Trascrizione completa di Debra Martin Chase - Renowned Award-winning Film/TV Producer and Executive Producer of new CBS series "The Equalizer" starring Queen Latifah, the first African American female producer to have a deal at any major studio

Harvey on UH, I think it was ninety three on ABC Me and the Boys, And then I did Parents Who with Robert Towns. And in the meantime, you were already breaking grounds for a very successful career. And let's talk about because you started out the law I started out at IBM. I was an IBM degree is in mathematics, so I can kind of relate to an extreme change because mine was math. These shows was a law and it kind of correlates with the you know, contracts and the business side that goes along with being an executive producer and a person who runs things behind the scenes. Talk about that transition first about the law experience and then transmition into Hollywood. Sure, well, I, um, you know, my beloved late dad was the biggest film and television buff that I ever knew, And so I grew up in a household where we watched films and we watched TV together, and I was that kid that went to the movie theater every Saturday and stayed until you know, my mother came to get me. But I didn't know anybody in the business. I didn't know anybody, certainly anybody who looked like me that was behind the scenes in Hollywood. And so I went to law school because you know, I needed to prepare myself for the world. And you know, I went to Harvard Law School and and I started practicing law a big firms and big corporations, and I was a really good lawyer. But I didn't love it, and I just figured, you know, if I'm gonna work this hard, I should go after my dream, which was to make film and television. So, uh, you know, and when and when I left, remember because I was in New York at the time and I was working at Avon Products, and my friends were like, oh, you'll be back, You'll be back. When I was like, I'm gonna give this my best shot. Here I am now he was interesting because I'm gonna skip around a little bit because I want to definitely get back to the equalizer and didn't talk about your career. Roughly. I was reading this article I think it was in uh, Hollywood Reporter, and it was talking about roughly six years ago. You know, the landscape was kind of frustrating for you, and you were considering other options other than entertainment. Am I correcting what I was reading? Yeah? Absolutely, And so at that point law was looking like an option again, and then I certainly considered it. You know, I got in this business because when I was growing up, I did not see people on screen who looked or felt like me, and so I wanted to break down stereotypes. I wanted to to create images that would empower us and would help people to understand that, you know, they had the power to do whatever they wanted to do in life and to and to make their own dreams come true. And there was a period in Hollywood and you know where you know, people weren't interested in making movies about women, about people of color. It was all about the big temp pole movies and and and action movies. And I would walk into offices and people's eyes with glaze over when I told them, you know what I was thinking about, and I and so then you just start throwing stuff up against the wall that has no meaning. And that's not how I work, that's not to me, that's that that is not the road to success. And so I was kind of I got to the point where I said, well, you know, maybe the universe is telling me that, you know, you've had a good run, but maybe it's time to think about doing something else. Honestly, this is a good story and it's true. And I spent about a year just talking to people because I had the luxury of being at Disney. Um you know, had my company based at Disney for you know, twenty years, and and I was thinking about what I should do and where I should go. And Vernon Jordan's you know who we just lost, had been a friend and an advisor of mine since I was eighteen years old. His his his daughter's one of my best friends. And and I went to go see vern Is I often did, and I told Vernon how I was feeling, and I was thinking about doing other other things, maybe going back to practice law. And Levernon heard me very calmly listen to me pour my heart out, and he looked at me and he said, you know you're too old to do anything else. You need to need to figure out you've invested a lot in the film and television, and figure out how to make that work. And he was right. You know, it's really interesting that because you know, when I left IBM, and you know the whole thought process. You can go back, you know, you you you've mastered the corporate space. That's always an option, but it really is about moving forward. That's all least telling you going back with it? Well, why, well, what's there? A lot more confusion, a lot more unknown when you're great, you're fantastic now. But that was just one conversation. But what happened that really set you forward in a positive direction that yes, I can do this again. Yes, this is what I've been born to do, this is what this is my dream. This is combination of realizing that there were stories that I still very much wanted to tell, and frankly that the business as I was going through my kind of soul searching process, the business started changing and Hollywood finally realized what you and I have been telling it for and many others have been telling it for years, that diversity was not just the right thing to do, but that it was good business. And once Hollywood figured out that there was money that was being left on the table by not you know, telling stories about people of color that you know, people of all ethnicities, you know, white people, black people, Asian people would go see good stories about people of color and about women, it opened up the door. And now it's mean, you know, it's still we still a long way to go, but my god, I mean, look at the number of movies that have been made in the last few years. Look at what's going on in TV. It's really exciting. And so it's funny. And it took me about six years to get Harriet made. And Harriet kind of covered that territory from the beginning where

people are like, oh, historical movie about a black woman, I don't know to you know, towards the end it was like, oh, yes, you know, hidden figures that happened and I did a lot of money. It was like they could see the potential of telling an action story about a woman of color. You know. It's really interesting because you know, because you were like me, we were there that I'm a writer, your producer, you're a writer too. And so from that standpoint, we went through that whole reality series, you know, where black people, especially black women, were not featured in a very favorable manner, fighting, cussing, drinking party and and so this hair out. Oh my god. So so with that process, I know, you had to be really sick to your stomach that that period right there. And I'm not saying reality shows have changed that much, but now we have ramas and comedies and docuseris allows us to give us solid balance and tell black stories better. But that period, because I was doing the Neighborhood Awards with Steve Harvey and we would we couldn't even get really presenters because there weren't any black celebrities on TV. Or in the business. It was really a dark period. And so from a creative standpoint, I know what led you to that thought process because guess what, Hollywood wasn't even trying to put the scripted idea in a black person's hand at all. Like I said, literally, I can't. I'm sitting here as I'm talking. I can remember the meetings where people's eyes they just with glaze over, They just like had no appreciation for for you know what I was talking about, and no interest now you know, and part of and you know, and frankly, one of the things is Los Angeles is a very segregated city. And I think that, you know, while the rest of the country was more integrated and kind of embracing different cultures, l A was slow to come to the table to understand that that many people are interested in the stories of all people. Now let's let's let's get back to you know why you really came on this show. You come on to the show to talk to Rochelle. You got this hit shell on TV called The Equalizes and with Queen Latifa. Um, now I ask you this for My first question is premier after the Super Bowl. Okay, okay, Devil Okay, devil, You've done a lot of great things in your life. Okay, certain phone calls come to you, You're like, you got to be kiddy. When how did that started, that opportunity break for you and how did you react? Where were you at when they told you that your series was gonna premiere, was gonna be out to the super funny we were We were shooting because we we are we are well. We are based at the Eyad Center at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. This is below me or is the arena floor, and our standing sets are there. My office here is a skybox at the ead Center. We do some exteriors in New York, but we shoot a lot in New Jersey. That night, we were in Bayonne, New Jersey, at an oil supply field. That was nasty. It was freezing cold, and I got this text from the head of drama at Universal Television saying, you know, um, we need to have a call immediately with CBS. You know, can you get the other executive producers together in in in fifteen minutes? And we were like okay, and we really didn't know what the call was. We were like, oh my god, you know over budget you know like that, and uh, George Cheeks, who is the head of CBS, was on the call and he said, guys, are good news for you. We believe in this show. We believed in it from the very beginning, and we're putting you after the Super Bowl and we were just like, oh my, you know, it was like, oh my god, Um, it's huge. It was huge. It was huge, you know. And I saw the premier and after following the series every since, and you know, when it was announced, you know, we had Denzel and they had the original series and Queen latif you know, because I know the role has some type of physicality tied to it if you want to have some type of credibility. And so my original thought was, can queen the teeth handing the physicality tied to this role? And I'm telling you from the pilot series on where she walked in that uh whatever room where the where the young lady was taken in and yeah, yeah, and she broke off to the gun, kicked him in the corner, shot him and and walked out of that went Okay, this is a hit serious right here. This is a hit serious because you know, everything is tied to credibility, and to me, that was the credibility moment for me in this series and walking through that whole process of bringing Queenlitief on board talking about the physicality and horizon to the occasion. Yeah, so funny. So our show at the you know, the Denzel movie franchise is great and it's been enormously successful. They took the basic idea and and and built from there. Our show is based on the original nineteen eighties show. Those are the rights that we have and um so I but you know, Dan and I go way back. We actually actually shot Just Right, partial portions of Just Right, the movie we did together here at the Eyes o Zener, which is really you know, great symmetry. And I've been trying to get back in business together and I brought her in to have a meeting with Universal TV, where I have my deal and Perlina the Bokway, who was the head of You TV then is now the head of the Universal Studio group. An amazing you know black woman was there and she said, you know, clean, but we have a few ideas for you, like we want to talk to you about. And the first one was was equalizer and honest to uh there was a moment of silence, and then Dana said yes, like like, and I think everybody in the room could see her in the role. It just made sense. And then, you know, we we have amazing showrunners Terry Miller and Andrew Marlowe, and they and our other executive producers, we all got the role was built for her. We spent a lot of time talking about what the show should be, what the role should be. You know. Then Queen Latifa spent time on her own with the creators of the

show, so they really got a sense of her and her voice and crafted a character that reflected who she was, her essence, her strength, and and and her beauty. But you know, from the very beginning, it was really important to all of us and and really important to Queen Latifa to your point, that the action be credible. She's like, I got you know, I got a I got a brand, I got an image. I cannot go out there cap big. So she trained, we have experts as she works with with the for the guns and those fight sequences. She does a lot of it herself. Uh, and she's great. It's great. I think it's great. And obviously she rides motorcycles in real life, so that we we we put that in there because we knew that was organic to her. It's finally here, the season of celebration, and no matter how you celebrate with family and friends, whether you're preparing for reys, magos or Karamu lighting the Manura, are going to midnight mass, Coals has just what you need to make those traditions special. 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And because everything is hosted in a single, easy to use platform, it can be as big or small as you want, remain convenient for anyone who wants to attend, and give you access to data you never would have known otherwise. Visit hoppin dot com to learn more and get started. Still living in and manually taking notes, start the new year with otter dot ai to generate automatic notes for meetings, interviews, or lectures. With auto dot ai, you can search the meeting notes, insert images, play back the audio, and share them with your friends or coworkers. You can capture action items, remember meeting details, and keep everyone informed. Auto dot ai works for in person or virtual meetings like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google meet. Sign up for free at auto dit ai or download the app for free auto dot ai. That's O T T E R dot Ai. Well, you know the thing about it is, first of all, you said beauty, beautiful. You know everybody got h D four K five K whatever I'm looking at, I look at that show that go she looks fantastic. She is absolutely a beautiful woman. I'm going, by the way, you're very beautiful as well. You look fantastic as well. I'm trying to figure out what cream y'all doing on that's set so I could just roll up in that little jit Jersey said, can you put some o rashaw because I looked at because I'm going like because that they know that that that captured me in the pilot and every episode is how great she looks, skin looks fantastic, and that carries carries over, I think into the way she carries herself through the series. You know, she carries herself as a very confident person that she has the issues with a daughter, which humanizes her. It makes her vulnerable, it makes her not feel so perfect. Is that if you know in the streets precisely the point and because what she Robin McCall represents most women who have to balance career and family and personal life. Now obviously in this case it's you know, she's former c I agent who's you know, kicking butt on a regular basis. But it's just you know, it's it's exaggerated by TV turn, but it's a real it's a real balancing act that every woman does it juggling, and I think that is what makes her very relatable to both men and women. Men are juggling too, you know, our our lives are complicated, and so we like to say, you know, she can take down the bad it's criminal, but she can't. It's hard for her to stand up to her sixteen year old thoughts. And that's that's the beauty of when you when you building our characters and then and you've been known for developing characters and making sure the characters are flushed out, and that's what I appreciate that because I hate to not watching the movie and I'm not engaged or the character doesn't get me emotionally attached to their problems. And that's really what really is one of the one of the true successes behind the equalizes are correct. Yes, yeah, because she's a fully fleshed out human human being woman us you'll see, you know, we've got romance coming and everything else. But yes, I mean I believe character comes first because if you can relate to the people, then you're then you will take any journey with them. And honestly, that's something may have always been a storyteller and I, you know, it was a preporacious reader growing up. But also you know, I ran Denzel Washington's company early on in my career here, and that was one of the things I learned from him, was how to approach things from the character perspective. And uh and and I you know, it is how I live now. You get this big opportunity every coming into twenty twenty one, I'm gonna have a conversation about COVID and eighteen and the production and how you wrapping up because you know, medical safety, safety or the cast and safety of the production team is is what what moments in the beginning and what moments that have allowed you to have more freedom now in the production of the show their equalizer. Well, listen, it's been a challenge. It's a challenge for for everybody who's in production right now. It's enormously expensive. I test every day, as does a

significant portion of our crew, and certainly anybody who comes in contact with the actors, because the actors are you know, there's no show without the actors. But they're the most vulnerable because they have to work with no masks on. So we've got um you know, and and and and everything is slower. You know, location scouting is slower. You know the fact that everybody has to test takes time out of your day. Um, you've got you know, we've got masks and shields on all day long. So funny. We always laugh and say, at some point, you know, we're gonna be able to take these off and we won't recognize each other because we see me most of my crew without a mask on. So it's and and also you know, particularly in the beginning, because we started shooting November nine, when it was a different time, there was no vaccine yet, people are scared and so that you know, they're nervous and and they're nervous about being I mean most of us have gone from being in our homes relatively isolated with a little bubble too. I work with two hundred people every day in an arena, which is a luxury in these times. But you know, in the beginning, people were scared and nervous and like, oh my god, am I gonna you know, it's just am I gonna get sick? So um, Universal, NBC. Universal has been incredibly responsible and CBS and safety has really come first. But it's tough you know, the thing about it is that when I look at you know, we talked about our frustrations and seeing you know, scripted and black storytelling you cast aside for reality. And then but I think that it was really health us is the streaming industry, streaming television there they're the need for content, and then when the content was presented, we delivered talk about the the change in the shifting the industry and how it has impacted in a very good way Black programming absolutely and kind of the fundamental differences. The movie studios have moved to making tent pole movies that appear to the widest possible audience globally, and that's that's how they justify their you know, their cost structure and how they make money. The network television, similarly, is making shows that appeal to the widest possible audience and that appeal globally, so you're not you know, to find distinctive voices to support those in those environments is really hard, whereas streaming, on the other hand, is more about niche marketing, and so you can have uh, you know, Insecure, which was on HBO, but still you know, cable cable and streaming, which because it doesn't you know, doesn't have eight million viewers every week, but has a very loyal following and is a hit in that sense because it's all they just you know, the streamers and and premium cable. They're about subscribers. So if they can if a show appeals to a certain you know, subscriber piece of of the base and they are loyal followers, that's that's what their businesses to build up those different audiences into one great audience. So it's hugely beneficial to diverse storytellers. It really is personal, like you were saying, HBO and insecure and not in the HBO Max, which is their streaming affiliated. Really they're building that out more than they building that HBO because of the content can be found on HBO Max. And the beauty of what I like about there were about the whole world of streaming is that you know, from a movie, movie, movie selling, if you're a black lead, it was going to be domestic. They wouldn't even walk internationally with you, and so so a self fulfilling prophecy, right right, And so what you like, I'm just using Netflix as an example, a hundred in any countries. So when they premiere a Black project on Netflix. It premieres and a hundred in any countries, so there's no discrimination about the content and everybody gets an equal chance to enjoy the product. And I really feel that that's where we're going with it. And that's when I say, my have times Change and my have Chimes change is really tame. It's really tied to the content avenues that we get to tell our stories. And it's great people like you, Devil Martin Chase, they're telling it. They've changed Charge Chase tremendously, and I can't. I think it's it's it is. It is the streaming and cable and and and a different appetite and the demand for content. Mean, you know, content is needed across the board, and it's really realization that people will, you know that white people will watch shows with the Black League. I mean Shonda, you know, her shows are really important in in the dynamic of all this. Because Raising Anatomy came on with the fabulously diverse Castle was a huge hit and people say, Okay, you know it doesn't have to be just one one that one black person. It can be black people in major roles. Then Scandal, Scandal was huge because you know, it was like the second show on network TV that had a black lead and in ABC was nervous at first, but to the Clinic, now you had Shonda, you had Channing Dungee was there, that was at a drama, and you have the fact that that Olivia Pope was loosely based upon Judy Smith, the very successful black crisis publicist, So it was hard not to cast a black woman and that was a huge success. And then it kind of went from there. So it's look, I'm just I'm happy that I'm still in the in the business right now to take advantage of where we are right now. Well, first of all, you are fantastic. I want to thank you for coming on the series Money Making Conversation to talk the Equalizer starting Queen lat for every Sunday you gotta hit you on your hand every Sunday eight o'clock after sixty minutes, CBS again gave us a great real So we are you know, please keep coming. Thank you so much for everybody for your support. We appreciate it. We're working hard to continue to make a great show. And and thank you well, you know, out of them on my clothes and you know, we got the Queen B Beyonce out of Houston. Now we got the Queen C. That's up. Devnmartin Chase out of Houston. Third War Texas, y'all. Queen see right, I own on with Queen C. Yeah, Devernmartin Chase, Third War Texas, y'all. I came from fear for it. So three and five, that makes eight. We're good. Thank you for coming on the show. Devernmartin Chase, Thank you so much. This has been such fun talking to you. You're great. Yeah, I love it. And Dell Queen Latifa, we've been trying to get on Steve Harvey, I mean Steve and Stephen AG's World because we would because we want to help promote the show. So we're gonna reach out again. It was definitely we're gonna reach out again because yeah, it was a off flicking the schedule, but we definitely want to promote your brand because Stephen Stephen Stephen A is a big fan of your devor on, a tremendous fan of quiunity for in any way I can promote positive black projects, and this is an amazingly great black project hewned by an amazing black iconic figure and entertainment industry named Devon Walton Chase. Thank you, Thank you so much, Thank you. If you want to hear more interviews of Seaboy interviews and money Making Conversations, please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I am your host. In this season of giving, Cools has gifts for all your loved ones. For those who like to keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware, blankets and throws. Or support minority owned or founded brands by giving gifts from Human Nation and Shame Moisture. And in the spirit of giving, Cole's Cares is donating eight million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your heart this season with great gifts from Coal or Coals dot com. Still living in manually taking notes, There is a better way start the new year with auto dot ai automatically get meeting notes. Auto dot ai works for virtual meetings like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Sign up on the web for free or download in the app stores auto dot ai. That's O T t E R dot Ai. I'm Tanya Sam, host of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood This daily podcast will help give you the keys to the Kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance. With celebrity guests like Rick Ross, Amanda Sells, Angela Ye, Roland, Martin, JB. Smooth, and Terrell Owens. Tune in to learn how to turn liabilities into assets and make your money moved. 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