1 00:00:32,206 --> 00:00:35,078 The 1990s were a golden era 2 00:00:35,122 --> 00:00:36,558 for The Walt Disney Company. 3 00:00:36,558 --> 00:00:37,907 The Little Mermaid revived the company 4 00:00:37,907 --> 00:00:39,996 from the edge of bankruptcy. 5 00:00:39,996 --> 00:00:43,086 Beauty and the Beast earned a Best Picture nomination. 6 00:00:43,130 --> 00:00:46,785 And The Lion King broke box office records worldwide. 7 00:00:48,657 --> 00:00:53,357 But the reality just miles away was no fairy tale. 8 00:00:53,357 --> 00:00:57,796 In 1992, a state jury acquitted 9 00:00:57,883 --> 00:01:01,670 four LAPD officers on almost all charges 10 00:01:01,713 --> 00:01:03,628 in the beating of Rodney G. King. 11 00:01:05,674 --> 00:01:09,373 The response was anger. 12 00:01:09,460 --> 00:01:13,029 Fire, chaos, 13 00:01:13,029 --> 00:01:16,337 massive citywide destruction. 14 00:01:16,380 --> 00:01:20,254 It was a pivotal moment for Black culture in the '90s. 15 00:01:20,341 --> 00:01:23,953 But it's a little-known fact that another cultural milestone 16 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,390 emerged from that fateful day. 17 00:01:28,479 --> 00:01:31,265 It's a story so unbelievable, 18 00:01:31,352 --> 00:01:33,745 it could only happen in Hollywood. 19 00:01:35,051 --> 00:01:38,837 How did this young, Black, unassuming animator 20 00:01:38,837 --> 00:01:42,841 from East Atlanta wind up 21 00:01:42,841 --> 00:01:45,627 as the CEO of Disney 22 00:01:45,627 --> 00:01:49,544 at the company's most powerful moment in time? 23 00:02:12,132 --> 00:02:15,222 - Okay, rolling. - Speed. 24 00:02:15,309 --> 00:02:17,093 Believe it or not, 25 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:18,964 we named him after Tom Jones. 26 00:02:19,008 --> 00:02:23,230 ♪ 27 00:02:23,230 --> 00:02:25,188 Yeah! 28 00:02:25,232 --> 00:02:28,626 His father used to play Tom Jones. 29 00:02:28,670 --> 00:02:31,673 That's how he first courted me. 30 00:02:31,673 --> 00:02:35,285 He would do a little dance and we would laugh. 31 00:02:35,329 --> 00:02:37,418 ♪ I got to tell you a story♪ 32 00:02:37,461 --> 00:02:39,420 ♪ Every man ought to know...♪ 33 00:02:39,463 --> 00:02:41,248 Usually, the boys in Ronald's family 34 00:02:41,248 --> 00:02:44,120 was named after their fathers, 35 00:02:44,207 --> 00:02:46,905 but when we had our boy, we knew that 36 00:02:46,992 --> 00:02:48,429 he was gonna be different, 37 00:02:48,472 --> 00:02:50,474 so we had to do something different. 38 00:02:50,474 --> 00:02:54,261 We had to name him Thomas. 39 00:02:54,348 --> 00:02:57,873 T loved cartoons something crazy. 40 00:02:57,916 --> 00:02:59,788 I mean, he was always drawing on his desk, uh, 41 00:02:59,875 --> 00:03:02,878 in, uh, in the margins of his notebook, in the textbooks, 42 00:03:02,921 --> 00:03:05,228 all on the walls, man. 43 00:03:05,272 --> 00:03:06,925 He just drove our teachers crazy. 44 00:03:07,012 --> 00:03:11,713 He was obsessed with this one cat named, um, Blasto Boy? 45 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,281 No, no, no, Astro Boy. 46 00:03:19,503 --> 00:03:21,940 Yeah, yeah, I used to watch it with him, 47 00:03:21,940 --> 00:03:23,159 and I remember thinking... 48 00:03:23,203 --> 00:03:26,945 this is kind of boring. 49 00:03:26,945 --> 00:03:28,295 But Thomas loved it, man. 50 00:03:28,382 --> 00:03:30,514 He drew... he drew that dude everywhere. 51 00:03:30,601 --> 00:03:33,735 One time, he asked me, he said, 52 00:03:33,735 --> 00:03:37,173 "What if Astro Boy came here and saved us?" 53 00:03:37,173 --> 00:03:39,610 I said, "Saved us from what?" 54 00:03:39,697 --> 00:03:44,572 And he just kind of shrugged and said, "Everything." 55 00:03:48,967 --> 00:03:50,926 I mean, what kind of eight-year-old 56 00:03:50,969 --> 00:03:53,189 is thinking like that, you know? 57 00:03:53,189 --> 00:03:54,538 I mean, I think he was scared. 58 00:03:54,625 --> 00:03:56,845 He wasn't no punk, I'm just saying, I don't 59 00:03:56,845 --> 00:03:59,761 think he ever understood why the world was so unfair. 60 00:03:59,761 --> 00:04:01,545 And where we were growing up... 61 00:04:01,632 --> 00:04:04,200 it was, like, unfair unfair, you know? 62 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:06,289 I mean, you could be sitting at home watching 63 00:04:06,333 --> 00:04:08,552 a program with white folks with nice houses. 64 00:04:08,552 --> 00:04:09,771 We couldn't even ride ours bikes outside, 65 00:04:09,771 --> 00:04:11,207 cause niggas will take it from you. 66 00:04:11,294 --> 00:04:14,645 Straight to your face, they do not care. Crime? 67 00:04:14,645 --> 00:04:16,343 What, so? They will ride your bike in front 68 00:04:16,430 --> 00:04:17,474 of your house the next day. 69 00:04:19,433 --> 00:04:21,565 Yeah, unfair. 70 00:04:21,565 --> 00:04:23,437 The boys picked on him. 71 00:04:23,524 --> 00:04:26,570 He would come home sometimes with pages 72 00:04:26,657 --> 00:04:28,355 torn out of his little sketchbook. 73 00:04:28,355 --> 00:04:30,444 Yeah, we would call him white. 74 00:04:30,487 --> 00:04:31,880 We was just messing with him. 75 00:04:31,923 --> 00:04:33,316 Um, I think he was just trying to fit in, 76 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,753 but he wasn't really like us, you know? 77 00:04:35,797 --> 00:04:37,233 And the kids would call him on it. 78 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,236 I mean, he just wanted to draw, 79 00:04:40,236 --> 00:04:44,022 and he didn't understand why that wasn't "cool," you know? 80 00:04:44,109 --> 00:04:46,677 I mean, niggas will make fun of you for anything, 81 00:04:46,677 --> 00:04:49,245 and I don't think Thomas was built to take it. 82 00:04:49,332 --> 00:04:51,595 I told him, "Son, 83 00:04:51,595 --> 00:04:56,513 one day, ain't none of this gonna even matter." 84 00:05:12,007 --> 00:05:15,706 In 1987, Thomas left East Atlanta to attend 85 00:05:15,750 --> 00:05:19,101 Savannah College of Art and Design, or SCAD. 86 00:05:20,276 --> 00:05:22,234 It was here that Thomas's 87 00:05:22,278 --> 00:05:25,673 creative dreams began to take shape. 88 00:05:25,716 --> 00:05:28,850 We didn't have a lot of Black students in the program then. 89 00:05:28,937 --> 00:05:32,157 Thomas showed a lot of promise. 90 00:05:32,201 --> 00:05:35,944 In his application, he wrote about how he wanted 91 00:05:35,987 --> 00:05:38,425 to work at Disney one day. 92 00:05:38,425 --> 00:05:40,514 We usually laugh at that sort of thing. 93 00:05:40,557 --> 00:05:42,733 Everybody says that, you know? 94 00:05:42,820 --> 00:05:47,999 But with his application, he sent a little flip-book. 95 00:05:47,999 --> 00:05:49,479 Can you see this? 96 00:05:53,091 --> 00:05:56,530 I mean, he had the sensibility 97 00:05:56,530 --> 00:06:00,795 and the wit of a true Disney animator. 98 00:06:03,058 --> 00:06:07,497 Art Babbitt was a big name at Disney Animation for a time. 99 00:06:07,541 --> 00:06:09,456 As an animator in the '30s and '40s, 100 00:06:09,543 --> 00:06:12,110 he racked up a lot of credits, 101 00:06:12,154 --> 00:06:13,677 and enemies, 102 00:06:13,764 --> 00:06:15,897 but he was most well-known for 103 00:06:15,984 --> 00:06:18,247 developing the character of Goofy. 104 00:06:18,247 --> 00:06:21,946 He came to SCAD, and he spoke. 105 00:06:36,918 --> 00:06:39,311 Thomas really gravitated to him. 106 00:06:39,355 --> 00:06:42,576 He became obsessed, and he really glommed 107 00:06:42,663 --> 00:06:46,362 on to Babbitt's article "Analysis of the Goof." 108 00:06:48,146 --> 00:06:50,105 Art describes Goofy. 109 00:06:50,148 --> 00:06:52,368 He says, "Think of the Goof as a composite 110 00:06:52,368 --> 00:06:56,372 "of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, 111 00:06:56,459 --> 00:07:00,158 "a half-wit, a shiftless, 112 00:07:00,158 --> 00:07:01,290 "good-natured colored boy, 113 00:07:01,377 --> 00:07:02,683 "and a hick. 114 00:07:02,726 --> 00:07:04,467 "He is loose-jointed 115 00:07:04,511 --> 00:07:06,904 "and gangly, but not rubbery. 116 00:07:06,948 --> 00:07:09,516 "He can move fast if he has to, but would rather 117 00:07:09,603 --> 00:07:12,388 "avoid overexertion, 118 00:07:12,475 --> 00:07:15,391 "so he takes what seems the easiest way. 119 00:07:15,478 --> 00:07:19,743 "He is a philosopher of the barber shop variety. 120 00:07:19,830 --> 00:07:23,051 "No matter what happens, he accepts it finally 121 00:07:23,094 --> 00:07:27,621 as being for the best or at least amusing." 122 00:07:27,708 --> 00:07:32,626 Thomas used this text as the center of a piece 123 00:07:32,669 --> 00:07:36,456 of a series he called "Goofy, Please." 124 00:07:37,979 --> 00:07:41,417 After class one day, he showed me some of these pieces, 125 00:07:41,504 --> 00:07:44,202 and I looked at it, and I looked at him, 126 00:07:44,246 --> 00:07:45,987 and I thought, 127 00:07:46,074 --> 00:07:49,556 "This kid is from another universe, 128 00:07:49,556 --> 00:07:52,559 like, a whole nother planet." 129 00:07:52,646 --> 00:07:55,300 Thomas would be like, "Hey, come on, 130 00:07:55,344 --> 00:07:58,434 you know Goofy's a [bleep]." 131 00:07:58,434 --> 00:08:00,523 : And we would just laugh, man. 132 00:08:00,567 --> 00:08:02,960 We just thought that was so funny. 133 00:08:03,004 --> 00:08:06,790 It was clear that Thomas was very talented. 134 00:08:06,877 --> 00:08:08,400 For his thesis, 135 00:08:08,444 --> 00:08:11,360 he made this incredible short film. 136 00:08:12,100 --> 00:08:15,320 ♪ Well, I'd like to visit the moon♪ 137 00:08:15,364 --> 00:08:19,455 ♪ On a rocket ship high in the air...♪ 138 00:08:19,499 --> 00:08:21,805 He had little screenings; 139 00:08:21,892 --> 00:08:24,329 teachers would come, and students. 140 00:08:24,373 --> 00:08:28,246 The film felt so deep. 141 00:08:28,333 --> 00:08:30,684 I-I think it was somehow connected to him 142 00:08:30,684 --> 00:08:32,860 losing his father in freshman year. 143 00:08:32,903 --> 00:08:34,557 ♪ I would miss all the places and...♪ 144 00:08:34,601 --> 00:08:36,124 Uncle Ronnie dying changed him, man. 145 00:08:36,167 --> 00:08:39,040 Thomas was in his freshman year at SCAD, 146 00:08:39,127 --> 00:08:41,042 and I didn't think he was going to make it, but, uh, 147 00:08:41,129 --> 00:08:43,479 once we buried my Uncle Ronnie, man, 148 00:08:43,566 --> 00:08:47,527 he, uh-- it's like his brain exploded. 149 00:08:49,267 --> 00:08:53,054 Depending on who saw it and when they saw it, 150 00:08:53,054 --> 00:08:56,274 it was either the funniest thing, 151 00:08:56,361 --> 00:08:58,625 or the saddest thing you'd ever seen. 152 00:08:58,712 --> 00:09:02,846 That short was what got him into Disney. 153 00:09:02,846 --> 00:09:04,195 No question. 154 00:09:08,722 --> 00:09:11,725 Washington comes to Disney 155 00:09:11,812 --> 00:09:14,292 right out of college, fresh from SCAD. 156 00:09:14,379 --> 00:09:18,166 You know, he's there, the company's doing pretty well, 157 00:09:18,209 --> 00:09:19,646 they've just had their hit with The Little Mermaid. 158 00:09:21,473 --> 00:09:24,302 One of the things that-that I'm glad that I was 159 00:09:24,389 --> 00:09:26,261 able to be part of was that, um, 160 00:09:26,304 --> 00:09:29,960 Disney instituted this diversity program. 161 00:09:30,047 --> 00:09:34,530 We knew that we needed to bring in younger voices 162 00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:37,185 from a diversified point of view, 163 00:09:37,228 --> 00:09:39,317 and that would actually, uh, 164 00:09:39,361 --> 00:09:41,885 strengthen our company. 165 00:09:41,885 --> 00:09:45,062 And Thomas was one of the first of those. 166 00:09:45,106 --> 00:09:48,718 Thomas started out at Disney as an assistant animator 167 00:09:48,762 --> 00:09:52,330 on DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. 168 00:09:52,330 --> 00:09:55,116 It wasn't necessarily creative work, 169 00:09:55,203 --> 00:09:57,422 but things are fine, you know. 170 00:09:57,466 --> 00:10:00,512 It's not really moving as fast as he wants things 171 00:10:00,556 --> 00:10:02,645 to be moving, but he's doing all right. 172 00:10:02,689 --> 00:10:05,561 And then the uprisings happened. 173 00:10:11,654 --> 00:10:13,264 When the shooting happened, 174 00:10:13,351 --> 00:10:16,311 and then the riots, 175 00:10:16,354 --> 00:10:19,662 Thomas was working in L.A. 176 00:10:19,706 --> 00:10:23,710 He called me and he said, "Mama, 177 00:10:23,710 --> 00:10:27,278 I just want to go down there." 178 00:10:27,278 --> 00:10:30,891 And I told him, 179 00:10:30,934 --> 00:10:34,590 "Son, you need to riot 180 00:10:34,677 --> 00:10:36,244 with that pen and paper." 181 00:10:36,287 --> 00:10:38,594 He was shook. 182 00:10:38,594 --> 00:10:40,161 I could see it in him, he was shook. 183 00:10:40,248 --> 00:10:42,380 He actually called me one time and was like, 184 00:10:42,467 --> 00:10:45,166 "If I ever get the chance to do a movie around here, 185 00:10:45,253 --> 00:10:47,777 I'm not holding back." 186 00:10:59,049 --> 00:11:01,138 While South Central Los Angeles 187 00:11:01,182 --> 00:11:03,401 was engulfed in flames, 188 00:11:03,488 --> 00:11:07,623 15 miles north in Burbank, another fire was about to erup. 189 00:11:07,710 --> 00:11:11,453 What happened next is one of the most unlikely 190 00:11:11,496 --> 00:11:15,718 and unprecedented events in the history of corporate America. 191 00:11:15,762 --> 00:11:17,938 After the success of Beauty and the Beast, 192 00:11:17,981 --> 00:11:20,941 Michael Eisner put Dennis Stephenson in charge 193 00:11:20,984 --> 00:11:23,421 while he went on a sabbatical. 194 00:11:23,508 --> 00:11:26,076 But two weeks into the job, 195 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:28,513 Stephenson had a health emergency 196 00:11:28,557 --> 00:11:30,907 and passed shortly thereafter... 197 00:11:32,648 --> 00:11:34,824 ...leaving the job open once more. 198 00:11:36,521 --> 00:11:38,523 We all voted for this guy 199 00:11:38,567 --> 00:11:39,786 named Tom Washington. 200 00:11:39,873 --> 00:11:41,570 But we didn't realize 201 00:11:41,657 --> 00:11:43,746 that Tom's first name 202 00:11:43,790 --> 00:11:48,229 was actually Thompson, not Thomas. 203 00:11:48,316 --> 00:11:51,667 Thomas Washington was an animator. 204 00:11:51,667 --> 00:11:54,670 People were pretty upset when they found out 205 00:11:54,670 --> 00:11:55,802 they voted for the wrong man. 206 00:11:58,456 --> 00:12:00,589 It felt like an honest mistake that we 207 00:12:00,589 --> 00:12:03,200 could sweep under the rug, but 208 00:12:03,244 --> 00:12:04,593 after Beauty and the Beast, 209 00:12:04,680 --> 00:12:07,117 there were a lot of eyes on us. 210 00:12:07,161 --> 00:12:08,553 We tried to handle it smoothly, 211 00:12:08,597 --> 00:12:11,687 but Thomas held our feet to the fire. 212 00:12:13,558 --> 00:12:17,040 So, because of this, you know, "behind closed door, 213 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:19,564 boys' club" handshake, 214 00:12:19,608 --> 00:12:21,697 Disney is now in radical 215 00:12:21,697 --> 00:12:24,265 new territory but entirely by default. 216 00:12:24,265 --> 00:12:26,833 So you have this young animato, 217 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:29,139 this young, Black animator 218 00:12:29,139 --> 00:12:32,490 who comes into this company, all of a sudden has a ton 219 00:12:32,577 --> 00:12:36,059 of power at a hugely culturally significant moment, 220 00:12:36,146 --> 00:12:38,061 and he wants to do something with it. 221 00:12:38,148 --> 00:12:39,280 He wants to prove himself. 222 00:12:39,367 --> 00:12:41,282 This cat was on my line 223 00:12:41,369 --> 00:12:42,936 with some foolishness, 224 00:12:42,936 --> 00:12:44,502 talking about he's the CEO of Disney. 225 00:12:44,502 --> 00:12:47,418 I was, I was crying laughing. 226 00:12:49,507 --> 00:12:53,511 And then, you know, he took me to his office 227 00:12:53,598 --> 00:12:55,949 and people was, like, greeting him. 228 00:12:55,949 --> 00:12:59,343 First day, he took us all into a room 229 00:12:59,387 --> 00:13:01,302 that we call the stock room, which is where everybody 230 00:13:01,302 --> 00:13:02,869 hangs out before we get to work. 231 00:13:02,869 --> 00:13:05,872 And he shows us a frame of animation 232 00:13:05,872 --> 00:13:10,746 of Goofy in Mickey's trailer, and, uh, 233 00:13:10,746 --> 00:13:13,096 Mickey has Pluto on a leash. 234 00:13:13,183 --> 00:13:16,099 And it gets real quiet, 235 00:13:16,186 --> 00:13:18,406 and, uh, Washington goes, 236 00:13:18,449 --> 00:13:21,104 "Why is Goofy letting Mickey do that?" 237 00:13:21,191 --> 00:13:23,280 He's a very fine dog, sir. 238 00:13:23,324 --> 00:13:25,630 And, you know, we're all confused, we're just looking 239 00:13:25,674 --> 00:13:28,938 at each other, and Charlie goes, "What do you mean, sir?" 240 00:13:28,982 --> 00:13:33,203 And Washington goes, "Goofy's a dog, 241 00:13:33,203 --> 00:13:36,990 "and Pluto's a dog, so why is he letting Mickey 242 00:13:37,033 --> 00:13:39,122 do that to one of his own?" 243 00:13:40,863 --> 00:13:44,127 Yeah, T had them running scared from day one. 244 00:13:44,127 --> 00:13:48,566 I was, uh, fresh-faced and wild-eyed. 245 00:13:48,653 --> 00:13:53,441 I was an inbetweener for about three years, 246 00:13:53,484 --> 00:13:55,051 didn't see much movement. 247 00:13:57,358 --> 00:14:00,752 An inbetweener was usually for animators just starting ou. 248 00:14:00,796 --> 00:14:04,887 So, say a character slaps somebody across the face. 249 00:14:04,931 --> 00:14:08,456 They would get a senior artist to do the fun part, 250 00:14:08,499 --> 00:14:13,896 drawing the first and the last frame that define the movement. 251 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,292 The inbetweener draws all the many little frames in between. 252 00:14:19,815 --> 00:14:21,730 I was stuck as an inbetweener 253 00:14:21,730 --> 00:14:23,819 for years and years, 254 00:14:23,819 --> 00:14:25,952 but as soon as Thomas came in, he said, 255 00:14:26,039 --> 00:14:28,606 "I want you to be lead director on this." 256 00:14:29,912 --> 00:14:33,350 And I said, "On what?" And he said, 257 00:14:33,394 --> 00:14:36,092 "The Blackest movie of all time." 258 00:14:37,833 --> 00:14:39,835 -♪ Check, check, uh♪ -♪ Get it, get, get...♪ 259 00:14:39,922 --> 00:14:43,970 He said he wanted to make a movie about Black fatherhood. 260 00:14:43,970 --> 00:14:46,233 ♪ Get, get, get it...♪ 261 00:14:46,276 --> 00:14:48,713 Man, he wanted to tackle everything in this movie. 262 00:14:48,757 --> 00:14:52,630 Segregation, single parenting, 263 00:14:52,630 --> 00:14:54,850 low-income career trajectories, 264 00:14:54,937 --> 00:14:58,419 fear of gang violence, incarceration, 265 00:14:58,419 --> 00:15:02,640 the amount of cheese in African-American diets. 266 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:07,297 He wanted to make a movie that covered all this and more... 267 00:15:07,384 --> 00:15:10,431 and he said he knew the perfect character to do it. 268 00:15:10,431 --> 00:15:12,389 ♪ Swingin' while I'm singin'♪ 269 00:15:12,433 --> 00:15:13,869 ♪ Hey!♪ 270 00:15:13,869 --> 00:15:18,221 Thomas, man, he knew that people thought 271 00:15:18,308 --> 00:15:21,094 Goofy was dumb, but he wanted to show 272 00:15:21,094 --> 00:15:24,097 the systemic factors that Goofy was dealing with. 273 00:15:24,140 --> 00:15:27,404 A shitty job, angry kid, 274 00:15:27,448 --> 00:15:30,233 and embarrassed by his lack of influence. 275 00:15:31,539 --> 00:15:36,457 Man, it was wild how deep he leaned in to all this, 276 00:15:36,544 --> 00:15:38,676 'cause, uh, as far as I knew, 277 00:15:38,763 --> 00:15:42,463 Thomas had a really solid homelife. 278 00:15:42,463 --> 00:15:45,466 It's a vacation with me and my best buddy. 279 00:15:45,466 --> 00:15:46,554 Oh, Donald Duck? 280 00:15:46,597 --> 00:15:49,209 No, silly, with you! 281 00:16:02,570 --> 00:16:05,834 Thomas and I, we were married young. 282 00:16:05,921 --> 00:16:09,011 We didn't have much, 283 00:16:09,055 --> 00:16:12,232 and, um, you know what, he nevr 284 00:16:12,275 --> 00:16:16,018 let that get in the way of us, though. 285 00:16:16,062 --> 00:16:17,454 If there was something we couldn't afford, 286 00:16:17,498 --> 00:16:19,587 he would just draw it. 287 00:16:19,630 --> 00:16:22,938 You know, you'd wake up and I would 288 00:16:22,938 --> 00:16:27,725 see anything from a coffee makr to a solid-gold jet 289 00:16:27,725 --> 00:16:31,294 on the refrigerator in the morning. 290 00:16:31,294 --> 00:16:32,774 That was Thomas. 291 00:16:34,167 --> 00:16:38,040 We-we had our son Maxwell pretty early. 292 00:16:38,084 --> 00:16:40,086 He and Thomas, they were inseparable. 293 00:16:40,173 --> 00:16:42,175 He did everything for that boy. 294 00:16:42,218 --> 00:16:45,265 Oh, my God, look at this... 295 00:16:45,308 --> 00:16:46,962 Oh, look at this! 296 00:16:47,006 --> 00:16:50,096 Thomas kept saying that 297 00:16:50,183 --> 00:16:52,315 A Goofy Movie was for him. 298 00:16:53,664 --> 00:16:58,408 He'd say, "If I'm not here, you can show him this." 299 00:16:58,452 --> 00:17:02,630 I was too scared to ask him what he meant by that. 300 00:17:02,630 --> 00:17:05,850 To give you a little context, when A Goofy Movie came out, 301 00:17:05,894 --> 00:17:09,376 Black masculinity in the media was in a really weird place. 302 00:17:09,419 --> 00:17:13,554 - Hello, I'm Blaine Edwards. - And I'm Antoine Merriweather! 303 00:17:13,641 --> 00:17:15,991 And welcome to Men on Films. 304 00:17:16,078 --> 00:17:17,775 The show that looks at movies.. 305 00:17:17,862 --> 00:17:20,213 ...from a male point of view. 306 00:17:20,300 --> 00:17:23,216 So on one hand, you've got men doing, kind of 307 00:17:23,303 --> 00:17:26,306 "faux queer" comedy, and on the other end 308 00:17:26,349 --> 00:17:29,135 of the spectrum, you've got these hypermasculine portrayals. 309 00:17:31,833 --> 00:17:34,575 Am I my brother's keeper? 310 00:17:36,707 --> 00:17:38,187 Yes, I am. 311 00:17:40,798 --> 00:17:43,366 And, by contrast, Goofy 312 00:17:43,453 --> 00:17:46,587 is a nuanced portrayal of a Black man 313 00:17:46,587 --> 00:17:49,677 whose priority is his family. 314 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,810 - What? - Nothin'. 315 00:17:52,810 --> 00:17:56,118 Goofy really put forward the philosophy that... 316 00:17:56,162 --> 00:18:01,254 just love your children for who they are and accept them, 317 00:18:01,254 --> 00:18:03,038 and deal with the pain that the world 318 00:18:03,038 --> 00:18:04,170 is not going to love them like you do. 319 00:18:12,961 --> 00:18:17,052 I think in the movie, Dad laid in a lot of things. 320 00:18:17,052 --> 00:18:20,360 I-I notice it more now than I did then. 321 00:18:20,403 --> 00:18:22,057 ♪ If I could make you stop and take a look♪ 322 00:18:22,144 --> 00:18:23,580 ♪ At me instead of just...♪ 323 00:18:23,624 --> 00:18:28,019 In the beginning, Max sings a song, 324 00:18:28,063 --> 00:18:31,458 dunks a basketball, and then is cheered on by his peers. 325 00:18:33,286 --> 00:18:35,288 I think my dad was making a comment 326 00:18:35,331 --> 00:18:36,854 on Black exceptionalism 327 00:18:36,854 --> 00:18:40,075 and how some people believe 328 00:18:40,075 --> 00:18:44,732 that performative assimilation is the best way to get by. 329 00:18:44,819 --> 00:18:49,171 My dad wanted to prove those limitations were just that, 330 00:18:49,215 --> 00:18:52,609 limits put on us by outsiders. 331 00:18:52,653 --> 00:18:56,744 That's why he made it a fishing trip. 332 00:18:56,744 --> 00:18:59,138 It's the same one we used to take. [chuckles] 333 00:19:01,183 --> 00:19:03,446 The trip was supposed to start out 334 00:19:03,446 --> 00:19:06,493 as sort of like a freedom ride. 335 00:19:06,536 --> 00:19:08,930 And the map, which is central to the plot 336 00:19:08,973 --> 00:19:13,674 of the film and also representd Goofy's trust in his son Max, 337 00:19:13,674 --> 00:19:16,285 was supposed to remind the viewer 338 00:19:16,329 --> 00:19:18,983 of the Green Book and how Black travelers 339 00:19:19,027 --> 00:19:21,508 had to use it to advance their way 340 00:19:21,551 --> 00:19:25,555 through the Jim Crow South during the '30s and the '40s. 341 00:19:25,599 --> 00:19:29,559 A lot of the film had deeper meanings, and word 342 00:19:29,646 --> 00:19:34,434 got around that it meant a lot more in Thomas's eyes. 343 00:19:34,477 --> 00:19:37,872 Dad wanted every Black person in America to feel like 344 00:19:37,915 --> 00:19:42,572 they were just a road trip away from being part of a movement. 345 00:19:42,616 --> 00:19:46,359 Even if their kids didn't understand the stakes. 346 00:19:46,446 --> 00:19:50,363 It was about destiny and how our children, 347 00:19:50,406 --> 00:19:53,366 our future, get to draw our path. 348 00:19:53,453 --> 00:19:55,368 I want to get us to doing something 349 00:19:55,411 --> 00:19:56,717 we've never done before. 350 00:19:56,804 --> 00:19:58,806 We have never truly drawn 351 00:19:58,893 --> 00:20:02,636 authentically Black characters, characters that act... 352 00:20:08,163 --> 00:20:10,731 Now, see, this is what I'm talking about. 353 00:20:10,818 --> 00:20:13,734 This is what I'm talking about. 354 00:20:13,821 --> 00:20:17,172 In order to draw authentically Black characters, 355 00:20:17,259 --> 00:20:19,305 one has to know Black people. 356 00:20:19,392 --> 00:20:23,831 Okay? Now, Tom went out on assignment. 357 00:20:23,874 --> 00:20:27,617 Researched, hung out, went to a couple Black cookouts. 358 00:20:27,661 --> 00:20:31,969 Said the wrong thing, got his ass beat, but now, now? 359 00:20:31,969 --> 00:20:34,537 He's more aware, he's more knowledgeable 360 00:20:34,624 --> 00:20:36,496 of how to draw. Okay? 361 00:20:36,539 --> 00:20:39,716 Thomas tried to pull back and be more 362 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,416 subtle with his message, uh, when the complaints started, 363 00:20:43,416 --> 00:20:45,766 and we were getting complaints from everywhere. 364 00:20:45,766 --> 00:20:51,206 But there was nothing subtle about Thomas. 365 00:20:51,206 --> 00:20:53,904 At one point, he said he didn't want Mickey in the movie. 366 00:20:53,904 --> 00:20:56,429 And, um, I kept saying, 367 00:20:56,429 --> 00:20:58,779 "But it's Disney. What are you talking about?" 368 00:20:58,779 --> 00:21:01,869 I can remember Thomas ranting in his office, 369 00:21:01,869 --> 00:21:04,175 "They're trying to make me put this white boy in my movie." 370 00:21:04,219 --> 00:21:07,788 And I'm thinking, "He's a mouse." 371 00:21:07,875 --> 00:21:10,094 He told me from the beginning, 372 00:21:10,138 --> 00:21:13,010 "I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time." 373 00:21:13,097 --> 00:21:16,449 Uh, he knew he was going to get fired, 374 00:21:16,536 --> 00:21:19,365 but the "when" of it was fun for him. 375 00:21:19,452 --> 00:21:21,236 It was like a game. 376 00:21:21,323 --> 00:21:26,894 We had 15, 16, sometimes 18-hour days. 377 00:21:26,894 --> 00:21:30,593 And, uh, he would be screaming, "We don't dance like that." 378 00:21:30,593 --> 00:21:34,380 And he would bring his friend's kids in 379 00:21:34,467 --> 00:21:37,470 and, uh, they would moonwalk and, 380 00:21:37,470 --> 00:21:40,777 and, you know, do all, like, you know, this stuff, you know? 381 00:21:40,821 --> 00:21:42,823 Oh, man, I must have drawn a pair 382 00:21:42,910 --> 00:21:46,479 of gloves dapping, I don't know, over 5,000 times? 383 00:21:46,479 --> 00:21:49,003 I just kept hearing, "That's not a dap, that's not a dap. 384 00:21:49,046 --> 00:21:50,134 Where's the snap?" 385 00:21:50,178 --> 00:21:51,571 You see my knees? 386 00:21:51,614 --> 00:21:54,443 You see this, see this angle of these knees? 387 00:21:54,487 --> 00:21:57,054 Draw-- Draw this! Get this down, okay? 388 00:21:57,141 --> 00:21:59,230 One time, I just couldn't take it-- 389 00:21:59,274 --> 00:22:02,103 my fingers were just bleeding-- so I went up to talk to him, 390 00:22:02,146 --> 00:22:04,497 and he was up there drinking whiskey with Robert Townsend, 391 00:22:04,584 --> 00:22:08,501 and Janet Jackson, uh, Sinbad and Adina Howard. 392 00:22:08,588 --> 00:22:11,721 Well, when I poked my head in, Thomas went, 393 00:22:11,765 --> 00:22:13,288 "Who ordered the white rice?" 394 00:22:13,332 --> 00:22:15,638 And they all just laughed, 395 00:22:15,725 --> 00:22:19,076 and, uh, I just didn't get it. 396 00:22:19,076 --> 00:22:20,817 BRIAN McKNIGHT: Everybody used to be up there. 397 00:22:20,861 --> 00:22:24,734 Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Kadeem Hardison, 398 00:22:24,778 --> 00:22:28,738 Harrison Ford, it was crazy. The parties were insane. 399 00:22:28,782 --> 00:22:31,959 Imagine Disney after The Lion King. 400 00:22:32,002 --> 00:22:34,701 You got this smooth-looking brother at the helm. 401 00:22:38,661 --> 00:22:40,968 It was crazy he even had that office. 402 00:22:41,011 --> 00:22:42,622 Everyone would go up there and just hang 403 00:22:42,665 --> 00:22:45,625 as we plotted our overthrow of Hollywood. 404 00:22:45,668 --> 00:22:47,453 You couldn't tell us nothing. 405 00:22:47,453 --> 00:22:49,890 They had a big musical number planned 406 00:22:49,890 --> 00:22:52,196 with Bryan Adams in the movie. 407 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,461 And one day, Thomas asked me to come by 408 00:22:55,461 --> 00:22:57,898 and see what he's working on. 409 00:22:57,898 --> 00:23:00,074 And we're walking through, and he stops in one 410 00:23:00,117 --> 00:23:01,902 of the rooms and plays me some of the music. 411 00:23:01,989 --> 00:23:05,122 And I'm like, "Yeah, you know, pop ballad. 412 00:23:05,209 --> 00:23:06,646 "You know, same old, same old. 413 00:23:06,689 --> 00:23:09,518 You know, it's-it's good, it's-it's cool." 414 00:23:09,562 --> 00:23:12,869 But he asks me, "Who do you like right now?" 415 00:23:12,913 --> 00:23:15,045 I'm like, "You know, I-I've been listening 416 00:23:15,132 --> 00:23:17,221 to this Tevin Campbell." 417 00:23:17,265 --> 00:23:21,704 And from then on, it just had to be Tevin Campbell. 418 00:23:21,791 --> 00:23:26,709 ♪ Last night I, I saw you♪ 419 00:23:26,709 --> 00:23:28,058 ♪ Standing♪ 420 00:23:28,058 --> 00:23:30,365 ♪ And I started♪ 421 00:23:30,409 --> 00:23:32,715 ♪ Started pretending♪ 422 00:23:32,715 --> 00:23:34,500 Most of the cats around there didn't 423 00:23:34,587 --> 00:23:36,371 even know who Tevin Campbell was. 424 00:23:36,458 --> 00:23:40,810 For three months, a lot of them were saying Kevin Campbell. 425 00:23:40,810 --> 00:23:45,728 ♪ Can we talk, baby, can we talk for a minute?♪ 426 00:23:45,815 --> 00:23:47,948 ♪ Girl, I want to know your name♪ 427 00:23:47,948 --> 00:23:50,341 ♪ I want to know your name♪ 428 00:23:50,385 --> 00:23:51,952 Thomas was a cool cat. 429 00:23:52,039 --> 00:23:54,824 But the brother definitely had a chip on his shoulder. 430 00:23:54,824 --> 00:23:56,435 He didn't like it if you challenged his Blackness. 431 00:23:59,612 --> 00:24:01,701 I think there was a part of Thomas 432 00:24:01,744 --> 00:24:05,531 that kind of felt that being an animator 433 00:24:05,531 --> 00:24:08,534 wasn't innately Black, you know? 434 00:24:08,534 --> 00:24:11,537 And he wanted to make it Black, 435 00:24:11,537 --> 00:24:13,277 he wanted to make it cool. 436 00:24:13,321 --> 00:24:17,368 He wanted to-to carve out his own space and not feel 437 00:24:17,412 --> 00:24:20,981 that he was divorced from his own culture, you know. 438 00:24:21,068 --> 00:24:24,506 He was loading his culture into this stuff that 439 00:24:24,550 --> 00:24:26,987 we were doing so that it just seemed normal 440 00:24:27,074 --> 00:24:30,817 and would seem normal to the rest of us. 441 00:24:30,860 --> 00:24:33,994 He had a lot of pressure, man-- the culture, the job itself, 442 00:24:33,994 --> 00:24:36,866 what-what he was trying to live up to that I'm not even sure 443 00:24:36,866 --> 00:24:38,781 that he knew that he could live up to it. 444 00:24:38,781 --> 00:24:42,742 And, uh, it had to take a huge toll on him. 445 00:24:42,785 --> 00:24:44,961 One morning I walk in the studio, I got my coffee, 446 00:24:45,005 --> 00:24:47,398 I'm ready to sit down, get to busi-- business. 447 00:24:47,442 --> 00:24:50,750 And Thomas like, "Psst! Psst! Come here, come here!" 448 00:24:50,793 --> 00:24:53,666 So I go over there and, uh, he's in his cubicle, 449 00:24:53,709 --> 00:24:57,234 he got this briefcase, he opens it up, 450 00:24:57,278 --> 00:24:58,801 there's a gun inside! 451 00:24:58,801 --> 00:25:03,240 I'm like, "Dude, what-what is this? 452 00:25:03,284 --> 00:25:05,112 What's it for?" 453 00:25:05,155 --> 00:25:09,682 And he's like, "This is to remind me that 454 00:25:09,682 --> 00:25:11,945 they don't know who the fuck I am." 455 00:25:17,690 --> 00:25:21,128 Dad kind of started to lose it. 456 00:25:21,171 --> 00:25:24,044 He would stay up all night, talk to hisself. 457 00:25:24,131 --> 00:25:28,309 After a while, Mom... she had had enough. 458 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,488 After a while, Mom couldn't take it anymore. 459 00:25:33,488 --> 00:25:35,272 He had just gotten too mean. 460 00:25:37,187 --> 00:25:39,712 We had so much fun. 461 00:25:40,626 --> 00:25:44,717 But then, it wasn't fun anymor. 462 00:25:44,804 --> 00:25:47,284 He had been fooling around, yeah. 463 00:25:47,371 --> 00:25:51,288 And drinking a lot, and he got pretty mean. 464 00:25:51,375 --> 00:25:54,291 He would say some mean, nasty things to me, 465 00:25:54,378 --> 00:25:57,512 which he never, he had never done that before. 466 00:26:00,036 --> 00:26:02,038 I remember at one time, Maxwell tried to step in 467 00:26:02,082 --> 00:26:03,300 between his dad and I, 468 00:26:03,344 --> 00:26:06,303 and Thomas... 469 00:26:06,390 --> 00:26:10,090 was not kind. He kind of... 470 00:26:12,309 --> 00:26:15,182 He kind of raised his, um... 471 00:26:15,225 --> 00:26:18,228 he raised his fist... 472 00:26:18,315 --> 00:26:20,883 at Maxwell. 473 00:26:20,970 --> 00:26:24,191 That wasn't cool, because they-they 474 00:26:24,234 --> 00:26:25,801 had always been so close. 475 00:26:28,804 --> 00:26:30,676 He was a... 476 00:26:30,763 --> 00:26:33,113 he was a really good father. 477 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,116 I mean, at least he tried to be a good father. 478 00:26:36,116 --> 00:26:39,075 I kept saying, "Thomas, 479 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,904 "you're going to lose him, 480 00:26:41,904 --> 00:26:44,820 you're going to lose your son." 481 00:26:47,344 --> 00:26:50,913 But all he kept saying is... 482 00:26:50,913 --> 00:26:53,046 "But this is for him." 483 00:26:55,918 --> 00:26:58,660 I knew things were going downhill when 484 00:26:58,704 --> 00:27:00,793 Thomas's wife left him. 485 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,056 Sh-She had been there from the beginning. 486 00:27:04,361 --> 00:27:06,929 And he started sleeping in his office. 487 00:27:07,016 --> 00:27:11,020 And, um, one day, there was a board meeting. 488 00:27:11,107 --> 00:27:15,764 All the Disney heads were ther, and they started talking 489 00:27:15,808 --> 00:27:19,550 about the budget was going a bit high on Goofy. 490 00:27:19,594 --> 00:27:22,684 And one of the guys asked Thomas, he said, uh, 491 00:27:22,728 --> 00:27:24,904 "Are you in control of the budget?" 492 00:27:24,947 --> 00:27:26,819 And Thomas said, "Of course I am. 493 00:27:26,862 --> 00:27:28,908 I'm Goofy." 494 00:27:28,951 --> 00:27:30,692 And then, 495 00:27:30,736 --> 00:27:35,479 he did this this chilling laug. Like... 496 00:27:39,092 --> 00:27:42,617 You know, l-like Goofy, but broken. 497 00:27:43,966 --> 00:27:46,534 : And it-it was terrifying, man. 498 00:27:46,534 --> 00:27:48,101 I almost started crying. 499 00:27:50,407 --> 00:27:52,758 He really thought he was Goofy. 500 00:27:58,981 --> 00:28:01,070 The company knew he had to go, 501 00:28:01,114 --> 00:28:04,857 but legally, he was still the CEO. 502 00:28:04,900 --> 00:28:08,556 That gentleman's show of hands was, uh, 503 00:28:08,643 --> 00:28:12,647 surprisingly hard to go back o. 504 00:28:12,734 --> 00:28:15,084 You know, they even tried to buy him out of his contract. 505 00:28:15,128 --> 00:28:18,784 Yeah, they offered him, like $75,000. 506 00:28:18,871 --> 00:28:20,786 No, no. 507 00:28:20,873 --> 00:28:24,615 We offered him $75 million, 508 00:28:24,659 --> 00:28:27,096 paid out over ten years. 509 00:28:27,183 --> 00:28:32,014 Um, that's how... that's how serious it was for us. 510 00:28:32,101 --> 00:28:33,842 I mean, he didn't take it. 511 00:28:33,886 --> 00:28:37,585 But, uh, maybe he should have taken it, you know? 512 00:28:39,892 --> 00:28:43,460 He started getting really paranoid. 513 00:28:43,547 --> 00:28:46,986 He'd say he was afraid for his life, 514 00:28:47,029 --> 00:28:49,118 but he'd never say from whom. 515 00:28:50,424 --> 00:28:52,687 Suddenly, there were a bunch of guys in bow ties 516 00:28:52,774 --> 00:28:54,776 hanging around the office. 517 00:28:54,820 --> 00:28:56,691 He introduced us to one of them saying, 518 00:28:56,778 --> 00:28:59,041 "I want you to meet my new head of security, 519 00:28:59,041 --> 00:29:02,044 Al Shaheim X." 520 00:29:02,044 --> 00:29:04,699 The thing not a lot of people knew about, 521 00:29:04,699 --> 00:29:07,267 was Thomas had been going around town 522 00:29:07,354 --> 00:29:12,141 letting a lot of people know how huge this was going to be, 523 00:29:12,141 --> 00:29:15,492 and he had a lot of different Black empowerment groups, 524 00:29:15,492 --> 00:29:20,715 radical movements, and just straight-up gangs all wanting 525 00:29:20,802 --> 00:29:25,154 as much influence and subtle shout-outs as the other. 526 00:29:25,198 --> 00:29:27,940 You know, I think that he had made 527 00:29:27,983 --> 00:29:29,985 way too many deals at one poin. 528 00:29:31,291 --> 00:29:34,250 At least, that's what... that's what I heard. 529 00:29:34,294 --> 00:29:40,300 Truthfully, it all came down to the end of the movie. 530 00:29:40,343 --> 00:29:42,345 Really. 531 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,698 Oh, man, the end of the movie. 532 00:29:47,742 --> 00:29:49,657 I heard he wanted Goofy and Max to get pulled over 533 00:29:49,744 --> 00:29:52,486 early on and, uh, you know... 534 00:29:56,751 --> 00:29:59,885 Wh-Why would he do that? That makes no sense. 535 00:30:01,190 --> 00:30:04,411 That Powerline concert at the end, 536 00:30:04,411 --> 00:30:07,196 it wasn't supposed to be all hunky-dory, dancing-dancing. 537 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,677 Nah, it wasn't supposed to be like that at all. 538 00:30:12,288 --> 00:30:15,204 I heard Goofy was supposed to get shot at the concert. 539 00:30:15,248 --> 00:30:17,990 You know, a Black man runs onstage 540 00:30:18,033 --> 00:30:20,557 like that at a major venue? Come on, man. 541 00:30:20,644 --> 00:30:22,646 There's something wrong here. 542 00:30:22,690 --> 00:30:24,561 Thomas was trying to make a statement. 543 00:30:26,302 --> 00:30:29,262 Do you, uh, think his death was an accident? 544 00:30:31,133 --> 00:30:32,787 Next question, man. 545 00:30:32,831 --> 00:30:34,745 No, I don't. 546 00:30:34,789 --> 00:30:37,009 I-I've never thought it was an accident. 547 00:30:38,445 --> 00:30:40,316 Why not? 548 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,797 Um, well... 549 00:30:44,146 --> 00:30:46,235 ...partly because of his-his mood at the end, 550 00:30:46,279 --> 00:30:48,934 but, um, you know, there was also the tape. 551 00:30:50,500 --> 00:30:51,806 What tape? 552 00:31:00,684 --> 00:31:03,949 ♪ For the first time ever♪ 553 00:31:04,036 --> 00:31:06,952 ♪ Seeing it eye to eye♪ 554 00:31:08,605 --> 00:31:13,610 Oh, I'm so sorry. 555 00:31:13,610 --> 00:31:15,612 Oh, man, I... 556 00:31:15,699 --> 00:31:21,488 Ooh, I'm close, I'm-I'm close... 557 00:31:21,531 --> 00:31:23,664 I'm so close. 558 00:31:37,199 --> 00:31:39,419 I got to finish this. 559 00:31:44,859 --> 00:31:47,122 : I got to finish it. 560 00:31:50,299 --> 00:31:54,086 Back then, mental health wasn't something that we talked about. 561 00:31:54,173 --> 00:31:56,653 I didn't even know what to characterize 562 00:31:56,653 --> 00:32:00,179 what I saw him going through, what it... what it was. 563 00:32:00,222 --> 00:32:03,051 I just knew he was going through something, um, 564 00:32:03,095 --> 00:32:06,011 something that was very, very difficult for him to deal with. 565 00:32:08,230 --> 00:32:10,885 This is a little hard for me right now. 566 00:32:13,801 --> 00:32:16,543 I-I don't know why. 567 00:32:16,630 --> 00:32:21,330 When the news finally broke that Dad was officially out, 568 00:32:21,330 --> 00:32:24,681 they let him back on the lot for one final screening 569 00:32:24,768 --> 00:32:27,032 of what they were able to piece together behind his back. 570 00:32:29,991 --> 00:32:31,123 He didn't know they had been working 571 00:32:31,166 --> 00:32:32,689 on the movie without him... 572 00:32:32,776 --> 00:32:35,040 changing and corrupting his original vision. 573 00:32:36,171 --> 00:32:39,566 He-he didn't take the news well. 574 00:32:39,609 --> 00:32:41,568 I was at that last screening. 575 00:32:41,655 --> 00:32:44,353 It was the Bigfoot stuff that put him over the edge. 576 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:46,921 They'd added it without his knowledge. 577 00:32:46,921 --> 00:32:48,923 He'd wanted Goofy and Max 578 00:32:48,923 --> 00:32:51,273 to wander into a thrift store 579 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,320 and discover Huey Newton's rattan throne. 580 00:32:54,363 --> 00:32:57,671 And once they sat in it, Max would finally understand 581 00:32:57,714 --> 00:32:59,238 what Goofy had been fighting 582 00:32:59,281 --> 00:33:01,718 to make him understand all along. 583 00:33:01,718 --> 00:33:06,593 Instead, they took out the thrift store and the throne 584 00:33:06,636 --> 00:33:09,726 and put in that Bigfoot bit. 585 00:33:09,726 --> 00:33:12,686 It's like they were saying, "What you were after, 586 00:33:12,729 --> 00:33:16,298 "your message, it's a fantasy as elusive 587 00:33:16,298 --> 00:33:18,213 and unreal as Bigfoot." 588 00:33:19,519 --> 00:33:21,042 You're going to see... 589 00:33:21,086 --> 00:33:23,001 you're going to be proud of me... 590 00:33:24,872 --> 00:33:27,266 I'm doing this for you. 591 00:33:27,309 --> 00:33:29,746 I'm doing this for all of us. 592 00:33:32,749 --> 00:33:34,403 Oh, man. 593 00:33:36,449 --> 00:33:40,540 I could feel him get up and leave 594 00:33:40,627 --> 00:33:43,412 and I-I heard the door close and I went out after him, 595 00:33:43,456 --> 00:33:46,546 and by the time I got to the parking lot, he was gone. 596 00:33:46,546 --> 00:33:49,549 Something... I don't know, there was a look in his eye. 597 00:33:49,549 --> 00:33:52,552 He-he just got in the car and he took off... 598 00:33:53,857 --> 00:33:55,163 ...and didn't come back. 599 00:34:16,010 --> 00:34:18,143 They, um... 600 00:34:18,230 --> 00:34:20,493 they never found his body. 601 00:34:26,455 --> 00:34:31,286 I think that was... especially hard for Mom. 602 00:34:34,594 --> 00:34:35,725 Dad! 603 00:34:39,686 --> 00:34:42,036 We actually watch... 604 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,603 we watch the movies a lot. 605 00:34:43,690 --> 00:34:46,910 Uh, I couldn't for a while. 606 00:34:46,954 --> 00:34:52,046 But... but once I did, I couldn't stop. 607 00:34:56,181 --> 00:34:57,965 It's like, um, 608 00:34:57,965 --> 00:35:00,402 it was like having him around, 609 00:35:00,489 --> 00:35:03,275 you know, in a fun way. 610 00:35:03,318 --> 00:35:04,667 Yeah. 611 00:35:14,286 --> 00:35:18,333 You know that, uh, "Damn, you live like this?" meme? 612 00:35:19,639 --> 00:35:23,164 It's so funny to me because the essence of it 613 00:35:23,208 --> 00:35:26,167 is those drawings he did in college. 614 00:35:26,211 --> 00:35:30,171 Black folks living their lives, being funny, 615 00:35:30,215 --> 00:35:34,654 being free, being real. 616 00:35:38,875 --> 00:35:41,443 He would've been really proud that 617 00:35:41,530 --> 00:35:43,228 he became part of the culture. 618 00:35:44,446 --> 00:35:46,187 I think that's what he wanted in the end, 619 00:35:46,231 --> 00:35:48,450 to just be part of the family. 620 00:35:51,366 --> 00:35:53,107 And along the way... 621 00:35:54,543 --> 00:35:57,546 ...he made the Blackest movie of all time. 622 00:36:04,727 --> 00:36:07,121 ♪ Yeah, yeah♪ 623 00:36:12,779 --> 00:36:15,564 ♪ Got myself a notion♪ 624 00:36:15,608 --> 00:36:20,482 ♪ One I know that you'll understand♪ 625 00:36:20,569 --> 00:36:23,181 ♪ To set the world in motion♪ 626 00:36:24,486 --> 00:36:28,011 ♪ By reaching out for each other's hands♪ 627 00:36:28,055 --> 00:36:32,625 ♪ Maybe we'll discover What we should have known all along♪ 628 00:36:32,625 --> 00:36:35,715 ♪ Yeah♪ 629 00:36:35,802 --> 00:36:37,151 ♪ One way or another♪ 630 00:36:37,238 --> 00:36:40,372 ♪ Together's where we both belong♪ 631 00:36:40,459 --> 00:36:43,723 ♪ If we listen to each other's heart♪ 632 00:36:43,723 --> 00:36:45,377 ♪ Oh, yeah♪ 633 00:36:45,377 --> 00:36:47,379 ♪ We'll find we're never too far apart♪ 634 00:36:47,422 --> 00:36:51,165 ♪ And maybe love is the reason why♪ 635 00:36:51,252 --> 00:36:56,214 ♪ For the first time ever, we're seeing it eye to eye.♪ 636 00:37:02,045 --> 00:37:03,743 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH