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The 1990s were a golden era

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for The Walt Disney Company.

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The Little Mermaid revived the company

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from the edge of bankruptcy.

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Beauty and the Beast earned
a Best Picture nomination.

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And The Lion King broke box
office records worldwide.

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But the reality just miles
away was no fairy tale.

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In 1992, a state jury acquitted

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four LAPD officers on almost all charges

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in the beating of Rodney G. King.

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The response was anger.

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Fire, chaos,

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massive citywide destruction.

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It was a pivotal moment for
Black culture in the '90s.

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But it's a little-known fact
that another cultural milestone

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emerged from that fateful day.

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It's a story so unbelievable,

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it could only happen in Hollywood.

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How did this young,
Black, unassuming animator

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from East Atlanta wind up

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as the CEO of Disney

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at the company's most
powerful moment in time?

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- Okay, rolling.
- Speed.

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Believe it or not,

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we named him after Tom Jones.

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Yeah!

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His father used to play Tom Jones.

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That's how he first courted me.

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He would do a little
dance and we would laugh.

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Usually, the boys in Ronald's family

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was named after their fathers,

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but when we had our boy, we knew that

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he was gonna be different,

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so we had to do something different.

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We had to name him Thomas.

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T loved cartoons something crazy.

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I mean, he was always
drawing on his desk, uh,

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in, uh, in the margins of his
notebook, in the textbooks,

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all on the walls, man.

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He just drove our teachers crazy.

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He was obsessed with this
one cat named, um, Blasto Boy?

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No, no, no, Astro Boy.

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Yeah, yeah, I used to watch it with him,

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and I remember thinking...

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this is kind of boring.

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But Thomas loved it, man.

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He drew... he drew that dude everywhere.

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One time, he asked me, he said,

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"What if Astro Boy
came here and saved us?"

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I said, "Saved us from what?"

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And he just kind of shrugged
and said, "Everything."

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I mean, what kind of eight-year-old

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is thinking like that, you know?

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I mean, I think he was scared.

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He wasn't no punk, I'm
just saying, I don't

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think he ever understood
why the world was so unfair.

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And where we were growing up...

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it was, like, unfair unfair, you know?

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I mean, you could be
sitting at home watching

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a program with white
folks with nice houses.

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We couldn't even ride
ours bikes outside,

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cause niggas will take it from you.

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Straight to your face,
they do not care. Crime?

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What, so? They will
ride your bike in front

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of your house the next day.

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Yeah, unfair.

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The boys picked on him.

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He would come home sometimes with pages

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torn out of his little sketchbook.

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Yeah, we would call him white.

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We was just messing with him.

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Um, I think he was
just trying to fit in,

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but he wasn't really like us, you know?

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And the kids would call him on it.

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I mean, he just wanted to draw,

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and he didn't understand why
that wasn't "cool," you know?

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I mean, niggas will make
fun of you for anything,

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and I don't think Thomas
was built to take it.

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I told him, "Son,

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one day, ain't none of
this gonna even matter."

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In 1987, Thomas left
East Atlanta to attend

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Savannah College of
Art and Design, or SCAD.

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It was here that Thomas's

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creative dreams began to take shape.

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We didn't have a lot of Black
students in the program then.

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Thomas showed a lot of promise.

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In his application, he
wrote about how he wanted

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to work at Disney one day.

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We usually laugh at that sort of thing.

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Everybody says that, you know?

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But with his application,
he sent a little flip-book.

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Can you see this?

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I mean, he had the sensibility

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and the wit of a true Disney animator.

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Art Babbitt was a big name at
Disney Animation for a time.

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As an animator in the '30s and '40s,

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he racked up a lot of credits,

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and enemies,

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but he was most well-known for

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developing the character of Goofy.

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He came to SCAD, and he spoke.

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Thomas really gravitated to him.

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He became obsessed,
and he really glommed

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on to Babbitt's article
"Analysis of the Goof."

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Art describes Goofy.

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He says, "Think of
the Goof as a composite

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"of an everlasting optimist,
a gullible Good Samaritan,

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"a half-wit, a shiftless,

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"good-natured colored boy,

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"and a hick.

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"He is loose-jointed

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"and gangly, but not rubbery.

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"He can move fast if he
has to, but would rather

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"avoid overexertion,

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"so he takes what seems the easiest way.

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"He is a philosopher of
the barber shop variety.

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"No matter what happens,
he accepts it finally

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as being for the best
or at least amusing."

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Thomas used this text
as the center of a piece

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of a series he called "Goofy, Please."

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After class one day, he
showed me some of these pieces,

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and I looked at it, and I looked at him,

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and I thought,

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"This kid is from another universe,

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like, a whole another planet."

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Thomas would be like, "Hey, come on,

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you know Goofy's a."

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And we would just laugh, man.

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We just thought that was so funny.

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It was clear that
Thomas was very talented.

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For his thesis,

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he made this incredible short film.

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He had little screenings;

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teachers would come, and students.

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The film felt so deep.

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I-I think it was
somehow connected to him

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losing his father in freshman year.

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Uncle Ronnie dying changed him, man.

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Thomas was in his freshman year at SCAD,

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and I didn't think he was
going to make it, but, uh,

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once we buried my Uncle Ronnie, man,

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he, uh... it's like his brain exploded.

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Depending on who saw
it and when they saw it,

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it was either the funniest thing,

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or the saddest thing you'd ever seen.

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That short was what got him into Disney.

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No question.

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Washington comes to Disney

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right out of college, fresh from SCAD.

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You know, he's there, the
company's doing pretty well,

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they've just had their hit
with The Little Mermaid.

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One of the things that-that
I'm glad that I was

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able to be part of was that, um,

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Disney instituted
this diversity program.

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We knew that we needed
to bring in younger voices

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from a diversified point of view,

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and that would actually, uh,

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strengthen our company.

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And Thomas was one
of the first of those.

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Thomas started out at Disney
as an assistant animator

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on DuckTales the Movie:
Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

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It wasn't necessarily creative work,

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but things are fine, you know.

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It's not really moving
as fast as he wants things

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to be moving, but he's doing all right.

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And then the uprisings happened.

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When the shooting happened,

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and then the riots,

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Thomas was working in L.A.

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He called me and he said, "Mama,

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I just want to go down there."

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And I told him,

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"Son, you need to riot

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with that pen and paper."

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He was shook.

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I could see it in him, he was shook.

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He actually called me
one time and was like,

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"If I ever get the chance
to do a movie around here,

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I'm not holding back."

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While South Central Los Angeles

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was engulfed in flames,

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15 miles north in Burbank,
another fire was about to erupt.

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What happened next is
one of the most unlikely

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and unprecedented events in the
history of corporate America.

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After the success of
Beauty and the Beast,

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Michael Eisner put Dennis
Stephenson in charge

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while he went on a sabbatical.

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But two weeks into the job,

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Stephenson had a health emergency

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and passed shortly thereafter...

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leaving the job open once more.

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We all voted for this guy

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named Tom Washington.

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But we didn't realize

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that Tom's first name

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was actually Thompson, not Thomas.

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Thomas Washington was an animator.

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People were pretty
upset when they found out

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they voted for the wrong man.

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It felt like an honest mistake that we

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could sweep under the rug, but

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after Beauty and the Beast,

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there were a lot of eyes on us.

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We tried to handle it smoothly,

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but Thomas held our feet to the fire.

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So, because of this, you
know, "behind closed door,

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boys' club" handshake,

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Disney is now in radical

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new territory but entirely by default.

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So you have this young animator,

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this young, Black animator

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who comes into this company,
all of a sudden has a ton

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of power at a hugely
culturally significant moment,

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and he wants to do something with it.

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He wants to prove himself.

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This cat was on my line
with some foolishness,

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talking about he's the CEO of Disney.

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I was, I was crying laughing.

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And then, you know, he
took me to his office

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and people was, like, greeting him.

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First day, he took us all into a room

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that we call the stock room,
which is where everybody

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hangs out before we get to work.

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And he shows us a frame of animation

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of Goofy in Mickey's trailer, and, uh,

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Mickey has Pluto on a leash.

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And it gets real quiet,

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and, uh, Washington goes,

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"Why is Goofy letting Mickey do that?"

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He's a very fine dog, sir.

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And, you know, we're all
confused, we're just looking

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at each other, and Charlie
goes, "What do you mean, sir?"

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And Washington goes, "Goofy's a dog,

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"and Pluto's a dog, so
why is he letting Mickey

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do that to one of his own?"

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Yeah, T had them running
scared from day one.

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I was, uh, fresh-faced
and wild-eyed.

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I was an inbetweener
for about three years,

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didn't see much movement.

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An inbetweener was usually for
animators just starting out.

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So, say a character slaps
somebody across the face.

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They would get a senior
artist to do the fun part,

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drawing the first and the last
frame that define the movement.

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The inbetweener draws all the
many little frames in between.

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I was stuck as an inbetweener

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for years and years,

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but as soon as Thomas came in, he said,

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"I want you to be
lead director on this."

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And I said, "On what?" And he said,

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"The Blackest movie of all time."

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He said he wanted to make a
movie about Black fatherhood.

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Man, he wanted to tackle
everything in this movie.

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Segregation, single parenting,

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low-income career trajectories,

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fear of gang violence, incarceration,

256
00:14:58,507 --> 00:15:02,195
the amount of cheese in
African-American diets.

257
00:15:02,476 --> 00:15:06,487
He wanted to make a movie that
covered all this and more...

258
00:15:06,574 --> 00:15:09,620
and he said he knew the
perfect character to do it.

259
00:15:13,059 --> 00:15:17,411
Thomas, man, he knew that people thought

260
00:15:17,498 --> 00:15:20,475
Goofy was dumb, but he wanted to show

261
00:15:20,500 --> 00:15:23,287
the systemic factors that
Goofy was dealing with.

262
00:15:23,562 --> 00:15:26,594
A shitty job, angry kid,

263
00:15:26,747 --> 00:15:30,200
and embarrassed by
his lack of influence.

264
00:15:30,729 --> 00:15:35,947
Man, it was wild how deep
he leaned in to all this,

265
00:15:36,129 --> 00:15:38,104
'cause, uh, as far as I knew,

266
00:15:38,129 --> 00:15:41,652
Thomas had a really solid homelife.

267
00:15:41,879 --> 00:15:44,786
It's a vacation with
me and my best buddy.

268
00:15:44,811 --> 00:15:46,178
Oh, Donald Duck?

269
00:15:46,225 --> 00:15:48,417
No, silly, with you!

270
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:05,024
Thomas and I, we were married young.

271
00:16:05,998 --> 00:16:08,201
We didn't have much,

272
00:16:08,381 --> 00:16:11,747
and, um, you know what, he never

273
00:16:11,772 --> 00:16:15,227
let that get in the way of us, though.

274
00:16:15,252 --> 00:16:17,208
If there was something
we couldn't afford,

275
00:16:17,233 --> 00:16:18,777
he would just draw it.

276
00:16:18,820 --> 00:16:21,910
You know, you'd wake up and I would

277
00:16:21,935 --> 00:16:27,238
see anything from a coffee
maker to a solid-gold jet

278
00:16:27,660 --> 00:16:30,928
on the refrigerator in the morning.

279
00:16:30,953 --> 00:16:32,433
That was Thomas.

280
00:16:33,902 --> 00:16:37,457
We-we had our son Maxwell pretty early.

281
00:16:37,595 --> 00:16:39,619
He and Thomas, they were inseparable.

282
00:16:39,644 --> 00:16:41,962
He did everything for that boy.

283
00:16:41,987 --> 00:16:44,455
Oh, my God, look at this...

284
00:16:44,498 --> 00:16:46,152
Oh, look at this!

285
00:16:46,620 --> 00:16:49,104
Thomas kept saying that

286
00:16:49,129 --> 00:16:52,440
A Goofy Movie was for him.

287
00:16:53,291 --> 00:16:57,598
He'd say, "If I'm not here,
you can show him this."

288
00:16:57,642 --> 00:17:01,194
I was too scared to ask
him what he meant by that.

289
00:17:01,538 --> 00:17:05,040
To give you a little context,
when A Goofy Movie came out,

290
00:17:05,241 --> 00:17:08,943
Black masculinity in the media
was in a really weird place.

291
00:17:08,968 --> 00:17:12,744
- Hello, I'm Blaine Edwards.
- And I'm Antoine Merriweather!

292
00:17:12,831 --> 00:17:15,399
And welcome to Men on Films.

293
00:17:15,424 --> 00:17:17,121
The show that looks at movies...

294
00:17:17,146 --> 00:17:19,578
From a male point of view.

295
00:17:19,603 --> 00:17:22,519
So on one hand, you've
got men doing, kind of

296
00:17:22,544 --> 00:17:25,717
"faux queer" comedy,
and on the other end

297
00:17:25,742 --> 00:17:29,317
of the spectrum, you've got
these hypermasculine portrayals.

298
00:17:31,656 --> 00:17:34,398
Am I my brother's keeper?

299
00:17:36,076 --> 00:17:37,556
Yes, I am.

300
00:17:40,315 --> 00:17:42,883
And, by contrast, Goofy

301
00:17:42,981 --> 00:17:46,051
is a nuanced portrayal of a Black man

302
00:17:46,076 --> 00:17:48,867
whose priority is his family.

303
00:17:49,370 --> 00:17:51,999
- What?
- Nothin'.

304
00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,667
Goofy really put forward
the philosophy that...

305
00:17:55,738 --> 00:18:00,443
just love your children for
who they are and accept them,

306
00:18:00,444 --> 00:18:02,227
and deal with the pain that the world

307
00:18:02,228 --> 00:18:04,175
is not going to love them like you do.

308
00:18:12,409 --> 00:18:16,115
I think in the movie, Dad
laid in a lot of things.

309
00:18:16,654 --> 00:18:19,550
I-I notice it more now than I did then.

310
00:18:22,814 --> 00:18:27,209
In the beginning, Max sings a song,

311
00:18:27,417 --> 00:18:31,648
dunks a basketball, and then
is cheered on by his peers.

312
00:18:32,476 --> 00:18:34,779
I think my dad was making a comment

313
00:18:34,804 --> 00:18:36,498
on Black exceptionalism

314
00:18:36,523 --> 00:18:39,326
and how some people believe

315
00:18:39,351 --> 00:18:43,922
that performative assimilation
is the best way to get by.

316
00:18:44,009 --> 00:18:48,361
My dad wanted to prove those
limitations were just that,

317
00:18:49,084 --> 00:18:51,799
limits put on us by outsiders.

318
00:18:52,373 --> 00:18:55,933
That's why he made it a fishing trip.

319
00:18:56,339 --> 00:18:58,576
It's the same one we used to take.

320
00:19:00,552 --> 00:19:03,402
The trip was supposed to start out

321
00:19:03,427 --> 00:19:05,683
as sort of like a freedom ride.

322
00:19:05,726 --> 00:19:08,120
And the map, which
is central to the plot

323
00:19:08,163 --> 00:19:12,863
of the film and also represented
Goofy's trust in his son Max,

324
00:19:13,199 --> 00:19:16,191
was supposed to remind the viewer

325
00:19:16,216 --> 00:19:18,713
of the Green Book and
how Black travelers

326
00:19:18,738 --> 00:19:21,893
had to use it to advance their way

327
00:19:21,918 --> 00:19:25,072
through the Jim Crow South
during the '30s and the '40s.

328
00:19:25,097 --> 00:19:27,410
A lot of the film had deeper meanings,

329
00:19:28,125 --> 00:19:33,624
and word got around that it
meant a lot more in Thomas's eyes.

330
00:19:33,966 --> 00:19:36,966
Dad wanted every Black
person in America to feel like

331
00:19:36,991 --> 00:19:41,972
they were just a road trip away
from being part of a movement.

332
00:19:42,156 --> 00:19:45,549
Even if their kids didn't
understand the stakes.

333
00:19:45,909 --> 00:19:49,826
It was about destiny
and how our children,

334
00:19:50,225 --> 00:19:52,547
our future, get to draw our path.

335
00:19:53,249 --> 00:19:54,982
I want to get us to doing something

336
00:19:55,007 --> 00:19:56,146
we've never done before.

337
00:19:56,171 --> 00:19:58,232
We have never truly drawn

338
00:19:58,257 --> 00:20:01,826
authentically Black characters,
characters that act...

339
00:20:07,353 --> 00:20:09,921
Now, see, this is
what I'm talking about.

340
00:20:10,225 --> 00:20:12,924
This is what I'm talking about.

341
00:20:13,428 --> 00:20:16,899
In order to draw
authentically Black characters,

342
00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:18,914
one has to know Black people.

343
00:20:18,939 --> 00:20:23,431
Okay? Now, Tom went out on assignment.

344
00:20:23,603 --> 00:20:27,047
Researched, hung out, went
to a couple Black cookouts.

345
00:20:27,072 --> 00:20:31,438
Said the wrong thing, got
his ass beat, but now, now?

346
00:20:31,463 --> 00:20:34,134
He's more aware, he's more knowledgeable

347
00:20:34,159 --> 00:20:36,570
of how to draw. Okay?

348
00:20:36,595 --> 00:20:39,050
Thomas tried to pull back and be more

349
00:20:39,075 --> 00:20:42,651
subtle with his message, uh,
when the complaints started,

350
00:20:42,676 --> 00:20:45,025
and we were getting
complaints from everywhere.

351
00:20:45,504 --> 00:20:50,395
But there was nothing
subtle about Thomas.

352
00:20:50,396 --> 00:20:53,971
At one point, he said he
didn't want Mickey in the movie.

353
00:20:53,996 --> 00:20:55,618
And, um, I kept saying,

354
00:20:55,619 --> 00:20:57,968
"But it's Disney. What
are you talking about?"

355
00:20:58,624 --> 00:21:01,268
I can remember Thomas
ranting in his office,

356
00:21:01,293 --> 00:21:03,613
"They're trying to make me put
this white boy in my movie."

357
00:21:04,210 --> 00:21:07,505
And I'm thinking, "He's a mouse."

358
00:21:07,530 --> 00:21:09,365
He told me from the beginning,

359
00:21:09,390 --> 00:21:12,960
"I'm not here for a long time,
I'm here for a good time."

360
00:21:13,546 --> 00:21:15,854
Uh, he knew he was going to get fired,

361
00:21:15,879 --> 00:21:18,617
but the "when" of it was fun for him.

362
00:21:19,028 --> 00:21:20,488
It was like a game.

363
00:21:20,513 --> 00:21:26,083
We had 15, 16, sometimes 18-hour days.

364
00:21:26,084 --> 00:21:30,143
And, uh, he would be screaming,
"We don't dance like that."

365
00:21:30,168 --> 00:21:34,020
And he would bring his friend's kids in

366
00:21:34,045 --> 00:21:36,856
and, uh, they would moonwalk and,

367
00:21:36,881 --> 00:21:40,637
and, you know, do all, like,
you know, this stuff, you know?

368
00:21:40,662 --> 00:21:42,349
Oh, man, I must have drawn a pair

369
00:21:42,374 --> 00:21:45,668
of gloves dapping, I don't
know, over 5,000 times?

370
00:21:45,849 --> 00:21:48,488
I just kept hearing, "That's
not a dap, that's not a dap.

371
00:21:48,513 --> 00:21:49,707
Where's the snap?"

372
00:21:49,732 --> 00:21:51,073
You see my knees?

373
00:21:51,138 --> 00:21:53,633
You see this, see this
angle of these knees?

374
00:21:53,677 --> 00:21:56,754
Draw... Draw this! Get this down, okay?

375
00:21:56,779 --> 00:21:58,420
One time, I just couldn't take it...

376
00:21:58,464 --> 00:22:01,293
My fingers were just bleeding...
So I went up to talk to him,

377
00:22:01,522 --> 00:22:03,750
and he was up there drinking
whiskey with Robert Townsend,

378
00:22:03,774 --> 00:22:07,691
and Janet Jackson, uh,
Sinbad and Adina Howard.

379
00:22:07,928 --> 00:22:11,235
Well, when I poked my
head in, Thomas went,

380
00:22:11,260 --> 00:22:12,783
"Who ordered the white rice?"

381
00:22:13,061 --> 00:22:15,186
And they all just laughed,

382
00:22:15,303 --> 00:22:18,798
and, uh, I just didn't get it.

383
00:22:18,823 --> 00:22:20,585
Everybody
used to be up there.

384
00:22:20,609 --> 00:22:24,295
Eddie Murphy, Arsenio
Hall, Kadeem Hardison,

385
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,285
Harrison Ford, it was crazy.
The parties were insane.

386
00:22:28,310 --> 00:22:31,487
Imagine Disney after The Lion King.

387
00:22:31,512 --> 00:22:34,211
You got this smooth-looking
brother at the helm.

388
00:22:38,087 --> 00:22:40,394
It was crazy he even had that office.

389
00:22:40,419 --> 00:22:42,297
Everyone would go up there and just hang

390
00:22:42,322 --> 00:22:45,387
as we plotted our
overthrow of Hollywood.

391
00:22:45,412 --> 00:22:47,196
You couldn't tell us nothing.

392
00:22:47,244 --> 00:22:49,368
They had a big musical number planned

393
00:22:49,393 --> 00:22:51,699
with Bryan Adams in the movie.

394
00:22:52,306 --> 00:22:55,317
And one day, Thomas asked me to come by

395
00:22:55,342 --> 00:22:57,087
and see what he's working on.

396
00:22:57,088 --> 00:22:59,264
And we're walking through,
and he stops in one

397
00:22:59,307 --> 00:23:01,200
of the rooms and plays
me some of the music.

398
00:23:01,225 --> 00:23:04,312
And I'm like, "Yeah,
you know, pop ballad.

399
00:23:04,399 --> 00:23:06,205
"You know, same old, same old.

400
00:23:06,230 --> 00:23:09,059
You know, it's-it's
good, it's-it's cool."

401
00:23:09,412 --> 00:23:12,059
But he asks me, "Who
do you like right now?"

402
00:23:12,165 --> 00:23:14,692
I'm like, "You know,
I-I've been listening

403
00:23:14,717 --> 00:23:16,411
to this Tevin Campbell."

404
00:23:16,455 --> 00:23:21,731
And from then on, it just
had to be Tevin Campbell.

405
00:23:31,967 --> 00:23:33,752
Most of the cats around there didn't

406
00:23:33,777 --> 00:23:35,561
even know who Tevin Campbell was.

407
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,999
For three months, a lot of
them were saying Kevin Campbell.

408
00:23:49,575 --> 00:23:51,336
Thomas was a cool cat.

409
00:23:51,648 --> 00:23:54,176
But the brother definitely
had a chip on his shoulder.

410
00:23:54,201 --> 00:23:56,547
He didn't like it if you
challenged his Blackness.

411
00:23:58,810 --> 00:24:01,662
I think there was a part of Thomas

412
00:24:01,687 --> 00:24:04,944
that kind of felt that being an animator

413
00:24:04,969 --> 00:24:08,326
wasn't innately Black, you know?

414
00:24:08,351 --> 00:24:11,035
And he wanted to make it Black,

415
00:24:11,060 --> 00:24:12,629
he wanted to make it cool.

416
00:24:12,654 --> 00:24:16,707
He wanted to-to carve out
his own space and not feel

417
00:24:16,732 --> 00:24:20,418
that he was divorced from
his own culture, you know.

418
00:24:20,443 --> 00:24:23,715
He was loading his culture
into this stuff that

419
00:24:23,740 --> 00:24:26,425
we were doing so that
it just seemed normal

420
00:24:26,450 --> 00:24:29,740
and would seem normal to the rest of us.

421
00:24:29,765 --> 00:24:33,457
He had a lot of pressure, man...
The culture, the job itself,

422
00:24:33,482 --> 00:24:36,055
what-what he was trying to live
up to that I'm not even sure

423
00:24:36,056 --> 00:24:38,624
that he knew that he
could live up to it.

424
00:24:38,649 --> 00:24:41,932
And, uh, it had to
take a huge toll on him.

425
00:24:41,975 --> 00:24:44,151
One morning I walk in the
studio, I got my coffee,

426
00:24:44,195 --> 00:24:46,588
I'm ready to sit down,
get to busi... business.

427
00:24:46,632 --> 00:24:49,940
And Thomas like, "Psst!
Psst! Come here, come here!"

428
00:24:49,983 --> 00:24:52,856
So I go over there and,
uh, he's in his cubicle,

429
00:24:52,899 --> 00:24:56,424
he got this briefcase, he opens it up,

430
00:24:56,964 --> 00:24:58,322
there's a gun inside!

431
00:24:58,347 --> 00:25:02,744
I'm like, "Dude, what-what is this?

432
00:25:02,769 --> 00:25:04,302
What's it for?"

433
00:25:04,541 --> 00:25:08,909
And he's like, "This
is to remind me that

434
00:25:08,934 --> 00:25:11,197
they don't know who the fuck I am."

435
00:25:17,140 --> 00:25:19,811
Dad kind of started to lose it.

436
00:25:20,603 --> 00:25:23,476
He would stay up all
night, talk to hisself.

437
00:25:23,883 --> 00:25:27,889
After a while, Mom...
she had had enough.

438
00:25:30,329 --> 00:25:32,896
After a while, Mom
couldn't take it anymore.

439
00:25:32,951 --> 00:25:34,735
He had just gotten too mean.

440
00:25:36,642 --> 00:25:39,167
We had so much fun.

441
00:25:40,722 --> 00:25:43,371
But then, it wasn't fun anymore.

442
00:25:44,386 --> 00:25:46,721
He had been fooling around, yeah.

443
00:25:46,746 --> 00:25:50,478
And drinking a lot,
and he got pretty mean.

444
00:25:50,642 --> 00:25:53,558
He would say some mean,
nasty things to me,

445
00:25:53,951 --> 00:25:57,085
which he never, he had
never done that before.

446
00:25:59,226 --> 00:26:01,583
I remember at one time,
Maxwell tried to step in

447
00:26:01,608 --> 00:26:02,963
between his dad and I,

448
00:26:02,988 --> 00:26:06,121
and Thomas...

449
00:26:06,146 --> 00:26:09,280
was not kind. He kind of...

450
00:26:11,881 --> 00:26:14,372
He kind of raised his, um...

451
00:26:15,271 --> 00:26:17,418
he raised his fist...

452
00:26:18,271 --> 00:26:20,073
at Maxwell.

453
00:26:21,125 --> 00:26:23,743
That wasn't cool, because they...

454
00:26:23,768 --> 00:26:26,359
they had always been so close.

455
00:26:28,298 --> 00:26:29,875
He was a...

456
00:26:30,399 --> 00:26:32,475
he was a really good father.

457
00:26:32,500 --> 00:26:35,032
I mean, at least he
tried to be a good father.

458
00:26:36,290 --> 00:26:38,975
I kept saying, "Thomas,

459
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,093
"you're going to lose him,

460
00:26:41,976 --> 00:26:44,078
you're going to lose your son."

461
00:26:46,875 --> 00:26:50,593
But all he kept saying is...

462
00:26:50,829 --> 00:26:52,962
"But this is for him."

463
00:26:55,201 --> 00:26:58,271
I knew things were going downhill when

464
00:26:58,296 --> 00:27:00,310
Thomas's wife left him.

465
00:27:00,335 --> 00:27:02,511
Sh-She had been there
from the beginning.

466
00:27:03,507 --> 00:27:06,466
And he started sleeping in his office.

467
00:27:06,491 --> 00:27:10,210
And, um, one day, there
was a board meeting.

468
00:27:10,235 --> 00:27:14,892
All the Disney heads were
there, and they started talking

469
00:27:14,917 --> 00:27:18,659
about the budget was
going a bit high on Goofy.

470
00:27:18,979 --> 00:27:21,874
And one of the guys
asked Thomas, he said, uh,

471
00:27:21,918 --> 00:27:24,456
"Are you in control of the budget?"

472
00:27:24,678 --> 00:27:26,550
And Thomas said, "Of course I am.

473
00:27:26,575 --> 00:27:28,621
I'm Goofy."

474
00:27:28,891 --> 00:27:30,632
And then,

475
00:27:31,002 --> 00:27:34,912
he did this this chilling laugh. Like...

476
00:27:38,906 --> 00:27:42,431
You know, l-like Goofy, but broken.

477
00:27:43,226 --> 00:27:45,599
And it-it was terrifying, man.

478
00:27:46,271 --> 00:27:47,838
I almost started crying.

479
00:27:49,716 --> 00:27:51,948
He really thought he was Goofy.

480
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,689
The company knew he had to go,

481
00:28:01,159 --> 00:28:04,861
but legally, he was still the CEO.

482
00:28:04,886 --> 00:28:08,379
That gentleman's show of hands was, uh,

483
00:28:08,645 --> 00:28:11,837
surprisingly hard to go back on.

484
00:28:11,924 --> 00:28:14,274
You know, they even tried to
buy him out of his contract.

485
00:28:14,612 --> 00:28:18,268
Yeah, they offered him, like $75,000.

486
00:28:18,293 --> 00:28:20,254
No, no.

487
00:28:20,793 --> 00:28:23,805
We offered him $75 million,

488
00:28:24,208 --> 00:28:26,286
paid out over ten years.

489
00:28:26,538 --> 00:28:31,204
Um, that's how... that's
how serious it was for us.

490
00:28:31,291 --> 00:28:33,032
I mean, he didn't take it.

491
00:28:33,302 --> 00:28:37,001
But, uh, maybe he should
have taken it, you know?

492
00:28:39,082 --> 00:28:42,389
He started getting really paranoid.

493
00:28:42,737 --> 00:28:46,176
He'd say he was afraid for his life,

494
00:28:46,766 --> 00:28:48,855
but he'd never say from whom.

495
00:28:50,145 --> 00:28:52,172
Suddenly, there were a
bunch of guys in bow ties

496
00:28:52,196 --> 00:28:53,985
hanging around the office.

497
00:28:54,010 --> 00:28:56,052
He introduced us to one of them saying,

498
00:28:56,077 --> 00:28:58,339
"I want you to meet my
new head of security,

499
00:28:58,985 --> 00:29:01,233
Al Shaheim X."

500
00:29:01,234 --> 00:29:03,888
The thing not a lot
of people knew about,

501
00:29:04,208 --> 00:29:07,297
was Thomas had been going around town

502
00:29:07,797 --> 00:29:11,306
letting a lot of people know
how huge this was going to be,

503
00:29:12,097 --> 00:29:15,908
and he had a lot of different
Black empowerment groups,

504
00:29:15,933 --> 00:29:20,392
radical movements, and just
straight-up gangs all wanting

505
00:29:20,417 --> 00:29:24,344
as much influence and subtle
shout-outs as the other.

506
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,827
You know, I think that he had made

507
00:29:27,852 --> 00:29:30,456
way too many deals at one point.

508
00:29:30,692 --> 00:29:33,651
At least, that's what...
that's what I heard.

509
00:29:34,414 --> 00:29:39,490
Truthfully, it all came
down to the end of the movie.

510
00:29:40,525 --> 00:29:41,836
Really.

511
00:29:44,571 --> 00:29:46,888
Oh, man, the end of the movie.

512
00:29:47,009 --> 00:29:49,400
I heard he wanted Goofy
and Max to get pulled over

513
00:29:49,425 --> 00:29:52,167
early on and, uh, you know...

514
00:29:56,152 --> 00:29:59,782
Wh-Why would he do that?
That makes no sense.

515
00:30:00,634 --> 00:30:03,600
That Powerline concert at the end,

516
00:30:03,782 --> 00:30:06,386
it wasn't supposed to be all
hunky-dory, dancing-dancing.

517
00:30:06,430 --> 00:30:09,171
Nah, it wasn't supposed
to be like that at all.

518
00:30:11,497 --> 00:30:15,398
I heard Goofy was supposed
to get shot at the concert.

519
00:30:15,423 --> 00:30:17,180
You know, a Black man runs onstage

520
00:30:17,223 --> 00:30:20,074
like that at a major
venue? Come on, man.

521
00:30:20,348 --> 00:30:22,144
There's something wrong here.

522
00:30:22,169 --> 00:30:24,040
Thomas was trying to make a statement.

523
00:30:25,523 --> 00:30:28,816
Do you, uh, think his
death was an accident?

524
00:30:30,822 --> 00:30:32,476
Next question, man.

525
00:30:32,621 --> 00:30:34,127
No, I don't.

526
00:30:34,152 --> 00:30:36,199
I-I've never thought
it was an accident.

527
00:30:37,924 --> 00:30:39,343
Why not?

528
00:30:40,276 --> 00:30:42,713
Um, well...

529
00:30:43,620 --> 00:30:45,702
partly because of
his-his mood at the end,

530
00:30:45,727 --> 00:30:48,734
but, um, you know,
there was also the tape.

531
00:30:50,041 --> 00:30:51,347
What tape?

532
00:31:08,500 --> 00:31:11,171
Oh, I'm so sorry.

533
00:31:13,098 --> 00:31:15,100
Oh, man, I...

534
00:31:15,125 --> 00:31:20,257
Ooh, I'm close, I'm-I'm close...

535
00:31:21,377 --> 00:31:23,186
I'm so close.

536
00:31:36,818 --> 00:31:39,038
I got to finish this.

537
00:31:44,681 --> 00:31:46,944
I got to finish it.

538
00:31:50,098 --> 00:31:53,885
Back then, mental health wasn't
something that we talked about.

539
00:31:53,961 --> 00:31:56,044
I didn't even know what to characterize

540
00:31:56,069 --> 00:31:59,369
what I saw him going through,
what it... what it was.

541
00:31:59,412 --> 00:32:02,344
I just knew he was going
through something, um,

542
00:32:02,369 --> 00:32:05,285
something that was very, very
difficult for him to deal with.

543
00:32:07,739 --> 00:32:10,394
This is a little hard for me right now.

544
00:32:13,459 --> 00:32:15,733
I-I don't know why.

545
00:32:15,820 --> 00:32:20,519
When the news finally broke
that Dad was officially out,

546
00:32:21,209 --> 00:32:24,403
they let him back on the
lot for one final screening

547
00:32:24,428 --> 00:32:26,668
of what they were able to
piece together behind his back.

548
00:32:29,119 --> 00:32:30,271
He didn't know they had been working

549
00:32:30,295 --> 00:32:31,818
on the movie without him...

550
00:32:32,060 --> 00:32:34,920
changing and corrupting
his original vision.

551
00:32:36,201 --> 00:32:38,756
He-he didn't take the news well.

552
00:32:39,052 --> 00:32:40,820
I was at that last screening.

553
00:32:40,959 --> 00:32:43,543
It was the Bigfoot stuff
that put him over the edge.

554
00:32:43,762 --> 00:32:46,388
They'd added it without his knowledge.

555
00:32:46,677 --> 00:32:48,669
He'd wanted Goofy and Max

556
00:32:48,694 --> 00:32:50,934
to wander into a thrift store

557
00:32:50,959 --> 00:32:53,919
and discover Huey
Newton's rattan throne.

558
00:32:53,944 --> 00:32:57,331
And once they sat in it,
Max would finally understand

559
00:32:57,356 --> 00:32:58,880
what Goofy had been fighting

560
00:32:58,905 --> 00:33:01,358
to make him understand all along.

561
00:33:01,577 --> 00:33:06,086
Instead, they took out the
thrift store and the throne

562
00:33:06,391 --> 00:33:08,915
and put in that Bigfoot bit.

563
00:33:09,570 --> 00:33:12,014
It's like they were saying,
"What you were after,

564
00:33:12,039 --> 00:33:15,822
"your message, it's a fantasy as elusive

565
00:33:15,847 --> 00:33:18,391
and unreal as Bigfoot."

566
00:33:19,024 --> 00:33:20,547
You're going to see...

567
00:33:20,643 --> 00:33:22,558
you're going to be proud of me...

568
00:33:24,461 --> 00:33:26,456
I'm doing this for you.

569
00:33:26,704 --> 00:33:28,936
I'm doing this for all of us.

570
00:33:32,422 --> 00:33:34,014
Oh, man.

571
00:33:35,990 --> 00:33:39,318
I could feel him get up and leave

572
00:33:39,343 --> 00:33:43,028
and I-I heard the door close
and I went out after him,

573
00:33:43,053 --> 00:33:45,735
and by the time I got to
the parking lot, he was gone.

574
00:33:45,736 --> 00:33:49,229
Something... I don't know,
there was a look in his eye.

575
00:33:49,254 --> 00:33:51,795
He-he just got in the
car and he took off...

576
00:33:53,398 --> 00:33:54,704
and didn't come back.

577
00:34:15,542 --> 00:34:17,333
They, um...

578
00:34:18,927 --> 00:34:20,748
they never found his body.

579
00:34:26,285 --> 00:34:30,920
I think that was...
especially hard for Mom.

580
00:34:34,526 --> 00:34:35,657
Dad!

581
00:34:39,442 --> 00:34:41,792
We actually watch...

582
00:34:41,878 --> 00:34:43,401
we watch the movies a lot.

583
00:34:43,875 --> 00:34:47,095
Uh, I couldn't for a while.

584
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:51,578
But... but once I did, I couldn't stop.

585
00:34:55,830 --> 00:34:57,613
It's like, um,

586
00:34:57,638 --> 00:35:00,075
it was like having him around,

587
00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:02,886
you know, in a fun way.

588
00:35:03,273 --> 00:35:04,622
Yeah.

589
00:35:13,795 --> 00:35:17,842
You know that, uh, "Damn,
you live like this?" meme?

590
00:35:18,829 --> 00:35:22,354
It's so funny to me
because the essence of it

591
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,094
is those drawings he did in college.

592
00:35:25,142 --> 00:35:29,187
Black folks living
their lives, being funny,

593
00:35:30,571 --> 00:35:34,047
being free, being real.

594
00:35:39,047 --> 00:35:41,117
He would've been really proud that

595
00:35:41,142 --> 00:35:42,840
he became part of the culture.

596
00:35:43,991 --> 00:35:45,998
I think that's what
he wanted in the end,

597
00:35:46,023 --> 00:35:47,640
to just be part of the family.

598
00:35:50,907 --> 00:35:53,235
And along the way...

599
00:35:53,537 --> 00:35:57,243
he made the Blackest movie of all time.

600
00:36:55,642 --> 00:36:57,442
Synced and corrected by Octavia
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