CHARACTER MASTERY | REZA DIAKO

We love when we have the opportunity to sit down with actors that let us think about the characters and the situations that they present to us in the roles that they play! Reza Diako has been in a number of shows that we have enjoyed from Guy Ritchie's The Covenant to Apple TV+'s Tehran, and Netflix's The Diplomat! His approach to his characters; his belief in having to shake hands with the characters that he is portraying; and the need to dig into himself in order to present them to us on screen is amazing. We talked about his approach, how he got into the industry and his portrayal and approach to Apostle Philip in international phenomenon, The Chosen.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What is the first film or TV show that you fell in love with and at what point did you realize that you wanted to be an actor?

REZA DIAKO: Let’s see. One of my first favorite films was actually – it was quite – well let me say that there are a lot of films that I watched and as the story goes, my mother was a big film buff since she was young like 11 or 12. She would watch Ingmar Berman (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander) films. So I think that that got passed down to me. You know, I have a psychology background so I was always interested in psychological films and so I think that at some point when I was quite young I was exposed to Persona by Ingmar Berman. I found it really profound, but it was a lot of serendipitous affects that got me into acting.

There was a time when I was studying psychology and then in medical school and I was struggling because I was getting ill. Weirdly, I was watching some videos by Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, City of Lies, Black Mass) and it was weird because I spent a couple of months looking into his interviews. I was taking a lot of acting classes since I was a teenager. Art ran in the family because my mom was a painter, I did a lot of music so forth and so forth and here I was studying medicine and watching Johnny Depp's interviews could there be a career here and is it too late? It was funny because I was taking classes more so for the psychological reasons of embodying humanity more at the individual level, rather than what I was studying which was categorical. What is really weird is that some months later serendipitously, I ran into Johnny Depp on my birthday, and we actually talked to each other and I told him about how much I cared for him.

AM: It all lends itself to how you navigated one part of your life and continued into this direction that also meant a lot to you.

RD: Right, it just shows the synchronicity of the situation because after that encounter, things just kind of flew. He actually signed a Happy Birthday message for me and after that we just kind of parted ways. About 6 months later, I’m at a place where I’m pausing medical school because I had a very difficult illness situation going on. Then my acting continues and that’s when I realized that my acting gave me a sense of meaning and purpose and an impetus and happiness. I decided to apply for drama school because I had a great acting coach in London for years and I got in. Then I trained at Mountain View in London and it was so serendipitous and that’s when things started unfolding as I was coming out of drama school. They were casting Tehran and looking for young Persian heritage actors and I never thought it would come by so quickly and it was so interesting. But yeah, I was always watching films with my mom and I would say that Ingmar Berman's Persona and a lot of interesting Iranian films as well people like Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman, About Elly, The Past) – A Separation which had a big impact on me, but it was the whole range. Then there was Johnny Depp and his performances in the Pirates of the Caribbean or I’m a big Heath Ledger (10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight’s Tale, Lords of Dogtown) fan so watching The Dark Knight that was a big moment as well into – I think that I was always working on how to make an impact on the world. Sometimes when I saw those things and realized that it was in my own internal world, but also in the collective and in the impact that it made, it was cool to see. It took me a while to realize how much art can make an impact and that’s when I knew. When I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to do a play I knew that this was it.

AM: We enjoyed you in Tehran as well as in The Diplomat.

RD: Thank you.

AM: I thought that that was amazing. What do you enjoy about storytelling?

RD: Thank you first of all as that is kind of you. What I love about storytelling, and I guess in acting as well is coming at it from a psychological background. I always like to leave something behind that impacts the world and makes us think a little more. I think the world is a little bit scared of looking internally. We always point fingers outward and I think that there is something about art and play and creativity and story that I have even encountered through studying people like Carl Jung who gathered the collective stories and found there were common grounds. It’s fascinating because through the collective or through the story or the mythology, people find the individual and through the individual that seems very specific and particular about a particular cultural area, people can find something profound and collective. That is something that I deeply love and resonate with and that’s kind of the aim when I work. It’s the work I do on projects with directors that I love and on characters that portray the complex weird parts of humanity in a way that dares someone else to say, “hey, that could be me” and I can understand it and it makes them reflect I guess. It's kind of the point!

AM: What is your creative process in terms of how you look at getting into the characters that you play?

RD: Yeah, I mean, that’s a complicated one and it really depends on the people and the teams that you are working on and the director. I always believe in surrendering deeply as I think it’s the core of it. I learned that after medical school that life is not a formula and that art is not a formula. I think that the purpose of art is actually to let people know that the exhale is more important than the inhale sometimes. Because if you inhale so much -

AM: I have kind of been learning that and being more aware of that lately.

RD: I know right? That’s what happens! You inhale so much and somehow you have to let go! So I guess that the process is a cocreation. It’s something that in all of my training, it’s about being receptive to the other and also to everything around you and let everything impact you. That’s sort of part of it to the core and with that, without getting too technical because I don’t want to – there is something about coming from within and finding that throughline and kind of making a handshake with the character. I always try to and to find that which is hard. You have to dig deep again to the corners of yourself like the character in The Diplomat. Playing someone who is so different than who you are and you’re trying to find the common ground through both imagination and also your own experiences. I always like to go to the child because of my psychology background looking at the pains and the little buttons that get pushed and how the character tries to build a world and character and persona on top of it. You can kind of layer things up a little bit. The true self and the mask lets say.

AM: What kinds of characters and projects are you drawn to? What do you look for when you decide to attach yourself to a project?

RD: What do I look for? I love to work with certain directors because I love their work and that is always a big thing. When I say that I love their work, it’s not from a personal cool vibe thing. It’s more like going back to what I was saying before. I like directors and projects I suppose that are looking into exploring some complex, taboo, or unspeakable act of human nature at the core. Trying to aim for something specific, cultural, and potentially different cultures that is always something that excites me. Despite that, and despite the specificity, to have a collective relatability at the heart and when I say that, it’s something quite simple and essential about the common human heartbeat. So if you’re doing that, you’re doing quite well. Having said that, I’m really open to exploring all sorts. I’m a musician so I like projects with music, I like projects that demand physical change, I’m also a personal trainer and I’m kind of a freak about accents, dialects, picking up languages. So I always love to work in different areas like that, especially because of my weird and complex background. I have never really been able to be one thing.

AM: The Chosen has become such a phenomenon and I know the 4th season is currently streaming right now. You play Apostle Philip. What drew you to the series and why did you want to be involved in this?

RD: Yes, it is definitely turning into a phenomenon, and it is definitely fascinating to watch. I have been a fan for some time, and it has been really cool to see it grow. I can’t believe it started as a short film and it’s insane!

What’s it like to be part of it? They call it a Family, A Chosen Family and it was quite a big embrace. So when I came, I felt very grateful because like many of the fans, I was a big fan of Philip and the way that character was played. It was an interesting, slightly scary, and extremely honorable experience of joining. I think that what I tried to bring is a lot of love as a fan and a lot of that heartbeat. That was also so deeply reciprocated as I have never seen a set like that where there is so much love and respect and a sense of deeper meaning involved through and through from the kind people in catering that offer me free desserts, to my room for whatever reason – I have a gluten-free diet so that is really sweet, to Dallas Jenkins (What If, The Ride, The Shift) himself and even production.

AM: When you were approaching to play Philip, it’s very unique as Yoshi Barrigas (Six, Criminal Minds, Forty-Seven Days with Jesus) previously played him and now in S4, you are playing him. Did you feel the need to marry the two because you're playing a Biblical character that existed, but now you have the layer of playing someone that was played by someone else in the same production a season apart. How did you approach that as I think that that is a unique situation.

RD: It is, it was very fun. It was fun and challenging. Going back to kindness, I met Dallas on day 1 and he gave me a big embrace and he said do it your own way and you don’t have to replicate anything. Having said that, being a big Harry Potter fan, and seeing the Dumbledore (Editor’s Note: In the movie franchise Richard Harris (Patriot Games, Unforgiven, Gladiator) played the character in the adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After his death, the character was played by Michael Gambon (Book of Eli, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Judy) in the 6 remaining films of the adaptations) change and certain other characters that changed -

AM: Right!

RD: You feel like as a fandom, you want to see some type of continuity or else it feels jarred. It was kind of a fun challenge and I felt very safe to bring myself which was not so difficult. I really felt connected with Philip when I watched it because of the fact that I had been to 10 schools in 4 different countries and I’m kind of a nomad anyway. People notice that I can sleep anywhere on set and I’m known to do that especially since the last 2 years the work in Egypt, in Europe, and in America you’re always on the go! I understood that nomadic side and living in the wild and living in a simple way and also I think because of my personal journey in psychology and having that interest in Jungian therapy, I have done a lot of soul searching and facing the different difficult parts and my therapist as well as other people say that I am kind of an old soul. People have said I’m an old man in a young guy's body which is not necessarily the funnest thing to say or to receive sometimes! I’d rather be young! So that part wasn’t so hard for me to relate to the heartbeat. Someone who has lost as in S4, Phillip is losing his mentor, and I had a therapist that passed away after a long journey and there was a lot of common ground there and on the other hand, it was a very interesting process along the lines of what you learn in drama school in terms of the craft. Sort of the body work, the dialect work, I watched the previous actor’s work who portrayed Phillip, obsessively and I was inspired by people like De Niro (Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, Goodfellas) who took over Marlon Brando’s (Last Tango in Paris, On the Waterfront, Apocalypse Now) role in The Godfather and I felt that he did that so I felt that I should probably take a lead from his papers. So I obsessively followed that, and I tried to sustain some level of mannerisms and aspects of him the best way that I can to keep some continuity and more so because as a fan, I would have wanted to see that.

AM: S5 is currently in production correct?

RD: That’s right!

AM: More often than not, people are always talking about it and where they are in the season or bingeing the previous seasons to get current.

You also have additional projects coming out that I’m also excited for. Can you tell us a bit about The Astronaut which has Kate Mara (Transcendence, House of Cards, Class Of ‘09) which we love and Laurence Fishburne (Matrix franchise, Clipped, Megalopolis) which is amazing. What can you tell me about it and who do you play?

RD: Sure I can! It was a deep honor to work on that. It was a very lucky encounter that got me on that project, and I was so grateful to work on it. I was offered to work as the NASA Director, Ethan Marshall. Going back to the old soul thing, they said this guy needs to be 50 and I’m not. Even though I have a beard and I may not look young.

AM: You still look under 50 even with the beard.

RD: When I shave, I will show you and I will prove it!

So it was interesting and I had to think again, both from an age and experience wise in terms of how he would embody things around him. The fact that it was a NASA leader, I tend to try to be very obsessive and very inspired again by what I was talking before about shaking handshake with the character, you have to let the character direct you and if that’s not happening how can you reflect that back to someone. I let myself be so consumed with all the parts of the character that may be different to me. So I went to the library and got a bunch of different books and everything I could get, videos, footage, etc. about NASA projects and I basically had to do 2 Doctorate degrees in physics and engineering in a matter of weeks which was a challenge and it was doomed to fail. We gave it a shot and it gave me a lot of interesting knowledge into that whole world of NASA and it just was very interesting. I was particularly happy about it because I had been working very hard to convince the industry that I am not just the Middle Eastern and Iranian guy, so having that honorable position to work as an everyman kind of Ethan Marshall guy was a good step in the direction that I would love to go. So that was a big happy moment for me and the team was amazing as well! Kate is amazing and it was such an honor to work with her!

AM: You also have Reading Lolita in Tehran which will also be out this year and I know it’s based on the bestselling memoir of the same name. Can you tell me about the film/book and who are you playing in this?

RD: That was a different one. As much as The Astronaut happened very quickly, Reading Lolita has been almost a 2-year journey! We knew that the film was being made and Eran Riklis (Miral, A Borrowed Identity, Spider in the Web) had us read for a while and he is a genius and I adore him. The project took a long time and I think it’s because he wanted to have Golshifteh Farahani (Girls of the Sun, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Brother and Sister) on. There was a revolution in the 1980's in Iran and then what ensues is a cultural revolution that went on for a few years. It was interesting because it was a real-life historical event and it was also one that I know that my mother went through as well as other Iranians that I know. They have those memories, her university closed down, she had to pick up painting underground because she was studying fashion and they don’t do fashion anymore because that’s now against the religious political viewpoints of the time. So it was a very interesting period, both historically and personally and I think that it is one of those stories where you read about something in the corner of Iran about something that we may not know exactly about, but it can say a lot about, the level of chaos that follows after a revolution where people expect some kind of immediate euphoria. The euphoria comes, but then after it’s some kind of peace or Lion King kind of story – that "Pride Land" has some type of moments that potentially might not come. So, that’s the kind of fun thing that I love about Reading Lolita.

I love the character Bahri which means maritime or the sea in Arabic. I found that really cool. Something about this guy is so interested and in love with literature and art. He is an artist at heart. But at the same time, he is very deeply enamored by his teacher and lecturer Azar Nafisi played by Golshifteh Farahani - which for me was a dream lifetime goal to work with. He’s oscillating between the two places of that plus being part of the Islamic society out of need and out of his personal reasons, but it is interesting because again it’s one of those great complex characters where you would make a judgement and say he sucks because he’s part of this tyrannical group and how dare he, especially the way he is describing the book. His writings of Huckleberry Finn and what he thinks of that, but then also secretly watching Azar Nafisi, it’s one of those where you don’t know what to do with it. But you see the human spirit and the heart underneath it. It was a lovely thing. I saw him as a caged dove.

AM: Are there any other upcoming projects that you have coming up that we should keep an eye out for besides the 2 we just talked about?

RD: I can’t wait for S5 of The Chosen. The script is amazing and I can’t talk about it. The moments are great and I think it’s going to be kicking things up a notch! Other than that, there are some things in the pipeline that are coming up. I need to keep those a mystery for now.

AM: We were talking about your background obviously before you became an actor, your background in psychology, going to Medical School and all of those things that you did, why were you initially interested in those areas and why is mental health so important to you?

RD: Thanks for asking that! I think that when I was 15 or 16, I would always think that I wanted to do something that make a massive impact on the world and not from an ego standpoint, but in a way to make the world a better place. Over the next 3 or 4 years, slowly this idea emerged that I would love to set up a psychotherapy center particularly for children and adolescence. I think that my reason for that was in my travels and attending 10 different schools, I had friends from Korea, India, and Iran – I went to American schools and those in England etc. Everyone has some sort of trauma whether it was acute or chronic, something from their families or from school and they are carrying these things around. They would talk to me about it, but if someone could actually hold these people the level of impact that it would have on the next generation it would be massive. That was kind of the drive. I kind of went on this big self-discovery as I am a fan of The Dark Knight so I was on a sacrificial Batman journey saying that I am going to make my life about this. It led to a bit of challenges when it came to my illness in medical school, but it was interesting because this diagonal path that emerged with acting – the dream is still there. I feel it every time I get success it comes from God, The Universe, The Collective, or however you want to put it. I feel very humbled and blessed. It makes me want to save up the finances and all of the wonderful blessings that come with it as part of the plan to hopefully become an advocate and to create this center for the future and serendipitously, I ran into someone else that had the same dream so it’s nice when you surrender and the weird stuff that happens.

That was the main thing and I did a lot of personal therapy and I love Jung because he looked for the common as opposed to the difference and in all of my travels, that is something that speaks to me as well.

AM: When you’re not on set, how are you taking time for yourself as you’re busy and you’re focused on doing the impact for others – but you have to fuel and infuse yourself.

RD: I’m learning that myself and am learning to do that more! I am a bit of a workaholic and a bit of an obsessive. But not from an ego place, I am on a mission to make things happen that is good for me, but also for everyone else. That takes a lot of energy and I think you should give your 100% and then you surrender. It either works out or it will work better – there is no other way. Even if there is pain or suffering, it’s only for a while and it just means that something good is on the horizon.

What do I do? I have a very nice therapist who has taken over the job of the previous one who had died from COVID. Jokes aside, that is very helpful because when you’re trying to constantly be on set and you get exhausted, I’m a very big advocate for it.

On the other end, piano is a big part of my life. That’s where I find myself! Ludovico Einaudi, I’d like to learn his entire repertoire – a lot of classical. That’s how I started. Engaging in art – drawing, painting, playing piano since I was 7 or 8. I sometimes write – I would say that it is emotional vomit, but some would call it very bag poetry. But that’s really helpful just to get in touch and then other than that I try to just have a cross between work and not work. I love this art and I love this medium and currently I’m on a break from The Chosen so I am in NY immersing myself in theaters and going to Lincoln Center and watching my heroes like Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, The Talented Mr Ripley, The Hunger Games franchise) and John C Reilly (Gangs of New York, Moonbase 8, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty) doing True West and then watching films from all over the world. I love to get inspired by the unknown as opposed to the known. I like to open myself to new places and then try to keep healthy the best that you can physically – exercise, sleep, read – the basics!

AM: Haha right? Taking a shower! Try to live like a normal person!

RD: Haha I just took one a couple of hours ago! So I’m doing well – coffee, black coffee.

IG @rezadiako93

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | OC Ryan West

Read the JUN ISSUE #102 of Athleisure Mag and see CHARACTER MASTERY | Reza Diako in mag.

IT'S ALL JUST STORY | RODNEY BARNES

This year when the NBA unveiled their 75th Anniversary Team of retired and active players, it included 17 members who played for the Lakers which includes the Showtime era of the 70/80s with players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. To understand the importance of this era and what it did to how we enjoy the game, and how it moved the game forward in terms of commerce and making players brand, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty illustrates the dynamics at play.

We talked with Rodney Barnes, who has written for STARZ Heels, STARZ American Gods, Everybody Hates Chris and more. He shares how he got into the industry, the positions he has held, his approach to his work, being the Executive Producer and writer for Winning Time, Zombie Love Studios and his passion for comic books and graphic novels.

ATHLEISURE MAG: You’ve worked in various positions in the entertainment industry as a Production Assistant, showrunner, Executive Producer and an award-winning screenwriter. With all of these roles, what was the moment that you realized that you wanted to work in this industry?

RODNEY BARNES: I was going to Howard University and I was in the School of C (Howard University Cathy Hughs School of Communication) and I was working at Georgetown Law Center as a campus cop at night and I found out that the movie The Pelican Brief was coming to my job to film some scenes. So I was really excited because it’s one thing to go to school for this and it’s another thing to actually be able to see it up close. So I signed up for all of the overtime details and I got them all. I started watching the movie being put together and it was so exciting! So I met a guy and he was the PA, he was a Key Set PA. So I asked him how I could get a job doing what he did. He said that that weekend, they had some big scenes that were taking place at the Washington Monument and that if I wanted to come and do it for a day, they'd be happy to have me.

So I did it and it was the most exciting, fun and best $100 that I ever made in my entire life! It was something about it that felt right. I felt more purpose in doing that and being close to this thing that I wanted to be close to then I did doing anything else that paid a lot better. I quit my job at Georgetown and started working as a PA full time.

AM: What a story, we always tell people that we embrace the multi-hyphenate. As someone who has worked in a number of roles and continues to do so from writing and producing, when did you know that you wanted to take on these areas and what the specific area was that you wanted to start in first? Or was there just a confluence that took place to make all of this come together?

RB: I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I knew what I didn’t know. I knew that I didn’t understand how any of this worked and I had a very fundamental understanding of what writing was and telling stories. Quite frankly, emotionally and psychologically, I wasn’t mature enough or evolved enough to be able to take on the big job. So, working as a PA, I look at it as being an apprentice. I had an opportunity to meet people, to sort of find my tribe, to figure out the psychology of how it would work and to just get my legs under me which was a bit like bootcamp. It was always writing, but I had to build up to the idea of being able to take my shot at it because it just felt too big.

AM: What do you think was the biggest thing that you learned from being a PA that has helped you with your career or was it just being able to see all the parts that were moving and to be able to understand how they connect?

RB: There was that. I think that the thing for me was that I always had this idea that everybody in Hollywood must be a genius and I haven’t met a genius yet. But, what I have met are some folks that have worked really really hard at their craft. It sort of demystified the entire process for me in being able to see it up close and to be able to observe. I wouldn’t say that I was a vital part although I know that some people would disagree. It was sort of the type of thing where getting to know people as friends and mentors even though that’s a problematic word as no one put their arm around me and said, “son this is what you do.” But they allowed me to be in their circle and to be able to see how the sausage is made. I got an opportunity to be able to just see things up close and to decide whether or not I could do it, if I wanted to do it and the closer I got to the thing that I wanted, the better that things got for me, but I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it if I hadn’t been a PA.

AM: From a screenwriting aspect, you have written a number of things. I loved your work in American Gods which I loved that show and obviously Winning Time and then you look at shows like Everybody Hates Chris. How do you get inspiration to write and then where do you start from when you’re trying to put words to paper to create these worlds for us?

RB: I never looked at it from a place of inspiration because if I need the emotional investment to do it, then I’m not going to be inspired some of those days and I’m still going to have to do it. For me, the difference was, approaching every day like I’m at work which was no different then when I was at Walmart or Target or any of those places that I worked at along the way. I had to get up, I had to work, I didn’t feel like it and then somewhere midday or so, it got a little bit better and then a little bit better. I sort of approach writing in the same way. I have a lot of resistance on the days that I don’t feel like doing it, but it needs to be done because I have a deadline. 78% of the time, I’m able to be disciplined and I’m able to get it done and the other times, I might go to the movies, sit and watch a game or do something else when I’m supposed to be writing. But I think it’s more of a discipline of doing the thing than an emotional component to it. There are days where I feel it and if I'm writing something like a horror driven thing like in my graphic novels, I'm enjoying it a great deal so it’s easier to do, but whether I feel it or I don’t feel it or am some place in between, I still do it.

AM: Just to circle back to American Gods, one of my minors in college was Classical Civilization so it covered mythologies of the world in addition to Greece and Rome and included African and Asian nations. So when I watched it, I loved seeing all of these stories that came to life. What was it like writing for that?

RB: It was great! The best thing that came out of it was my relationship with Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow, American Gods, The Good Lord Bird) who played Anansi/Mr. Nancy on our show. I had a similar thing as you, I didn’t do it in college but I studied a lot of different types of mythology and some of these characters like Anansi and Bilquis and others, you don’t really get to hear a lot about them. Because of comic books, you get Thor and Zeus, Odin and Hercules and those guys but oftentimes, Gods of color don’t get a lot of love. Even when they do, it’s in secondary roles. Working for American Gods and I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan. So to be able to play in that sort of world and get some genre credits under my name was great as I have a comic book company and I also tell a lot of genre driven stories so being able to legitimize that beyond wanting to do it was always something that I wanted to do.

AM: It was such a phenomenal series. I remember seeing the episodes and being able to see some of these characters that I had read about being brought to life so fully, it kept me glued and it was truly incredible.

So as a screenwriter, what is that process like in terms of getting attached to a project and how does one pitch themselves to get into this work?

RB: Well my agents do a lot of my pitching. They typically open doors, but I’d say that about 75% of the work that I get, outside of the things that I create, really comes from via word of mouth. Right now it’s a good time because of Winning Time and people seemingly are enjoying it and you get a lot of offers to do things because they like it which I am grateful for and it is a blessing. More often than not, it’s about putting yourself in the right position you know? People know that I write graphic books and comic books so whenever a project like that comes around and it seems like they can use a writer like me, oftentimes, they’ll call or not so much now because I have been doing it for awhile but maybe 7 or 8 years ago, if it was something that I had heard about that was coming down the pike, I would tell my agents to keep an eye out on it and then see if maybe they could get me up there to be considered.

AM: Is it a different flow for you when you’re writing for the BET Awards or the Oscars – is there a different approach because it’s a live audience or a different format then just a show or even the comic books?

RB: Not really, I look at all of it like it’s story whether it’s writing a joke, Chris Rock or one of his specials or whoever I’m working for for the Oscars or an awards show. Even a joke is a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Whether I’m telling a funny story or a horrifying story or a dramatic story, at the end of the day, it’s all a story. So, I approach it all the same way. The biggest thing for me is really understanding who’s going to be interpreting the words. Like, I work a lot with Chris Rock, and I know him really, really well so if I’m going to pitch something to him, I incorporate that knowledge into the pitch. Like, I can sort of filter myself and know that he wouldn’t like this or he would really like that part. In writing the shows, I have built a great relationship with a lot of our cast and so, I try to write to their strengths as well as to the story that I am trying to tell. When I am saying that I’m writing to their strengths, I'm talking dialogue. There is a cadence to how people talk and if you can make it easier for them to interpret the words, I think that they become more comfortable with it so it's really more so about having familiarity with it for the task at hand.

AM: Also in your body of work, you have been a co-producer and a producer in shows like Heels, Winning Time and Wu-Tang: An American Saga. We’ve had a number of WWE wrestlers as our cover and shared their stories so seeing Heels was another show that we enjoyed. When did you realize that you wanted to add these roles into your body of work and how does that change your perspective especially when you're also writing the show as well?

RB: Well it’s funny, those titles of producing can mean a lot of different things. Earlier in my career, say on My Wife and Kids, when I was a producer, it wasn’t really a lot more to do than sitting in a room and writing. It’s sort of like the government, government jobs they have G-1, G-2 as you work up and it’s sort of like that in television in writing as well. If you do it long enough, you start out as a staff writer and then you move up to a story editor and then an executive story editor and then you go up through the WGA (Writers Guild of America) classifications that go with moving up. But then, in certain gigs like in Everybody Hates Chris, I was in the writer’s room and wrote a number of episodes, but I also produced the voiceover that you would hear in every show. So I would write the lines and go with Chris Rock and go record the lines together and then I would place them in the show in editing. So, to me that was actually the beginning of actually producing and so on different shows, that idea of what a producer means is something different.

On Winning Time, I actually work with the actors whether it’s working on set with their lines, working with the director to see whether or not a shot is sort of lining up with how we saw it when we were writing the show – it can mean a lot of different things. There are some shows where I have been an EP and it didn't mean anything more than just writing a show and putting it together or on some shows I'm actually tangibly doing something different. On American Gods, I wrote and also worked on the set with the actors and the director as well and putting it all together. On Heels, not so much. Marvel's Runaways – not so much. But it’s different with each one, so it’s a classification that comes with being a TV writer and as the responsibilities go, it has more to do with what that show requires.

AM: When I first heard about Winning Time last fall, I knew I was going to love it, I remember as a kid in 1986 loving this team even though I grew up in Indiana and it continues even though I live in NY now. So seeing this story, hearing about this story and getting this inside scoop of what was going on has made it really enjoyable to watch. How did you get attached to this project and what made you want to be involved?

RB: Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island, Worth, Godzilla vs Kong) who is our showrunner and the other Executive Producer as well, he and I have been writing together for about 10 years and when Jim Hecht (Fairly OddParents, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild) first optioned the book, he got the book to Adam McKay (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Vice, Don’t Look Up), and he got it to HBO and they said they would do a pilot I believe, I don’t know if the project was picked up then. They hired Max, Max called me and I said yes that I would want to be a part of it. That’s how it started.

AM: It’s an incredible cast and I love McKay films and the people that are in it. In terms of writing this where you had Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, how much source material did you have as I know players of that time as well as the franchise didn’t reach out to you on this. How did you coalesce these things all together to create this story and to provide that insider feel?

RB: Well we were really fortunate that book. So we studied a lot of books and Rick Fox, former Laker was our technical advisor, we talked to a lot of folks who were around the team at that time who worked for the organization, YouTube – we did a lot of research everywhere – articles anything that we could find. We sort of incorporated into the narrative and some stuff we had to tie in together for dramatization purposes.

AM: Obviously with the people that were involved, John C Reilly (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Anchorman II: The Legend Continues), Jason Clarke (Brotherhood, Chappaquiddick, Silk Road), Rob Morgan (Stranger Things, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Don’t Look Up), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Dispatches from Elsewhere, Hotel Artemis) and Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Peaky Blinders, Succession) etc, there are actors in there where there is a lot of secret sauce. You have actors who were athletic but didn’t play basketball and having to do so for this role, having Quincy Isaiah play such a key and iconic person who was new to this platform, how did all of this come together to get that energy, to make an audience believe that these people who be playing this game even though they didn’t necessarily have this background?

RB: Francine Maisler (Uncut Gems, Being the Ricardos, Dune) is our casting director and she did a great job finding folks. Sometimes you get lucky like in the case of Quincy who is from Michigan and was an athlete – a football player. He had to lose 80lbs or so to come down to being able to have a Magic Johnson-like look. Solomon Hughes who plays, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is an educator, is 7-feet tall, plays jazz and he played basketball on a professional level before. You just get lucky sometimes. I think that that’s across the board in finding people that not only have the talent but also the emotional stuff.

If you think about our players, they have to learn how to play the game because some had never played the game before, they had to be convincing to learn how to play a particular way that their character played, they had to go through physical training everyday and then they had to learn their lines and then they had to act. So there would be times when they would have to come from training, be on set, leave their work, leave set and go and play basketball everyday for however long – for a year or so. Then there is the training that went into it before hand and always having a good attitude about it as they were going. We got really really fortunate to find the folks that we found.

AM: When did you realize that you were going to be Maurice?

RB: I’ll tell you when I was working, Max was working on a movie called Worth in NY that’s on Netflix now. I was working on the first season of Wu-Tang: An American Saga. I was in Staten Island, he was in Manhattan. We would meet on the weekends and we would go over it with Jim Hecht and Rebecca Bertuch (Worth) and we would work on putting the show together. Every now and then, this name would pop up, Maurice, Maurice, Maurice – like who the hell is Maurice? Oh, you’re going to see and it was like an inside joke. They knew that I didn’t know. When we were officially on board and we started in the writer’s room in LA, we had all the pictures up of the actors on the wall and then there was a picture of me. I was like, “why is my picture on the wall?” They said, you’re going to play Maurice and I was like, “oh, ok – haha Maurice.” So Max actually wrote Maurice’s lines and the only scene that I had at one time was the scene with Pat Reily where I don’t let him in The Forum. I thought, “ok, I can do that, I’ve been a security guard my whole damn life!” I know how to say you can’t come in. You don’t even need to even write out the lines just let me stand there and I know how to not let you in some place. Then, all of a sudden, I started seeing Maurice pop up in other scripts! He's like a leprechaun where he sort of shows up in different places and I'm like, "why am I popping up?” and then I had a walk and talk which is very difficult as an actor because you have to walk, you have to think and you have to move which was in episode 5 where I had that scene. I was nervous about that scene. Actually, I messed up the scene that is on. I messed up a line but Gabby Hoffman (High Maintenance, Girls, Transparent) who plays Claire Rothman is so great, you would never know because she kept going and I kept going and so that was it and they cut and we went on with the day – but I messed up.

It's cool, the network likes it, everyone likes him and I think that Maurice is going to come back and probably say more words.

AM: We always like when he pops up!

RB: Well, thank you! As long as I stay big and relatively menacing and intimidating, Maurice will probably be around.

AM: What has been your biggest takeaway of being part of this particular project, seeing it come together and the reception of people loving this?

RB: Anytime you work hard at a thing for a long time that is intended to entertain people, you always want that to land the way it is intended so that people are entertained. I think that we’ve got a great reception and that people really seem to like it and it’s sort of gratifying because I and a lot of people give a lot when you do these sort of things and it’s not easily assembled. For me certainly being able to talk about African American culture as it pertains to sports in a way that is sort of elevated is always an honor. It’s a good thing.

AM: Well, you guys have been greenlit for a second season. What does that look like, what do you want to tackle – will it continue with these same players or will it be another part of Laker history or even another time in NBA history for a Winning Time situation?

RB: As of the moment, the plan is to continue on in the same narrative and to just keep telling the story as we have been. Even now, when we first started the process before, we were going in the third or fourth iteration of what you see on screen now – we were going to go a lot faster. Then, the decision was made during COVID to slow down the process of storytelling and we had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times to slow it down. I say all of that to say that you never know. We could speed up a couple of seasons, we can keep going the way that it is, but I think that the plan for now is to continue going in the direction that it is.

AM: One of the things that I enjoy especially with a lot of the HBO shows is that there is a companion podcast and literally, I can’t wait until Mon to listen to the show which drops right after the episode airs on Sun. I listen to JB Smoove and then I listen to your podcast. It’s great to get your insights, what’s going on – the Rob Morgan episode was really great to hear. Every episode is great as there are so many tidbits that can be enjoyed. How did you get attached to hosting this podcast and how much input do you have over who ends up being on the episode with you?

RB: Very similar to how I became Maurice. Somebody thought that it would be a good idea to have me do it and my first reaction was, I have never done a podcast before and they were like, “oh you can do it.” I think that I tried to back out a couple of times and they were like no just give it a shot. I think that I got better as time went on which is sort of the course of life, the more you do it, the better you get at the thing that you do. But, it also helps that I know everybody. Everybody that I have had on so far whether it was Snoop Dogg, Rob Morgan or Quincy, or Max or whoever, I know them. It’s like having a conversation with someone who is a friend and not so much like talking to someone who is a stranger.

They always ask me who I would like to have on and I try to spread it around between the cast members, but also the people behind the scenes. I had Todd Banhazl (Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer, They Call Me Magic, Hustlers), I had Max, I had Jim Hecht, Rebecca, I had Sarah Scott (Pam & Tommy, The Offer, The Flight Attendant) our intimacy coordinator. I had Idan Ravin whose the basketball coordinator. I had our director Salli Richardson (The Chi, Altered Carbon, The Wheel of Time) and Tanya Hamilton (Big Sky, The Deuce, Snowfall). I try to mix it up where you have one of the cast members and then someone who is a technical part of the team so that for people who are interested in being part of the business as one time I was, you can actually hear some of what they do and realize that there are a number of jobs besides the big 4 or 5 at producer, director, writer. There are a lot of other things to be done and some things may spark to someone and hopefully that podcast can help a little bit.

AM: We love seeing the birth of the NBA as we know it today as this entertainment platform with next level dancers, club lounges and had this came together with Dr. Buss. This has become the standard for what it means to go to a NBA game. Being able to hear more about Jack McKinney and his time with the Lakers. I knew he was a coach for the Pacers, but I didn’t know about his backstory. What is it that you want audiences to walk away with after watching this season or subsequent seasons?

RB: Always with our show, we have what you know and the thing that you can Google and find out. Who won the game, who lost the game and those types of things. But there’s also those things that you didn’t know. Like in the case of Jack McKinney, a lot of people had forgotten not just him, but the accident that he was in – the basketball accident and how that changed the course of the Lakers coaching dynamic. So, being able to tell some of those stories and show the Shakespearean dynamic of the coaching system with Paul West head and Pat Riley, most people know Pat Riley being the Lakers coach and they sort of identify with just him, but there were other guys too.

I think that the other side of that coin is Spencer Haywood who was a big part of NBA free agency and a lot of how we look at basketball today in the fact that we can look at James Harden and see him go from team to team to team or LeBron just being able to go to the Heat and all of that – a lot of that has to do with Spencer Haywood and going to court to battle for free agency rights for players. When I was growing up watching the NBA, I’m from Maryland so we had the Bullets, now the Wizards. Usually if a player got drafted, he played with one team for his entire career. It was big news when a player would move from one team to another.

Now, when you look at the change and the evolution both in the style of play when you look at the Showtime offense of Jack McKinney that evolved and to Spencer Haywood’s contribution, that you see in these 2 gentleman, it has a lot to do with the way that the game is played and it’s rarely recognized over the course of history. Anytime we can incorporate things that folks don’t know, it’s always a treat!

AM: Usually, when an episode concludes, we’re usually Googling about 4 things! It becomes a great way to understand how far the game has come in really such a short period of time and how things are so different and the shoulders that people stood on to get to where we are now.

RB: Exactly.

AM: Where did your love for comic books come from. You have Killadelphia that you’re writing, Marvel, Star Wars universes and Lucas Film Studios – where did this come from?

RB: The only inciting influence that I can find in my mind and my heart was that my mother was a school teacher. Before computers and all of that stuff, she would go to the public library to do her lesson plans and she would bring me. There was always this area where you would have kids like in a pen, your Cat in the Hat, Curious George books etc. I had no interest in any of those books because under those books was a box and in that box was comic books. I knew exactly where it was and I don’t think that they ever changed them in all the years that I went. I would just sit in the corner and read them for hours. It sort of became a thing where it was infectious you know? The moral throughline and some of the stories were more evolved than what my 5 or 6 year old mind could handle but I was intrigued by that idea. Then later, people would give them to me and my grandfather would call them funny books back then. They would give me a stack of them and it was a way to keep me quiet. Later on, when I would have odd jobs, I would buy them. This was during a period of time where you could get comic books anywhere – the convenience store, liquor store, virtually any place that had a spinner rack full of comics. Now, you have to go to a comic shop on Wed to get them. But back then, they were readily available and they were only 20 cents or a quarter. Now they’re $4 if not more.

It was just a love that just evolved along with my life. In the beginning, it was mostly about the art and the story. Then in my teen and later years, there were guys like Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) and Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, New X-Men, Fantastic Four 1234) and Frank Miller (Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City), they sort of made it like literature and evolved into something that was more serious and that kept me involved and then later television and film like most people. So there has always been this relationship.

When I was younger, I tried to write comics professionally, but couldn’t find a way in. Like a lot of things that I’m sure people feel with television and film, it’s a tough nut to crack. But even more so back then, there weren’t a whole lot of African American characters and there wasn’t a big indie space when I was coming up. It was just Marvel and DC and every once in a while there’d be a new company that would pop in. They didn’t have the same distribution chain as DC so you were relegated to those 10 characters maybe if there were 10. I think that a lot of times, companies back then felt like unless you were writing for a character of color, what’s the point of hiring this person? So for me, I wanted to take a shot at writing a comic so when I was on the show Runaways which was a Marvel show, they liked my work and I sort of leveraged the appreciation of my work to say, “hey if you guys have any relationship with Marvel Publishing, I’d love to write a comic book.” They gave me Falcon. I quickly realized that I had no idea what the hell I was doing or how to write a comic book. I just took my shot. It was received ok-ish. Then again like the podcast, I kept doing it again and again and again and I got better and better and better at it and then I had the idea for Killadelphia and started a whole new thing. Now I write 10 books a month and I have my own company and it’s taken on a life all of it’s own.

AM: Which is amazing and I know in looking at your IG, you were talking about The Mandalorian which I’m a fan of. You have a project coming out in June – can you tell us more?

RB: Yes, it’s June the 22nd, The Mandalorian adaptation of the TV show and it’s the first adaptation that Marvel and Lucas Film have done with a project. It’s basically straight adaptation of that story. They don’t let you deviate too far from the story because it’s Star Wars cannon and you can’t really interfere or add new things because it’s connected to the television show. So I basically do my version of the television show would be.

AM: It’s still very cool though!

RB: Yes, it’s an honor to play in that space.

I just finished IG-88 Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters and I did Lando Double or Nothing earlier. I love to play in the space. I have a Luke Cage short that’s coming up and maybe a Luke Cage miniseries coming up for Marvel. So anytime you get to play in that space, it’s always fun because it’s such a big fan base that you get to connect with that many people is always an honor.

AM: You created Zombie Love Studio which deals with creating original graphic novels and things of that nature, what are some things coming out of there that you want to highlight?

RB: The first book is Blacula, a reboot of the Blacula character from Blaxploitation era in Oct/Nov which should be dropping then. I also have another book, Florence and Normandie and alien attack story that takes place on the corner of Florence and Normandie famous because of the Rodney King riots that started from there. I’m writing that with Xzibit. I have Tales from the Crip with Snoop Dogg which is the Crip Keeper. I have a book called Crownsville which is set in one of the first black mental asylums in America that’s a ghost story.

There's a bunch of other things that we’re developing that are moving along. There aren’t enough hours in the day, but I’m really excited about it all and it’s coming together slowly but surely.

AM: The depth of what you’ve done is truly phenomenal. What are things on your bucket list that you have yet to do or areas that you want to put into that body of work that you haven’t but that you’re still interested in tackling.

RB: Well certainly, developing the Zombie Love books and Killadelphia and things like that into my Substack page where I do 4 of the books. 3 that are connected to the Killadelphia world which is the book that I do at Image. There are 3 books that I do at Image, Killadelphia, Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog and Monarch an alien attack miniseries that I am doing. My Substack page has 3 other series, Johnny Gatlin who is a gun slinger in hell and hell is like the Wild West. 20 Degrees Past Rigor which is a zombie story set in Flint, Michigan where zombies are connected to the polluted waters of Flint. The Butcher of Black Bottom which is a serial killer story set in 1920’s Black Bottom section of Detroit. Then there’s Elysium Gardens which is in the back of Killadelphia which has an ongoing story on a Substack page. So, there are those books as well. There’s a lot of stuff and next, I hope to adopt a lot of those things into other forms of media whether it’s animated, live action or television or those kinds of things.

AM: Because you have so many projects that are just in constant rotation, how do you deal with the overlap? Do you have to be at a certain point before you take other things on – do you slice it up like a pizza and mix it the best that you can?

RB: Ha! That’s basically it. I try to tackle each thing as the day comes at me. I usually get up at 4 in the morning and then I start writing and I get the comic book stuff done in the morning. Then I tackle my day jobs like Winning Time or anything else that I have in front of me and I take it as the day comes. Whoever is yelling the most that is owed the thing to them – so yeah! Whoever’s voice is the loudest at the moment!

AM: I think that the time that we’re living in right now, although there is still a need for a lot more representation, to think of myself now versus the younger me who wouldn’t have thought to know that there would be an Ava Du Vernay (A Wrinkle in Time, Queen Sugar, Girls Trip), yourself, Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton, Inventing Anna, Grey’s Anatomy) all these people that are moving storytelling forward. How important is it for you to reflect that in your work and to have POC be able to see themselves as well as for others to understand why they need to be an ally and to make these spaces more open?

RB: Well I think it’s important because the world doesn’t connect in the same way anymore like physically. We don’t talk to each other the way that we used to and it wasn’t perfect back then either. It’s more important than ever to be able to tell stories that have a ring of truth or some semblance of honesty. That way you get to see people as they are good, bad and indifferent more so than as a caricature or something that feels contrived in some way. I think that a lot of the biases that we hold with each other comes from those depictions. I know since 1619, a concerted effort was made speaking directly to African American culture to make us less than human. There’s one idea of being less than human, but you have to reinforce that on a regular basis. So you either make them caricatures or villains – one extreme or the other. If that idea has the ability to sort of ferment for 400 years or more then you’re at a place where it almost becomes truth because you’re so used to seeing that be the case.

So when you have this culture that is fighting for a slice of the pie or some semblance for respect and dignity, living in a culture and you’re sort of burdened by living with that depiction. It's really a hard thing to overcome because then even the culture itself starts to believe it – is this who I am and some people do. That can be problematic in its own way because you start to devalue yourself and people who look like you.

So I think that the more folks that can get in for various gender, sexual orientation, race or whatever it may be – to be able to speak to your truth in an honest way cannot only help you and the group that you’re in but also people outside of that group so that they have a better understanding of who you are and the struggle that you navigate just to be a human being and to have a human experience.

AM: Who are 3 people that you feel were profound, instrumental or helpful to be in your career?

RB: Damon Wayans (My Wife and Kids, Lethal Weapon, Major Payne) is always first! He was the first person that gave me an opportunity to work on a television show. Were it not for him, I wouldn’t be here. Don Reo (Everybody Hates Chris, Two and a Half Men, The Ranch) who was the showrunner and creator with Damon on My Wife and Kids. He helped take whatever raw ability I had and allowed me into a space in a way that pushed me to a space where I was able to see for myself what I had to do. I’m eternally grateful to him as well. I have to say that there is a tie for number 3 Allen Hughes (Dead Presidents, Menace II Society, The Book of Eli) of the Hughes Brothers, a director. He helped me to bridge art and commerce. He gave me an opportunity to write in a different type of way and helped me find my way of doing art. He was very supportive in that. Then, Max Borenstein who is our showrunner on Winning Time who sort of did the same thing but in a different way. There’s a push sometimes that you need to get out of where you have been to where you want to be and Max was very helpful in being able to push me. Beyond him pushing me, was me pushing me as well. There are a lot of other people and if you had given me 10 or 20, I could have continued on with other people who have helped me even if it was just survival – that’s important as well. So when it comes to writing and being a professional writer, those people come to mind.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 78 Warrick Page/HBO MAX | PG 81 - 85 STARZ/American Gods | PG 87 + 88 STARZ/Heels | PG 91 -102 HBO MAX/Winning Time |

Read the APR ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see IT’S ALL JUST STORY | Rodney Barnes in mag.