Musical Expression and Future Goals

This message comes from TakeOff by IXL, the K through five core math curriculum now officially adopted in California. Everything teachers need for differentiated core instruction is on one digital platform. Visit takeoff by iXL.com/slash Califor nia. Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR . It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorne. Lake Stanfield is my first guest this week. Well, I mean, the man's a movie star. He's been one pretty much since he first started acting in 2013. He starred in the acclaimed indie drama Short-term 12. In twenty sixteen, he was cast as Darius on Atlanta, one of the biggest shows of the past decade, probably. Following that, blockbuster after blockbuster, get out, Judas and the Black Messiah, Uncut Gems, Knives out . And you remember Sorry to Bother You, right? One of the best and most bonkers movies of the last decade. A film that starts out ostensibly with a story about telemarketing, but gets very weird very fast. Every minute of that movie is a thrill. Lake had the lead role as Cassia Screen, a slacker turned telemarketing superstar. Hey young blood, let me give you a tip. Use your white voice . Man, I ain't got no white voice. Oh, come on, you know what I mean. If you have a white voice in there, you can use it . It's like when you pulled over by the police. Oh, no, I just use my regular voice. I love boosters tells the story of the Velvet Gang, a group of women in the Bay Area who are boosters, folks who steal fancy clothes, then resell them to the public for cheap. But not unlike Sryor to bother You, I Love Boosters take some serious twists and turns . I can't say too much about Lake 's role in the movie, but his IMDB credit lists him as Pinky Ring Guy . I mean, that pretty much sells it, right? Also, here's a little bit of trivia. Boots is also the leader of the hip hop group The Coup. The title for I Love Boosters came from a song that he wrote, that same n ame. In fact, Chewy, let's play a little bit of that right now before we get into my conversation with the great Lakeith Stanfield. I let a boosters stay, let a boosters, you should let them to know. Even if they don't know, yeah, they'll get it filled like a whole outfit or should be on I let a boosters stay, let a boosters, you should let them to know. A booster is a person who jacks from the retail and sets it in the hood for dirty resale. In these hard times they press on like Stanfield, welcome to Bulltime. I'm so happy to have you on the show. It's nice to see you. Hello, good to see you. Thank you for appreciating that when you go to a public radio program you are going to need to wear a cable knit sweater just to prove that you know where you're headed. Yeah. You gotta sit in comfort. And I got a nice little V-neck under this, so if it gets too hot, I can just transition into that. But comfort is always my first thing. They offered you hot cocoa, right? We're supposed to offer everybody hot cocoa. I think he did. He offered I think he definitely did, yeah. Great. Okay. I just wanted to make sure, 'cause otherwise we might get kicked over to commercial radio. If we don't offer everybody uh cocoa, we wear the sweaters. No, he was on it. He was on it. And I'm feeling extra comfy right now, so we're great. I was so excited to see you in Isle of Boosters, Boots Riley's second movie. You were the star of his first movie, sorry to bother you. Was this one where he had this little part for you and just said, hey Lake z, can you come by? So he he conceived of the role for me before he conceived of the entire movie. So he called me and said, Hey, hey man, I got this role that I'm thinking about and you could play. And he described it to me and it was just crazy. I would describe it to you, but you have to see the movie and I really don't want to spoil it because it's so insane. But he had this idea and he sort of crystallized a story with this character in mind and and this character became this like really cool supporting piece of the entire film. And uh but you know, with Boots, if he has a great idea which he always does and he has me in mind, I'm so honored that I want to be a part of it so he could have literally made it into anything, and I would have wanted to be a part of it because he's just such a great visionary and collaborator. Do you feel like it is different to be in a realistic, grounded, non- fantastical world as an actor, than it is to be in a world where something completely bananas could happen. You know, I think it's a matter of perspective because I often view the world we live in as wacky, fantastical and beyond belief. And inside of all of that craziness that is the experience that we live are these moments of uh beauty and and positivity and connectedness and profound truths being discovered. So as long as I see truth in it, the absurdity just becomes a way of sort of communicating those truths. So it's like if you're listening to a song by Slayer or something and it's like really, you know, visceral and the imagery is like that of hell or whatever. By going to that extreme, it implies that there's a calm. And you know, Boots would say, I think you know I don't really want to speak for him, but I would just say that he's not trying to be absurd in his movies and his approach. He just finds that it's a it's a mechanism to help tell the story and help audiences feel what he's trying to translate. When is a time recently in real life that you have noticed absurdity or fantasticality or any of these things that we were that you were saying is is reflected in real life. I think with the emergence of the internet, there's no shortage of uh being exposed to kind of the absurdities that happen in a global sort of sense, which is again something you need to take in moderation, partially because of all of the things you can be bombarded with, but I think having the transparency of maybe the the rulers quote unquote of the world and the people that are in the position to make decisions that affect all of our lives, being faced with that, I think it's shown me that we live in kind of a wacky sort of world and the design is quite weird and sometimes scary and sometimes inspiring in the sense that it makes you want to take control and understand that unity and us being together is such an important part of us collectively moving forward. It's been made very clear to me. So in a strange way, I don't like what I'm seeing, but I'm also inspired by it. said, well with the advent of the internet, we see like my mind went immediately to pictures of dogs standing on the roofs of buildings . But because when I see pictures of that, I'm like, look at how ridiculous and amazing the world is. What's that dog doing on that roof? Yeah. No, it's I mean, especially with AI now. But like no, but see, that's the thing. They're real dogs on real roofs. Don't you dare accuse these dogs of being a these are real dogs on real roofs. Get your dog off the roof. Put it on a wheel. He likes it up there. It's not safe. The dog wants to get a good view of what's he likes at being king of the castle. That's fair. But if you go up there with him, you can let him have the view and he can be safe. Okay we can do all at once. I don't think that's how that works, but I'm gonna accept it. No, I think everyone is more in more danger if you go up onto the roof with a dog. You're from the inland empire originally, right? Yeah. This is the area that's maybe like one to two and a half hours east of Los Angeles, roughly. It is both the most culturally Southern Californian and the most sort of confounding to what people's ideas of what Southern California might be, what was it like where you lived? We rode quads all the time. Stray dogs were a big thing. And there's so much land, but not very much on it. So you know they're just always maybe running away from home, getting lost in the desert. And so we'd be riding quads, dogs are out there, ditches built. Um construction was often happening and never finished. So you would have mounds of dirt from construction that were great places to launch off of a quad and how old were you the first time you uh launched off of something on a four wheeler? I think like twelve. You were wearing appropriate safety equipment, right? Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Just wanted to check. Did you know as a kid that you were a performer? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that I maybe had the title for it yet, but I always I like to do things in front of crowds, you know. I was a Leo and so I I love to be the center of attention. You know, my aunt would have a whole bunch of wigs. She was we were very religious, so we went to church all the time and she had a wig for every different Sunday. And so her collection up on her mantle in the bathroom to me felt like an opportunity. Uh she had this giant mirror, so I would put her wigs on and I would dance in the mirror and she always just would, you know, root me on and be like, Go play that character, do that one character you do you all you always do. And then she would invite her friends around and they would watch me do the characters and she was always like, This boy's gonna be a king, this boy's gonna be a star, and she allowed me to run wild and free, even though in the strict religious boundaries that we operated in at the time, you know, a little boy with a wig on wasn't really the thing. And so but for some reason she put that to the side and allowed me to be expressive. What kind of church was it? It was like a Protestant church, small, tight knit um family church with loud music and a lot of dancing and you know catching the Holy Ghost and and then the the little boys, you know, me and all my siblings, we had to wear like sort of tuxedo kind of like suits and we would do like temptation esque dances and sing in the choir and we couldn't Who are on stage, that is often the way that you get to be a performer. You're absolutely right. My aunt would invite everyone up to the stage at different times to speak. And oftentimes I was too young, but I wanted to go up there and I wanted to talk. And I was like, let me talk, let me and then one time she let me go up and I had no idea what I was gonna say. And I went up to the top and I just said, um, um, watch me dance. And I think I was like four, so I was very young. And everyone was just sort of sitting there in silence like what is this child doing and I said clap and no one was clapping and I said I said clap and then everyone started clapping this was like when other people were giving testimonies. You went up and said, Watch me dance, clap. Yep . Yep, that was me, man. We're gonna take a break. When we come back, we will wrap up with Lakeith Stanfield. Keep it locked. It's Bullseye from Ma ximum Fund. org and NPR. This message comes from takeoff by IXL, the K through five core math curriculum now officially adopted in California. Everything teachers need for differentiated core instruction is on one digital platform. Visit takeoff by ixl.com/slash california . This message comes from Total Wine and more. Summer weekends are all about family and making mem ories. Total Wine and More offers a wide selection of wine and spirits to choose from for summer patio dining, with guides available to help with selections and with the lowest prices. Find what you love and love what you find. Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas. Learn more by visiting totalwine dot com. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. Must be twenty one . This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana believes selling your car should be refreshingly simple. Enter your license plate or VIN, get a real offer down to the penny, and schedule a pickup on your time. No surprises New shows, new music, new movies, keeping up with pop culture sometimes feels like a full time job. Thankfully, over at Pop Culture Happy Hour , it's literally our job. We break down what's actually worth watching, listening to, and pretending you already knew about. So the next time someone says, Did you see that? You can say, Yeah, obviously. Follow NPR's Pop Culture It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. I'm talking with Lake Stanfield. You did not go to theater school. Did you have a plan for how you were going to become a performer? Um no, not really. I just knew that I needed to go to LA. I guess like that was kind of the thing. If you're there, you're at the epicenter, you can make something happen. All the auditions were there. And for me, even getting from like Victorville to LA was kinda hard. For me that was like hustling up change to be able to get down there for a consistent auditioning. Because one of the things with auditioning, too, you want to be consistent because it's something that's a skill that you can develop. And if you don't use it, you lose it. So at least that's how I felt. So I felt I had to stay consistent, I had to keep doing it. In order to do that, I had to be in LA. How are you getting auditions? So I signed up for this model ing and career center because at this modeling career center every like I think second Thursday or something of the month , they had prospective agent agents come through that were scouting model talent to get into commercial acting. I just wanted to get close to one of those agents. So in order to do that, you had to prepare 16 lines of a monologue. I said that I had sixteen lines of memorized and I didn't. I just wanted to get in front of the agent because I said once I do, I'll I'll get them, don't worry. And so they put me That's a bad idea. Yeah, I know. But I just I believed in myself. And so they put me in front of this agent and I walked in and I just said, All right, do the first thing that comes to your mind. And the first thing that came to my mind was I was a surfer. So I play this surfer, I jump up on the the like the couch or whatever it was that I was on, and I start surfing and I just get into it when I felt like it was 16 lines, then I sat down and the guy was like, wow, uh, that was nice. And next day they told me that he wanted to sign me to this uh commercial agen uh agency which is called Abrams Artists Agency at the time and that was the first place that I was signed. He's like what a coincidence. We've been looking for uh total nut bars to be in commercials for breakfast cereal. They saw something in me. I don't know what it was, but they saw something. I personally know. You had sold ATT Uverse door to door. I did do that, yes. What I was doing was I was selling ATT to a third party company that sent people out on these door-to-door missions on behalf of ATT. So I really technically wasn't working directly for them, but um I did have to be a salesman, which was fun. 'Cause then I got to go door to door and kind of and I didn't really care about what I was selling to be honest. And so I I had You weren't passionate about Uverse? No, no, no, no, no. I could I just somehow couldn't find the passion in it. That's a broad variety of uh services all wrapped up into one easy to afford monthly payment. Right. And if I brought the cables and, you know, instant communication, it was great. It was groundbreaking technology at the time. But you know, I just I I felt it for me I had to put on this veneer in order to get people to believe that this thing was the most valuable thing that they had to have. And that was a very fun part for me, 'cause I got to, you know, sort of play a character. When you were going out for auditions for commercials, did you book any? No. No. I got a lot of callbacks, but then once I got to the callback, they would kind of have you like kind of sign the contract at the callback. So then they would show you how much money you would be making and it distracted me. So then by the time I got to the the callback, I was my mind was elsewhere. And I think that's why I I failed most of the time. So eventually I stopped looking. I was just signed the contract, just gonna close my eyes and sign it. Commercial casting is weird and hard because of the fact that a commercial is fifteen or thirty seconds long. Being cast in a commercial is about what you present upon someone looking at you within seconds. Yeah. And that is tough for anybody, I think. Probably extra tougher a black man. And I think one of the reasons that so many of the African American men you see in commercials are animated by a sort of extraordinarily friendly charisma. You know what I mean? Yeah. You have to compensate for the years of um inaccurate depictions and uh you know uh the campaign to paint black people, black men, black women, black children as thieves, robbers, violent, negative. And so you're sort of c having to counteract that. Um in the world and also in the microcosm of this business. Even now a lot of times what I'm trying to do is I'm taking these characters that are built with an idea of what blackness is, which is very wrong oftentimes, and apply that to humanity, which means that I'm a human. And then there are also little facets of my ethnic background, heritage and culture that matter, but first you gotta be a human. Unfortunately, sometimes when you're black , you have to convince people that that's what you are because they see you first as a thing and then as a human. So a lot of times as you know and as an artist, you're just trying to reverse that a little bit and show the humanity. And as and guess what? How did you get cast in the first short film that you were casting? So I had a modeling teacher at this modeling place that saw something in me, so she became my manager. Um and as my manager, she would send me out on these student film auditions. One of them was a student film called Short Turn 12, which this guy out of UCLA was doing. His name was Destin Credin. That film was successful at Sundance and won the grand jury prize. And then I just went back to auditioning and it just kind of went dark for a while. And then five years later, I got a call from Destin, actually a comment on my page, because at this time I was signed up on a Sacramento film board because I was living in Sacramento working at this de facto ATT uh you know uh middleman company. And I I happened to check my account and I never checked it because I just knew nothing was going to be happening on there. And one day something just hit me, check the account. Checked it, had a bunch of messages from Destin, the guy who I did the short film with five years ago. He said, we're making a feature. We'd like to audition you. This had been going on for weeks. He had been trying to contact me and I just didn't see it. And I answered every single comment he made. And I went into his inbox on the film board and I was like, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. What do you need me to do? He's like,, well we just need you to be in LA for the audition. And funny enough, that day when I went to work, um, actually the guy who I was working for kind of let go of me. And so as he let go, I was both saddened and happy at the fact at the idea that I had this audition waiting back home. So I went all the way back home, did this audition in his living room, and I was breathing hard. And then I looked up and he had tears in his ey es. And I was like, oh, sh like, is it that bad? And he was like, it was that good. Yes, you got the role. I was shocked. And I walked outside of his apartment and and I guess it kind of all hit me and then I just started crying and I was just very happy that I got an opportunity and now be in my first feature. And you were the only person from the short, which had been a very acclaimed short, that also had the same role in the feature. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was the only person to come back. And um so then he sent me the script and again this is kind of a microcosm of what I was just talking about is when you get roles that are written for for black people or young black people or disenfranchised youth in this case, sometimes you have to approach it and add nuances to it that otherwise just won't be understood unless you've walked a mile in that experience or know people closely who have or come from a lineage of people who have. And so this rap was written and I I just thought it could use a little bit of a different perspective and so I rewrote the rap and then we were able to you know come up with an amalgamation that was the structure that he wrote and then the version that I wrote and then it became the rap, which eventually was shortlisted for an Oscar. So So put me in your books so you know what it's like to live a life not knowing what a normal life's like. Put a label on my head so you know what it's like to live a life not knowing what a normal life's like . Look in the my eyes so you know what it's like . Look in the my eyes so you know what it's like. Look in the my eyes so you know what it's like to live a life not knowing what a normal life's like. It was cool and then it also reinforced the idea that oh you have a perspective and a voice and that can be useful and so every sense that's how I've approached. Originally the raptor said my name's short term twelve and I'm here to say I'm disenfranchised And the best things we always do are things we do together and we include all of our perspectives and understanding. What was it like to be on that film set with you know this is still an independent film, but you're there with movie stars. Yeah. It was it was one of the most amazing feelings I've ever had is uh walking on that film set, realizing that the things that I'd been dreaming about, the things that I've been wanting to become manifest for so long, here I was, there, standing there, in it. And it was unbelievable. And I felt happy and I felt really dedicated to making sure I did a good job and that I could pull my weight in this film and hopefully make it something special. What was it like to go from that to back Right after that film, then we went into post produ ction and so I guess for me it felt like I had something cool coming in the you know that was in the works. So I never really felt I felt like I was just anticipating when this film would come out and people would get a chance to see it. Not having the context of a film coming out, I never didn't know what to expect. And I just thought it was gonna be great and everyone's gonna love it perhaps and it would be a good And so I was really excited after having done the film and and just like what's next? Now what do I do and what can I do to support um momentum and moving forward? And so I was excited to get to learn and meet different agents and all I really wanted was an agent. I didn't really mind not having a job. I thought I'm gonna get one. I just need an agent. Once you give me the opportunity, then I'll do the rest. And so my main thing was getting that agent. And it seemed like time kind of went by fast and the movie was done with post production and now it was time for it to come out. Now I got to do press, which I'd done for the first time. And I thought it was cool to be able to talk about the film and um be able to talk about my experiences there and what it was like to join and work with Bree Larson and work with Arammy Malik and these people and I was just so focused that I guess I didn't even think about the idea that there was a possibility there was anything but continuing forward. What was the point where you thought, now I have a job? Like not just now I have a gig, but now this is my job. That's a good question. I think that did n't come until I l started learning how to audition. And by that I mean learning how to get out of my own way. When I was all in my head and I was concerned and thinking about things back home and personal things and I didn't really feel that comfortable. This is not a job that's promised in it never really is, you know. And at that moment it wasn't promised to me. And so I didn't feel really sure until I knew what I could give. Then I On the other side of the break we will learn about how he got cast on Donald Glover's Atlanta and how when they first met, he only knew Donald Glover as a rapper. Donald Glover, it's Bullseye from Maximum Fund.org and NPR This message comes from Total Wine and Moore. Summer weekends are all about family and making memories. Total Wine and Moore offers a wide selection of wine and spirits to choose from for summer patio dining, with guides available to help with selections and with the lowest prices. Find what you love and love what you find. Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas. Learn more by visiting totalwine.com. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. Must be 21. What's more action-packed than prestige television? With more continuity than comic books and more reality than reality television it's profession al wrestling And to better understand wrestling is the ultimate form of entertainment. You need the Tights and Fights podcast. This is the perfect wrestling show with a lot of love, a lack of toxic masculinity, and just the right amount of bots, cats, and spandex . Listen to Tights and Fights every Saturday on Maximum Fun. It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. I'm talking with Lakeith Stanfield. How did you get the job on Atlanta? Oh, so Atlanta was funny because um part of the dance of Hollywood and you know, when you're sort of on your way is that you'll go to these places for networking and they're kind of parties and things like that and you'll go and then people will come and then you'll get to exchange information and you know, so you go to these little Hollywood parties or the up-and-coming parties. And so I was invited to one of these, and I was just dancing around, and I always had an imagination. So I was kind of just dancing with myself, and I was playing both the man and the woman in the dance and I was having a lot of fun doing that. And I didn't even know anyone else was in there at this point because I'm just so focused on what I'm doing. And uh all of a sudden I get like a tap, I think, on my shoulder, and I turn around and it's Donald. Donald Glover. Donald Glover, yeah. And I didn't really I knew him as childish Gambino, the rapper, but I didn't really know that he was a comedian and an actor and a writer and all these amazing things. I didn't know that at the time. So I was like, oh man, I know your music, dude. That's tight. I like what you're doing. And he's like, yeah, you know, I um I was just thinking um I might be interested in you for a role and I'm I'm doing a TV show and I think you might be great for this role. I'm like, okay, cool. All right. What do I got to do? And he's like, you know, um I 'll send you the sides and information and maybe just put yourself on tape and we kind of go from there. And so he was very like soft tone, very calm, very nice guy. And so I was like, okay, cool. Gave him my information. And then he sent the sides through. And the first thing I thought, this character's dumb. It was just like this guy. He was aloof and kind of done. I was like, oh, this is stupid, but whatever. What was the second thought you had? Uh-oh, am I dumb? Well, I at first I was just like I I kind of when it once I auditioned for it, I was like, it was dumb while I was doing it. But then when I was done with it, I had learned to throw it away. So I actually had forgotten about it. I wasn't even thinking about it. Then he came back around and was like, hey, want you audition for the studio? So I had to reassess what it was. So I came back to it and I was like looking at it again. I was like, wait, actually, there might be a little bit something to this. And it wasn't until second viewing that I realized that there was more potential here than maybe what met the eye. In the context of the now that I have the whole episode, I only had the sides at first. Now that I have the whole episode, I was like, Oh, this is this is smart, actually. So then Darius started to click for me. But I didn't realize at that time Darius would be a character that I would continue to have to grow with and come to understand. And every time I thought I had a handle on him, it was something else to evade me. Did you connect with Donald Glover around music? Because both of you have had sort of music as a late motif in your lives in addition to acting on screen. Yeah, I talk to him about music and you know, I saw his musical journey and it was cool, was it inspiring, like I liked what he was doing. I mean his musical journey is really like I I think there's probably a whole world of people out there who saw like this is America or something, amazing record, amazing video. And like it was a long journey from him making the music for him and his sketch comedy buddies movie and making borderline novelty raps all the way to being a very serious, very acclaimed musician fifteen years later or whatever it was. Yeah. It's a r it's a real journey, his musical career. Yeah, I hadn't become aware of his music until it was probably reverberating more in the public sphere. So I mean that's how I heard about him. It was through his music. And so the real thing that I really like to watch was he was able to balance many things at once. He was wearing all of these different hats. He was like, I'm a director, I'm a writer, I'm an actor, I'm a producer, I'm also a musician. And I love that. And I always thought we had so much potentiality to do more than just one thing. All of us do. And to see that in him was very much like, okay, you're actualizing your potential, and I think it's a really great thing to watch. It was great. Was it the same kind of thing with Boots Riley? I mean, Boots Riley, of course a legendary rapper with his rap group The Coup, in addition to being a filmmaker and still raps. Did you connect with him on you know what, maybe we could do maybe we could do both these things? Oh absolutely, yeah. Boots is also a musician and I think his musical sense really came across and his direct directing style is all very like rhythmic and he sort of sees the concepts as one that writes music does and then crystallizes it into symbols. And I love working with musicians and musicians slash directors, because that's also what I am, you know. And so I I love working with that. And actually acting and performance and scenes, it is rhythmic and and also so is editing and cutting. Everything has a sort of flow and there's something engaging about a flow that's cut just right. And the same thing with like saying lines or transferring energy. You say ba I let that hit me ba ba ba bop and it would be a certain time and space where different rhythms make different sense if it's well more goddamn then it's more like comedy and quick and da-da then that's a different tone or if it's like I love you , I love you. It's a different tone. So, you know, it's uh it's all rhythmic. And so if you understand that, you understand vibrations, music, you probably can help translate emotions. Has your acting affected your music? I was doing music before I was acting actually. I was I've been doing music since I was like, I don't know, nine, something like that, like seriously writing it, doing poetry. And it was a way for me to translate my real experiences into a musical format. So a form of therapy for me. And also was just a way to get a grasp on some of these concepts that are more difficult to understand. And so um when I was able to become more in touch with the things that I was feeling, I think it helped me as a performer because I could find the feeling. I could identify it. And um so I think the music sort of led into that. Do you have a goal for eMusic? Absolutely. Yeah. My thing is I want to share with as many people as possible these things that I feel are like universal truths and things that we kind of all experience. And um I have an opportunity here to express it in a way that, you know, in in acting and performance I do it differently, right? I siphon through characters through the world of that the director and the writer are building and sometimes all in one are building, but through the music, I get to be the author. Uh I think I have a lot to say. I have a uh very detailed experience in life and a lot of ups and downs, but I think all of us do. So being able to share that and have community , I think feels good to me. And my overall goal is that people can see they're not alone and going through the things they're going through and that we can also all have fun. And that love and connectedness are important and maybe a tangible spine for all of us . And that's kind of what I'm I'm I think I'm doing in my music is exploring those connections and for better, for worse, for neutral. Do you want to be the illest on the mic? I hope to be the illest I can be in everything I do. I hope to exceed my expectations every single time and be the best I can be in this life. But not crush whack MCs . I mean, hey, you know, um these days I'm more centered on the things that bring us together. Um to me that just feels better and it feels like where we all kind of need to be focused in order to make meaningful change. And so like I'm more interested in that. But if I gotta crush you, I will. I appreciate your frankness. Lookeith Sandfield, it's been so nice to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining me. Been a pleasure, man. Thanks. Lake Stanfield. As we mentioned, you can see him on the big screen right now in I Love Boosters. It's great. As we talked about in the interview, Lake is also a musician. Let's go out with a little bit of his latest single fast life turning it up to the end So bring a girl with a head down Say would you like to dan ce? Well first she gotta put your phone down