The iconic actor and Morehouse graduate delivered a powerful performance as Frank Moten in the thrilling Peacock drama series.
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00:00A lot of those things I know about because I was there and I was part of them.
00:04I was around certain people that did it.
00:06I was around people who got robbed in the robbery.
00:08I know some of those people.
00:10My wife's house that she grew up in is a block and a half away from the place where it happened.
00:17So Collier Heights was where rich and well-to-do black people lived, and that's where the robbery was.
00:25So I came to this with a lot of information or a lot of knowledge about what was going on,
00:34in the reality of it and in the mythology of what that whole thing was when it happened.
00:41You boys got any goddamn idea who you're stealing from?
00:46This case taking on life of its own.
00:48These men are killers.
00:50Stealing from me?
00:51A man in my position can't have that.
00:55Don't nobody fuck with Frank Moses.
01:01So, Mr. Jackson, it's a pleasure to be speaking with you.
01:05You famously went to Morehouse University.
01:07So I wanted to ask you, how did this come?
01:09It's a college.
01:11A Morehouse College.
01:15How do you think this film captured the essence of Atlanta, in your opinion?
01:19It was a vibrant place, you know, in the 70s.
01:23It was starting to bubble.
01:25You could see the potential for the city when it was happening.
01:29Having Ali fight there was a really big deal.
01:33Him getting out of jail and having his first fight in Atlanta.
01:38It's pretty wild in that Lester Maddox was actually the governor.
01:47It was pretty crazy.
01:48He got famous because he did all these crazy racist things.
01:53He had a store in underground Atlanta where he sold axe handles.
01:58Because that's what he used to keep these black people out of his establishment.
02:05He used to be in there selling them.
02:07It was crazy.
02:09Atlanta was always blacker than most people thought in terms of what it was.
02:19It wasn't run by black people at that particular time.
02:22After Lester Maddox, Atlanta did start to grow when Maynard Jackson became the first black mayor.
02:28And things started to change.
02:31The growth that Frank saw in his mind or the growth that Chicken Man was seeing.
02:37There are a lot of people there in that particular film that are trying to get to a particular place.
02:43Striving through it.
02:44Don's character, the cop.
02:46I had a cousin, my wife's cousin.
02:49He became my cousin.
02:50My wife's cousin was one of those first 23 policemen in Atlanta.
02:57He actually became the chief of police at a certain point named Elgin Bell.
03:02A lot of those things I know about because I was there and I was part of them.
03:06I was around certain people that did it.
03:08I was around people who got robbed in the robbery.
03:10I know some of those people.
03:12My wife's house that she grew up in is a block and a half away from the place where it happened.
03:21Collier Heights was where rich and well-to-do black people lived.
03:25That's where the robbery was.
03:29I came to this with a lot of information or a lot of knowledge about what was going on.
03:37In the reality of it and in the mythology of what that whole thing was when it happened.
03:44These experiences and the closeness that you have to the story.
03:48How did that help you in your portrayal of Frank Moten?
03:52I think that the things that we talked about more or I talked about more for Frank to myself
04:01were the things that we created in terms of what his grandmother talked to him about.
04:08Told him about the land or what it meant to be who he was and how he had to carry himself in that particular world.
04:20His expectations of other people and them listening to him or doing what he's doing.
04:28He's in the midst of a slight power struggle.
04:33Understanding what that means to him and what he's trying to do and where he's trying to go.
04:39He's trying to go and move the group of people or confederates.
04:48He's trying to move them in a specific direction that they are not willing to go just yet.
04:55Because they're still busy doing gangster things.
04:58He's trying to let them know that we can be legit and still be who we are.
05:03But nobody's trying to buy that.
05:05He kind of has the lone wolf at a certain point.
05:10He's handling that more so than all the other things that have happened to him.
05:20The robbery is just one of those things that he has to reclaim his reputation by cleaning that whole business up.
05:29But what his trajectory is, is not that.
05:32To become the godfather of Atlanta.
05:39It's like he says, the newspapers have to call you something when he's talking to Don.
05:45They call you a pig and they call me a criminal.
05:50We're not defined by other people.
05:55That's right.
05:57Mr. Jackson, I appreciate you.
05:59Thank you so much.
06:00And I really appreciate it.
06:03I appreciate you.
06:04Thank you, man.