

46:52 Yes, absolutely. A rapper can be a poet. Okay. And why are you such a prolific publisher? Why?

46:58 Yeah, because that’s a lot of books, and obviously you wrote one when you were really young. Of course, Mom was writing books, but not that many people publish poetry books. I wrote my first book when I was 12, more out of just a desire, because my teacher said, you’re great, I need you to recite this. And I said, then I’ll just publish it. So that was the first one.

47:18 And then I wrote, Drinking the Moon when I was about 16 years old, because I was working on the show, and I had graduated from high school at 15, because it was just easier that way. But I was restless. Again, there has to be more to life than this, than just waiting on set and reciting lines. And basically, I’d be on set from 9 a.m. to about 6 p.m., but I’d probably only be needed for about three hours.

47:40 And what was I going to do with the rest of my time? Read magazines, watch TV. Is that what everyone else does? No, not necessarily, but that’s what I was able to do if I allowed myself to just do that, because you’re stuck in a dressing room. All these hours, what are you going to do?

47:58 So what I ended up doing was I enrolled in college. So I would go to college from 6 a.m. till 9 a.m., then to work from 9 till about 6 p.m., then back to school from 7 p.m. till midnight, every day when I was 16, 17, 18. And through that experience, I was writing poetry.

48:15 And I realized I had 150 poems, and nobody was seeing them because I wouldn’t show them because I was shy. Eventually, I’m like, you know what, I’ll just publish them, and that’s how it started. Okay. You also got a degree in fashion as well? Yes.

48:30 Well, of course you did, right? On Saturday from 4 a.m. until 8 a.m., I went to fashion school. But I mean, there’s a little strange pattern here of workaholic. I can’t help it.

48:40 And I think, really, this ties back to my childhood being a refugee, a sense of restlessness. I’m terrified. I’m not scared of death, but I’m scared of wasted life. And I’m terrified that one day I’ll look back and I’ll say, I didn’t accomplish enough. And for the life that I was given, the opportunity with these American volunteers, and I did nothing with it, it’s like that restlessness.

49:01 Which probably sometimes is too much. It could be. I don’t think it’s impacted me negatively yet with my personal family and friends, but it could be, yeah. It’s fascinating because you’re growing up next to, say, the girl next door in Michigan who was born in America like everybody else. And in America, you kind of have this God-given right that you get all this stuff.

49:25 And then, you know, you could argue it’s not valued as much, say, to you where you actually ripped out of this country, had to go to another country, like barely survive, get these Americans to protect you, and now, boom, you’re blocked into this America. Right. Well, I don’t think that’s entirely fair to say that these young kids, they don’t have enough, they don’t take the opportunity that’s presented to them. I think there’s an issue with, not necessarily the school system, but the way the Americans perceive opportunities.

49:54 And I think if they just knew that, yes, there are so many of my talented friends even in Michigan who wrote beautiful poetry, but they never even thought of the ability to publish anything. They couldn’t even fathom because nobody presented it to them as an option. And I think that’s the number one gift my mom gave me. She said, anything is possible. What do you want to do?

50:13 Read a book on it, study it, and you’ll get there at some point. And I just wish other kids, because I’ve read poems when I was 16 years old, poems from 12 years old, 12-year-old kids that were amazing, even better than mine. And I used to even then think, why don’t they publish their work? But nobody told them to. Okay.

50:31 You know? Yeah. You’re going to write a novel? I did. Really?

50:36 Two. Okay. Were they about? Okay. One of them is completed.

50:41 Okay. And it’s called The Bessa. And the Bessa is an Albanian word that I wanted to bridge over to America. It means a vow that is invaluable even beyond death. You have to commit yourself to this vow, and if you don’t accomplish it no matter what, even if it means losing your life over it, that’s the problem.

51:00 So I wrote a novel called The Bessa, and it’s about a mother, Madame Vega, and her seven children, and it’s mythical. It’s a bit of a… I wanted to imbue it with a sense of the Albanian culture as well, because it is a beautiful culture with beautiful traditions, and I wanted to preserve that in the English language. And coincidentally, I found out that Mother Teresa, who’s Albanian as well, she also, in one of her letters, she mentioned the Bessa, and she explained the exact same concept, that it’s an invaluable vow that you cannot break under any circumstances.

51:30 So that felt nice, a sense of validation a bit. My second novel is an epistolary novel, which is called The Journals of Olympia Pole, and this is a complete opposite. So the Bessa is more of a period piece, a sense of exploring cultures in the mountains, and The Journals of Olympia Pole is completely written in diary entry form to her father, and it takes place a thousand years in the future, and it covers the elements of humanity and what’s preserved and what isn’t in society.

52:02 So what does love mean? How is love translated a thousand years from now? What about currency? What about just different elements of our society? So again, I could write another novel about a period novel, or I could go in the opposite direction and see where that would take me.

52:19 I can’t settle in one genre, though. That’s a problem. Obviously. Are you going to publish these things? So, yes.

52:26 That’s it. There’s some story there, but okay. Are you going to direct these as movies someday? That is the one thing I never explored, is being a director, actually. I don’t know why.

52:38 I just see how hard they work. Angelina does it. Angelina does it, but she’s phenomenal. I mean, she’s a goddess. But the thing is, I’ve seen…

52:44 So your mom tells you you’re a goddess, too. She does. I always like, okay. I’m dismissing it. But I see how hard directors work, so I could never wrap my mind around doing the same thing because I know the dedication they take.

52:56 I mean, if actors work hard, being on set before everyone else and leaving after everyone else, directors are there even before the actors and leave six months after the actors. It’s a totally different dedication. And I saw it firsthand, so they do their craft. They’re very good at it. Right.

53:12 The world’s most famous Albanian, after you, of course, is Mother Teresa. Tell me about you translating some of her poems, and tell me what the world doesn’t know about Mother Teresa. She just got nominated or proved to be a saint, right? She’s done. She’s done.

53:29 I believe she’s a saint. Okay. Tell us about her. Mother Teresa, I always knew in my peripherals that she was an Albanian saint, but I didn’t understand her dynamic, and she was a walking, not a walking contradiction as far as spirituality, but in her sense of faith. She was darkness and light.

53:51 She was in despair many times because she believed in God so much, and yet the light wasn’t coming to her. And she wondered why. Why wasn’t the light here for me? And so there was a sense of this tension that makes her a dynamic person, and I find that beautiful, and that’s why I read some of her letters, and they’re inspiring in that way. She’s human in that sense, in that level of insecurity.

54:14 And I read her poems initially when I was filming Time of the Comet in Skopje, Macedonia, which is where she was born, and they were an Albanian. And she speaks five languages. She’s Albanian and English as well, so I don’t even know why I’m translating it. I wish she had done it, you know, for her sake. But they were in Albanian, and they were beautiful, and they were meditations.

54:32 And I asked my mom, I said, why aren’t they in English? Can I see the rest of her work? And she said, I don’t know. I searched. There was nowhere.

54:39 And so I sat down, and I translated it. And the hardest lesson I learned in translating St. Teresa’s poetry and meditations is how can one delve into another human being so vividly that you can translate the meaning behind the words? Because a literal translation doesn’t, not only impact, but doesn’t convey the actual meaning, especially when it’s lost in language. So in a sense, I felt as if I was an actress now.

55:06 I had to pull myself into her mindset, and I had to translate her meanings behind the words. So understand the words, and then stitch them together in a way that conveyed her meaning behind them. And that was a journey. That was eye-opening, and I’m glad I did it only because for the few that read those translations who weren’t given the opportunity to in the past, I feel like I contributed somehow, and I made myself worth it in this world, in this industry. And do you have a brief history of what she did and where she did it?

55:38 She’s phenomenal. Did she do all of her work in India? St. Teresa’s, by 12 years old, she knew her calling. She knew it.

55:47 And by the time she was 18, she left into her first convent, and she never saw her family again. And that was it. And she adored her mother, and her mother wrote to her every so often and encouraged her and taught her. But in the end, this was her journey of light. And the tension that she felt is the most beautiful of it all.

56:11 And you hear, not conspiracies, but you hear a sense of displeasure and maybe misunderstandings of what she went through and how she built her life. But in the end, she is a beautiful human being that was a dynamic walking contradiction, in a sense that can make another person feel safe and comforted. Okay, because she was human. She was real. She was authentic, and she was unapologetic about her passion, and she never looked back.

56:40 Okay, and she was in, was it Calcutta for a long time? She was the first one to pave that path going into the slums of India. Okay. She begged her superior. She said, please let me go in.

56:51 And every time, he said, just wait. Ask me again in a few days. For four months, she asked him, consistently, multiple times a week, writing to him, begging, you know, Jesus is asking me to go. I can’t turn him down. And she made a vow, and that’s why she called it the best that she made a vow that even if it impacted her life, she would deliver Jesus’ message.

57:09 And finally, they acquiesced and said, go ahead, go to the slums of India and let Jesus receive the calling. You receive the calling through Jesus there. And she changed the world in that way. And there was, like, major, was it leprosy epidemic? I don’t know.

57:24 Okay, all the details. How come the English writer, Christopher Hitchens, always rips into her? Like, I don’t know why, but he’s always like, there was some book on, he goes off on her. Well, it’s interesting. And I think we can all learn even from the negativities of life and critics, obviously, you can learn from the critics.

57:39 I don’t know why. Maybe, perhaps, he considered it a literal, he considered her to be a literal representation of religion, and maybe she didn’t check off all those boxes in his mind, or maybe he misinterpreted some of the information he received. Who knows? But I think her impact is beyond the literal of what a saint would be. Her impact is lifting somebody up on a human level and saying, I’m just like you, but I’ve reached this level of enlightenment that you can too.

58:07 And that’s all she did, was she delivered these unfortunate souls into that light. And whoever she was, and however she did it, you know, that’s the journey she took. I’m not really spiritual. I don’t ascribe to a particular religion, but she’s phenomenal, and I’m absolutely inspired by her. Talk to me about Prince Harry.

58:28 How come he’s asking you to be an ambassador? Did you meet him somewhere? What does Santa Bela do? Talk to me. You’re smiling when I say that.

58:37 So, Santa Valle is a charity that, when I first entered Santa Valle, was located in Lesotho, Africa, this landlocked country in South Africa. And I was immediately inspired, because I was always involved with charities with causes, international causes. And when this was presented, I wasn’t entirely sure until I researched it further, but what I loved about Santa Valle is that they impact through the grassroots and you feel you’re part of a community and a part of a home, where you can really impact on a one-on-one basis.

59:12 Because there were a lot of charities I did before then that felt like there was a distance, and I was there to wave, I was there to talk, and I was there to shake hands, and that was it, and I left. And I never felt fulfilled. And Santa Valle was the first charity that said, no, you can be part of this, you can be with the children right now in Africa, and you can dance with them and sing with them and learn their story with their own mouths and with their own eyes.

59:36 You can see their passion. And that totally changed my perspective in philanthropy. Okay, that makes sense. What kind of specific things do they do? They work with the children, the orphanages in Lesotho.

59:50 They work with the sick. One-third of the population at the time had AIDS. One-third, HIV and AIDS. And that alters perspective in our society when we don’t really experience that. And I remember I visited these children, and I danced with these girls in the school, and I was singing their songs, they were teaching me the words, and I had a ponytail, and the girls, they had short hair, very short hair, and they asked to play with the ponytail, so I gave it to them.

1:00:21 And when they were kind enough to give it back, very graciously, and I said, no, you can have it, it’s yours. And the light in their eyes, just to receive that ponytail and to keep it, like that sense of, this was the greatest gift they could receive, okay, here we go. That stayed with me forever, because if you have nothing, and you can be so completely joyous and happy and fulfilled, what does that mean for our children on the West, and how can we find that happiness, and what is it then?

1:00:53 Is it something intangible? What is it if we can’t purchase it, if we can’t find it in other rapid means? Those kids, those children taught me a lot. Real grounding experience. And from that moment on, whatever charity I was involved in, I always said I need to be a part of it.

1:01:09 Specifically, I want to be there. I want to hug them. What are we going to do in the future? You’ve written a book about the future, but what are we going to do when our children in the West grow up with iPhones, and sometimes these dopamine hits, and sometimes it’s instant gratification. Maybe they aren’t appreciative, like some of the kids in Lusso, though.

1:01:30 Is there a way that we need to be careful on how we’re raising or bringing our children into the 21st century? Have you thought about that? Absolutely. As you mentioned, this immediate gratification, I think, is the culprit. I think the sense where you don’t have to really work for anything, and everything is on demand.

1:01:46 Even emotions are on demand. It’s jarring. And what would that mean if we continue in that direction? What would that mean? We would be on automatic mode.

1:01:57 Nothing would be fulfilling anymore, in my opinion, at least. How are emotions on demand? How are emotions on demand, Tinder? Yeah. Bumble?

1:02:09 Bumble. You could say movies are emotions on demand. No, not necessarily. Movies take you there. They’re the train that takes you there.

1:02:17 But no, you carry those emotions with you when you go there. But I feel like certain apps like that, I think it’s a different kind of on-demand emotion. What does that mean? What value do we assign to these things and these emotions, if it’s that easy? And if development is so rapid, you don’t even have to learn anything anymore.

1:02:37 You could just quickly research it, and you’re good. For me, I still would have to read an entire book to understand a certain concept of history, for example. But now you can just Google what happened in the year 1812. You get your little snippet of information. Do you absorb it?

1:02:50 No. But it’s there for a temporary release, and that’s it. So we need to be very careful. Was it already too late, maybe? No, I don’t think it’s that.

1:02:59 No. No. Academy Awards just happened yesterday. Yes, I missed it. I was told.

1:03:06 I know you missed it. Is that a bummer to miss it? Yes, it’s a bummer. Is that the greatest time in LA when the Academy Awards are? I think so.

1:03:13 The air is electric, yeah. You feel it. The streets are closed. You see limos, and it’s a beautiful feeling. You’re dressed up.

1:03:21 Do you always go? No, I don’t always go, but I love to watch it and sing. What does that mean to someone in the business? Explain to me what you just described, because we see it from the outside. What does it mean?

1:03:36 It means validation of your place in the industry and a sense of people recognize your worth and all the hard work that was put into it. Okay. And all the hard work that LA produces, really. Absolutely. Or the movie business produces.

1:03:52 Absolutely. So you get to be collectively honored and thanked for what you do. And I’m so, so, so proud of the industry, especially this particular year, with these nominations and the best picture. Moonlight is a phenomenal picture. Certain movies can alter perspective on life, and it stays.

1:04:09 It stays where life is reinterpreted in years to come. Certain books do that as well. They change the programming in the brain a bit. Something has a different perspective from that moment on. You can’t unabsorb it.

1:04:22 What makes a good movie? What makes a great movie? What makes a great movie? Yeah. Authenticity, being unapologetic, and elevating.

1:04:31 Okay. Authenticity, unapologetic, and elevating is, and there has to be a grander theme that promotes humanity and doesn’t bring it down. Right. It doesn’t have to have a happy ending, but it needs to elevate a perspective where from that experience, even though it was a tragedy, you can pull from it into something positive. Okay.

1:04:51 So you’re happy Moonlight won as opposed to La La Land. I love them both. No, I can appreciate La La Land. I know what a struggling actress does. I understand.

1:04:59 It was like, oh, it’s so real. It’s perfect. And there’s beauty in that. No, no. I just love Moonlight because it was so unapologetic.

1:05:07 It rewrote any stereotypes that were given about a life in the streets, and it just put it on its head and said, this is the truth, and it took it on a completely different level I’ve never seen before. Yeah. I’m trying to understand a little bit more about what a movie actually does. And for those two hours, it basically simulates this chemical reaction in the brain that does something that nothing else can do for someone. Absolutely.

1:05:32 You’re transported into a different world, and especially when you’re in the theater and you watch them in these bigger-than-life images of people, and it’s just a phenomenal experience if you allow yourself to dive deep. Yeah. We actually just had a premiere of our first documentary at BAFTA here in London about two weeks ago. And we publish a lot of video. So we do conversations like this, which is amazing, by the way.

1:05:53 And we’ve done about 400 of them, and sometimes these things really affect people, and they watch millions of times, and that’s amazing. But it’s still just two people talking in chairs. Right. And so we figured we’ve got to try to find another way of getting people to open their minds up to new ideas and how we can move everything forward in this world. So we decided to do a documentary about a specific guest we had in here, and we flew down, and we filmed this thing, and we condensed it down into 80-some minutes, and we put that out there, and we watched it on the big screen, and it was just amazing to see that that can transform people’s lives more so than, say, 100 hours of video, because you’re compacting it all into this one, I don’t know, moment.

1:06:34 Yes, finite moment. Yeah. That then changes on the rest of your life. In your case, maybe it was that bus trip, you know, in Albania. Bam.

1:06:42 Exactly. And all of a sudden you’re a different person, or, you know, some other piece of art or experience. And so I’m starting to really understand and respect that process. And that can sometimes take, you know, hundreds of people and tens of thousands of hours just to get it perfect. Right.

1:06:58 To where it has the reaction people want. Exactly. And that can change the world, I guess. Absolutely. Now I’m talking like an LA director.

1:07:07 Ridiculous. No, it’s absolutely right. Okay, so you missed being there, but it’ll be okay. It’ll be okay. I mean, I was on set filming.

1:07:16 It was freezing cold when I was filming during the Oscars. I just remember shivering. And I’m thinking, this is good. I’m going to keep shivering. It’ll hopefully translate well on camera.

1:07:25 It’ll look like she’s terrified. That’s the craft right there. Five years from now, what do you want to be doing? I want to be happy. I want to be content.

1:07:34 Are you happy now? I am happy now. I feel like there’s so much more that can be done. And that sense makes me feel a bit restless. So I need to…

1:07:43 Can be done by you or done in the world? By me. Okay. In that sense, to contribute. Okay.

1:07:48 What’s the best way for you to contribute right now? Philanthropy and just writing. And, you know, there are times where I wrote poetry where I… certain poems that I dismiss completely and I put them aside because, in my mind, they didn’t impact in the level that I anticipated. So I just want to keep writing great poetry that inspires in that sense.

1:08:06 Like, I want to write positive poetry, but at the same time, I just need to settle and just feel content. So I hope in five years I’ll be content. Okay. So I’m not there yet. Okay.

1:08:18 Just calm and say, you know what, this is life and this is what you’ve accomplished and you don’t have to be restless. It’s okay to go through the journey smiling and moving forward slowly. Just wait till you hit 40. It’s all upside from there. Trust me.

1:08:33 What’s it like being a woman in Hollywood? Well, that’s a tough question. You know, I think we’ve grown a lot as an industry as far as understanding stereotypes and projections of roles, like male and female roles. I think we have a long ways to go. And I think there are certain expectations from women actresses, women actresses, from actresses that they need to deliver a certain, a certain what I consider traditional sense into the role.

1:09:09 Like, they haven’t, they haven’t, it doesn’t feel to me like there’s an actual level playing field. I mean, forget about wages and that. Forget about that. But just on a very basic craft level, I think there are incredible actresses who are courageous enough to fight for it and they’ve done it in these beautiful pockets of explosions of great roles. But for the most part, no.

1:09:28 The role of a female, from what I’ve seen and I’ve read scripts, and that’s a lot of times why I turn it down, is it is reduced to a stereotypical sense of what a woman should be. And I think we have a long ways to go. And I’m now being a bit pessimistic, but we do have a long ways to go where a scriptwriter just writes a story and says, you know what, this could be male or female. That’s what I want to see happen. And that’s not there yet.

1:09:52 Okay. Do you think we’re getting there with films like Moonlight, where there’s all these… Well, Moonlight is about two men. Yeah, but they’re roles that probably wouldn’t have been explored maybe 10 or 20 years ago. Absolutely.

1:10:04 So in that sentiment, absolutely. I would love to see that kind of rewriting of expectations. Do you look at it as in maybe 50 years ago when Hollywood would betray or 100 years or 60 years ago, like a black person in the movie, it might have been a very one-dimensional or flat-based character, and then over time they grew up and understood the humanity and evolved, do you feel like, with women as well? Absolutely. It just has become more three-dimensional.

1:10:28 Absolutely. And there are stereotypical roles for men, too, and for white males as well. We have stereotypes everywhere, and I would just like to see roles written where it could be anybody and anything, like not an issue. It shouldn’t be about gender. It shouldn’t be about race.

1:10:42 It’s capable of strength. Everyone is capable of courage and love and passion and vulnerability. It shouldn’t be defined by sex or by nationality or religion or anything like that. How do you deal with being a celebrity? Oh, I don’t.

1:10:57 If you tell me, I’ll tell you. How do you deal with it? I don’t really deal with it. But also, people know me as the host of London Real. People know you as these roles, and sometimes they come up to you and they think you’re a carpenter.

1:11:08 That’s true. They think you’re the sharknado filaire. That’s true. And that you’re not. So have you had a different relationship with that over the years?

1:11:16 So yeah, you know, I would say my fans are the people who love the George Lopez show specifically. I would say that they are the reason I keep acting, because there are times when, like one specific fan, she hugged me. She saw me from across the room. She ran up to me, didn’t introduce herself, just hugged me. Like I was a long lost friend of hers or a family member.

1:11:37 And then she pulled me back and she said, I cried so much during that episode where your character was harassed in school by bullies because I was going through the exact same thing and it was the most cathartic experience for me that I just couldn’t stop crying the entire episode. That moment right there encapsulates exactly why I’m an actress and why I will continue to be an actress, even if I’m not acting in film or TV, but why I have that sense of like, there’s something more we can do to help society and the world. Yeah, that sense of like, good, I’m glad that we connected, because that made it worth it.

1:12:10 That is the reason I’m here. Okay, so even though she doesn’t necessarily know you as… Junior Carmen. Junior Carmen, okay. And that’s okay.

1:12:18 That’s okay. That’s the job. That’s my job, is to make people feel that connection. If I don’t, if I don’t impact them, then why am I there? Right.

1:12:26 Why am I a waste of space then? Yeah, true. I mean, if the whole point of the medium is to, you know, is to create an emotion in someone. Absolutely. And you do it.

1:12:35 Absolutely. And you should be proud of that, right? You should be proud of the fabric of the history, you know, for them. It’s… It wove their own past together, watching these episodes.

1:12:43 It’s like smelling a familiar scent that takes you back, or listening to a song that takes you back to a specific emotion. I’d like to think that some of these episodes that we did on the show was that familiarity for these people who grew up with it. That if they watch it again, they’ll be transported back to where they were at that time. And I think there’s value in that as an actress. Okay.

1:13:02 Do you get stopped on the streets? Yeah. Is that all right? Absolutely. Okay.

1:13:07 What if you get stopped like six times in a row? That’s fine. That’s why I’m here. Okay. Fair enough.

1:13:13 Can I ask you a couple of questions about your… Sure. I’m going to call them success secrets, things that you picked up over the years that have helped contribute to your work ethic or things you’ve done. Is there any daily practice that you figured out that you now incorporate into your routine that helps you just become happier, deliver better results, et cetera? What is it?

1:13:30 These success secrets are only available on the London Real Academy. Become a member and get access to live shows, exclusive courses, my webinars, bonus content, meetups, live events, an amazing community, and much, much more. Now back to the rest of the show. You love books, don’t you? I love books.

1:14:04 I can tell. I can tell. Do you love movies as well? I love movies. Okay.

1:14:09 I do. I love movies that are based on reality though. Yeah. Meaning history, a sense of like real people. What’s your favorite like old movie?

1:14:15 Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. So many. Sabrina. Okay.

1:14:20 I love Sabrina. Okay. With Audrey Hepburn. Oh, yeah. That’s kind of cool.

1:14:25 I love those classics. Turner Movie Classics was my favorite station growing up. Okay. While on the show. Casablanca.

1:14:31 Oh, yes. Right? Yes. They were on for that one. That was good one.

1:14:36 It’s magical. It is magical. And I’m not even a good person. When you think of the word successful, who comes to mind? My mom.

1:14:42 My mom comes to mind. I mean, I can mention a lot of people. Sandra Bullock, who was my boss throughout those years on the George Lopez show. George Lopez. Constance Marie, my team.

1:14:50 I mean, there’s so many people that are successful that when you say that, but my mom defines success for me and what it meant to be successful on a very intimate level. Okay. Sharing dreams and ideas and her interpretation of those dreams and ideas. Do you still live with your mom? No.

1:15:06 I’m married. Oh, okay. Poor husband. You still live with your mom. That’s all right.

1:15:12 And I have a guest on here named Kevin Kelly. He’s he founded Wire magazine and he’s a little bit older. And he said, Brian, you’re only as old as the last time you changed your mind. That’s interesting. And I want to know what have you changed your mind about in the last six months?

1:15:29 What have I changed my mind about? That’s a really good question. In the last six months. Am I supposed to kill some dead air here? Let me see.

1:15:41 For the last year. But you know, as you become older and wiser, change your mind about them. I don’t know because what does it mean to change your mind? It means to have a set idea of something and then to reevaluate it. Like a new perspective.

1:15:53 Like I used to think that this was the case and then I think maybe I was wrong or maybe this might be the case. That’s the way I look at it. So I believe in the past I used to take everything for face value. So in a sense where if somebody was having a bad day and they snapped at me, I would immediately take it personally like I did something wrong or I was the victim of something in that sense. However, now I feel like this is such a broader picture of what could have possibly happened leading up to that.

1:16:22 That immediately I don’t take anything personally in that way anymore. Like immediately I just start processing like as if I’m outside myself just seeing the situation. And I understand that this person could have gone through so much torment leading up to this conversation, for example, that it probably isn’t even about me. And as actresses, sometimes it’s always about the actress. But no, maybe this is another issue that could now be resolved.

1:16:45 We can address that directly. So I think in that sense my perspectives change. But that was five years ago. I’ve learned that. Okay.

1:16:53 So more empathy? More empathy. More, yeah, more sense that there’s, that it was just a tip of the iceberg, whatever conversations happen. Okay. What would we be surprised to learn about you?

1:17:04 That I’m an introvert? Obviously, no. Yeah. That’s not a surprise. That’s not a surprise.

1:17:09 Like some strange thing where you’re like, yeah, this is true and I believe that. Oh, wow. That’s another amazing question, by the way. No one’s asked you that. Oh.

1:17:18 Okay, let’s see. You want to come back to that? No, it’s, it’s, yeah, let’s come back to it. Okay. Talk to me about the word failure.

1:17:26 You kind of went off on our, on my pre-interview questionnaire about the word failure, and I want to get your perspective on failure. Okay. I think failure is a very finite term. To be a failure, it means that there’s no other avenue, no other opportunity to grow, no other perspective to have. Anyone.

1:17:42 Anyone who says, I failed at this. No, you did not fail. There’s no such thing as failure because if you failed, you’d be underground right now. You wouldn’t even be alive. As long as you’re alive, as long as you’re breathing, as long as you have a roof over your head, you are still in the position of transitioning into a success.

1:17:58 So I find failure to be too finite, too of a word to actually take literally and seriously. That’s why. Okay. I like that. You sold me.

1:18:07 Um, darkest moment of your life. Darkest moment of my life. Um, yeah, probably going to Budapest and not knowing where we’re going to head next. It was new terrain, never left the country before. Yeah.

1:18:22 Not, not knowing where our home will be. Learning a new language from scratch. Yeah. Best day of your life. Getting the George Lopez show.

1:18:31 Okay. Good answer. Um, uh, what keeps you awake at night? Uh, a feeling, feeling that I’m not fully contributing to society the way I want to. Feeling that somehow whether it’s my sense of not reaching far enough or not finding the right opportunities, why am I not there yet is what keeps me up at night, that question.

1:18:59 Right. Why? Yeah. Why? You’re asking yourself why?

1:19:05 Exactly. Okay. Why haven’t I figured out why haven’t I figured out the sense of contentment that I’ve accomplished a way to contribute to society and not, you know, yeah, that. Okay. Um, how do you lead people?

1:19:18 Like, for example, I think in your cases, like when you’re, when you have to be a lead on a movie, like how do you lead the set? How do you, you know, how do you bring that forward? Well, it’s a collaborative process. Everyone has to contribute their own tidbit of, um, passion and creativity. But I think all of us, we have a responsibility to, to leave, uh, like a, what’s, what’s the sense?

1:19:40 Like, um, feel inspired enough in our own craft that other people feel inspired and it imbues their sense of purpose in that, in that movie, in that project. So enthusiasm, enthusiasm, loving unapologetically what an actor does and what each individual person does. And then together, you can create that message and just feel enthusiastic every day when you show up on set. Because the hours are long, you have to love what you do in Hollywood. You have to love it.

1:20:07 Otherwise, there’s a big draining process that takes place and it’s hard to fill it again. I remember reading an interview with Jude Law over here and he had, he was like the lead in a, in a film. It was like six years ago. I think it was like an Appalachians movie or something. And, um, he was just like, it’s, when I’m the lead, it’s different.

1:20:24 Like, I got to bring everybody up. It’s like, and that can change the end result. Absolutely. Because if the people on Motivé and the crew isn’t Motivé and all that stuff, it will, it will show. Absolutely.

1:20:34 Any negativity they’ll, sometimes it’s amplified. Um, when I filmed, um, Forgotten Evil recently, we just wrapped about four, three months ago, um, in, in L.A. But there I was in every scene and I didn’t, I had my dressing room, but I was never there. So from 6 a.m. until, you know, 10 p.m. sometimes, midnight, we were filming.

1:20:56 I was either changing into a different wardrobe, changing a different look, rehearsing with the actors who wanted to rehearse for the scene, speaking with the director, staying in position for the camera, or actually filming the movie, or standing, I was standing every single day. And again, there’s that energy. You just go on automatic mode and you just know that you have to love what you do and it’s that enthusiasm, um, as an actor. You want to say, come on guys, we can get through this, we can get through the scene.

1:21:19 And knowing that you’ll probably be the last one to leave, but at least, uh, at least you can, they can feel it. And, um, I was so thankful. I worked with some incredible supporting, uh, casts as well. Angie Dick and, um, Kyle McKeever, who also had their own enthusiasm. So it was just amplified.

1:21:36 And the whole, I think the whole production was actually very positive in that way. How do you keep it together? Like, how do you not have a bad moment? Because it’s not like you can go somewhere, you’re not like you can leave. You can’t leave, no.

1:21:47 There is no bad moment because you’re one, you’re in a bigger collective of people and you’re just one. And if you, if you tumble, it’s like a domino effect. And even if, if even if the domino’s in the middle somewhere in a different role, a different person of the crew, if that tumbles, it impacts people from the point where you feel it everywhere. Um, you just can’t, you can’t even process it. It’s just automatic mode.

1:22:07 You’re just there to, to uplift and encourage and film and, and hope for the best. And you don’t see it until the end. So great actors, I’m guessing like 99% of what makes a great actor is not what you see on the screen. No, of course not. It’s all about the preparation.

1:22:22 It’s all about the mind preparation too. Um, 90% of the work is before you’re on camera. When you’re on camera, you’re playing. That’s where the fun begins. Right.

1:22:31 And then keeping it together on set and keeping all that stuff. Oh yeah, when it’s like 3am, 4am and everyone gets giggly and then nobody keeps it on set, not even the camera guy. Nobody. You’re laughing. You can’t even get through the scene and you know you have one more hour left and if you don’t finish this, it’s out.

1:22:46 Yeah, so. Um, what’s the future of Hollywood? Is it changing? I think so. How so?

1:22:52 I think we’re redefining genres and we’re redefining, uh, genders as well. And I think we’re re-establishing perspectives on that expectations of what each role entails. I do think it’s changing. I don’t think it’s changing enough, in my opinion. I’m getting a bit impatient.

1:23:07 But I do feel, uh, we’re in a great place and I feel Hollywood is the forefront of, of what the trends will be and how it ripples out. And I’m proud to say that they see it and they’re growing towards that direction. Okay. And is Hollywood still the center of the universe when it comes to film? Or is it?

1:23:24 No. Is it going everywhere now? It’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. It’s in the industry now.

1:23:29 Um, I mean, I’ve seen some incredible films in Chinese with the subtitles, but I’ve seen them and they’re, they’re wonderful. I think there’s so many different hubs. London has a great hub for entertainment. Amazing. Some of the projects that they’re releasing onto the public is, is, is perspective changing.

1:23:45 It’s genre shifting. Um, Germany has some, has a great hub as well. Oh, and that’s the beauty of it. That’s what makes us smaller as a community and more tight knit, is that we can expand out and interpret messages differently and, and have an understanding, a mutual agreement. Where’d the name Masiela come from?

1:24:04 Okay. Okay. So nobody asked me that. I’d love to tell you. Um, my name, Masiela is my mom and dad’s name merged together.

1:24:12 So Max and Daniela. So my mom was under the impression she made it up. It turns out my name, Masiela, also means orphan in Swana, from the Swana. So, um, yeah, it’s pronounced and spelled the exact same way. Maybe there’s a parallel, I don’t know.

1:24:29 And, um, it also means the female form of more sky in Spanish. Masiela. So it can be many things. It’s quite shifting. That’s a lot of deepness there.

1:24:41 Um, well Masiela, I ask everyone here a couple questions at the end. Sure. I’m gonna ask you. Okay. Um, if you could make a phone call to the 20 year old Masiela and give that young woman a bit of advice, what would you tell her?

1:24:54 Have confidence. Be unapologetic about your passion. Don’t even ask twice. Just pursue your dream. You were already doing that?

1:25:03 Yes. You would have told her to do it even more. I would tell her even more. Don’t ask. Just deliver.

1:25:09 Best advice you’ve ever received could come from, I’m guessing I know who it’s gonna come from, but it could come from her or anyone else. Right. Throughout your life. Best advice I ever received. My whole life has been like best advice from like some of the greatest people in the industry.

1:25:25 Give me a bunch of them then. Okay. A bunch of them. Um, again, it’s the sense of just being confident and don’t second guess. Don’t pause.

1:25:35 Just go for it. Uh, and I also, I learned this, not necessarily advice, but this is what I learned by the producers putting me in front of the audience every week, is you can, you can, you, the audience’s reaction is malleable, especially when they laugh. And as an actor, you slowly start learning this, especially when you get that immediate reaction. That’s why I love sitcom. I see the audience in front of me.

1:25:55 I see what they’re feeling at that moment. I can change it immediately. In a split second, I can sense if they’re laughing, I can start snipping up that laughter by acting differently. Or if I want to prolong it, or I want to cut it short, that’s the power of the actor in front of an audience. Um, so learning that you can do that, that you have the power to contribute to someone else’s emotions and alter the conversation if it needs to be altered and have a different conversation and a different reaction.

1:26:22 So I learned that through acting and through being on a sitcom. And, uh, you know what? As an actress, not to take the script literally. To close read it and to your own interpretation of it. There were a lot of times when I was playing Carmen on a sitcom where it would say Carmen laughed and I would cry.

1:26:38 Or it would say Carmen cried and I would laugh. Because in reality, if my TV father George, he would make a joke and Carmen would cry because she was going through her trauma. But no. He just said something hilarious. And it’s horrible what she’s going through, but she can’t help but laugh.

1:26:52 And there are times when I went with it. And I think that’s what resonates with the audience too, is that authenticity. Like, yeah, that would have happened. I’ve heard so many times mothers coming to me say, you’re just like my daughter on TV. Like, what you do there is exactly how she would behave.

1:27:06 And it’s shocking to see that. Yeah. That’s good advice. What is the best advice from your mom, though? I want to know that.

1:27:14 Okay. At least one of the greatest hits. Don’t let anyone define you. You define yourself and you project it onto them. Okay, good.

1:27:27 And lastly, any advice about being in movies? Like anything you heard from a director one time or someone just like something to always know, remember when you’re on set? We all have a purpose on that set. And if you don’t establish your purpose with enthusiasm, it impacts everyone. Everyone feels it.

1:27:47 Okay, teamwork. Teamwork. 100%. Last part of this question. To that 20-year-old.

1:27:52 You’re amazing, by the way. Thank you. To that 20-year-old that’s in Lesotho, Albania, watching us right now, or in China, or in LA, wherever around the world, that wants to one day grow up and be like Masiela. Which means, maybe write poetry, maybe be an actress, maybe be a humanitarian. Who knows?

1:28:12 What advice do you give to them? Read. Books are your best friend. And read biographies, especially from people that you admire the most or the direction you’d like to take your life. You’d be shocked at how much value can mine out of that.

1:28:29 And be unapologetic about it. There will be so many naysayers. So many. I remember even one of my closest friends in Michigan, one of my best friends, right before I left, a week before I left, she said, you’re not even that pretty. You’re not gonna make it.

1:28:44 My best friend. To this day, she’s still, sorry, you know, you know who you are. You know who you are. So, there will be naysayers, even the people who have their best, your best intentions. Sometimes, you just need to put blinders on and go for it.

1:28:59 That’s it. My best friend. I know. The two things I learned from you today are be authentic and be unapologetic. I love it.

1:29:10 I’d like to think we do a little bit of that around here. Yes. It’s been fantastic. I need to know you. I can’t believe there’s not this piece of video about you before, but now there is.

1:29:20 You have the longest interview ever. It’s crucial. And it’s really interesting to hear about your perspectives, you know, as, you know, as a refugee. And I think it’s really, I’m about to say, it’s really timely now, but I have a funny feeling that this story is timeless. You know, they’re always going to be people being uprooted from places that, you know, they no longer want to be at or no longer safe to be at.

1:29:41 That’s exactly it. As much as we might want it to never happen again. So, I think it’s something we’re going to have to continue dealing with. And now we’re dealing with it almost every day. And whether it’s in, you know, whether it’s in, in, you know, in Israel or whether it’s in Syria or whether it’s in all these places around the world, there’s all these people that have been displaced.

1:30:00 And, you know, it’s, they’ve been e-faced sometimes. They’ve lost their identity completely. I mean, what would it take for someone to feel that sense of desperation? To leave. So, I just think that we need to establish a different vocabulary and how we describe these people.

1:30:20 And I think that could possibly open up more doors. I think it all, all comes down to something earlier which is just a little bit more empathy and understanding these people. And when you see on the news that these people are being banned from entering our country, everyone’s like, okay, they’re bad, they come from the bad countries and all they do is want to take our stuff. When in fact… What does that mean?

1:30:39 We all have a history. What does that mean? When in fact you said these people are actually leaving a lot of things behind. So, what I’ve found in the last five years is that when you actually have a conversation with someone, you understand exactly where they’re coming from. Whether you can agree with it or not, at least you understand humanity.

1:30:54 So, I think the more that we can at least understand these people, then we don’t have to have these political arguments between people. So, as long as we can try to connect people more and more and more and tell these stories and get these perspectives, I feel like we’re doing what you said. Going towards that higher plane, even if there’s a few bumps along the way. And hats off to all of you in LA and Hollywood that go on to accept your awards and have to take potshots at presidents and other people because I will say, one good thing about Hollywood is that actors and actresses do do that stuff.

1:31:28 And so, it’s nice to know that someone’s willing to kind of check people in their two minutes of limelight. So, I’ll give props to you guys. Little checks and balances there too. Not just in government. Yeah, so there you go.

1:31:39 On London Real, we say it’s about the journey. I wish you all on yours. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much.