Tribute: James Earl Jones

ComicChams: 00:00:11

Welcome to this week's installment of Cape or

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A Black Nerd Superhero Podcast. My name is Chamar

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Griffith, codename ComicChams

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and I am Andrew Tejada. Codename Arete.

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Andrew and I have known each other since 1996

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that was the year James Earl Jones appeared in the movie

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titled The goat, about great basketball player. He didn't

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play the goat. That was actually Don Cheadle, who played the goat

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in that movie, but putting goat and James Earl Jones in the same

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sentence just makes so much sense. Anyway,

ComicChams: 00:00:50

yes, yes, I love it. I I don't know what streaming

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services on, but I'm definitely going to be checking

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it out. Um, don't pirate it, and you can use Toby,

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but don't pirate it, all right. Jesus, have some respect.

ComicChams: 00:01:05

Yes, respect the late great James Earl Jones,

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because today, we always want to make sure to highlight many of

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the people who do such amazing work, not only within our

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community, but also within our community, if you get, if you

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get that, you get that. In this particular is a tribute episode

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that we have today for the late great James Earl Jones, who we

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recently found out earlier this week, on Monday, September 9,

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have passed away at the age of 93 James Earl Jones was

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described as one of America's most distinguished and versatile

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actors. And, I mean, I don't even know why they even had to

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say describe that he is that and more, just like said the goats,

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yeah. And you know, definitely we did, did a little

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homework before, you know, coming on here and talking about

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what we know and what is commonly known. But one of the

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most incredible facts about James Earl Jones is that he he

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had a stutter. When he was a child, he had a stutter, and he

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said that, and that was because of some things that had

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happened, some dramatic moves in his life, but he said, What

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helped him get control of his stutter so that he could do all

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these, the things that he was known for, was By reading

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poetry, by engaging with art that was his way of getting a

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cadence to his voice, to getting a rhythm. And his whole life

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changed because he gave he engaged with art in a meaningful

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way, and it gave it him something back. It gave him a

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voice that would be known for generations in generations and

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for generations to come. So, you know, it's an incredible,

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incredible start to what became a legacy that I just don't even

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know if anyone could recreate. It could even capture. I think

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it's one of a kind, what James Earl Jones accomplished in his

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lifetime, and it is definitely worth taking some time to

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acknowledge that.

ComicChams: 00:03:32

Yeah, and speaking of just like taking the time to

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just go through his history a little bit him, reading that

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poetry and then and getting involved in art the way that he

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did. I mean, that's just such a great way to hear that, you

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know, there is a bit of healing through these performative

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spaces a lot of times, where, during that age, it was very

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hard, especially for a black man, to make his way into spaces

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like that. So to hear that he not only found healing in so

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many ways, but again, like you said, to bring forward a voice

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that would inspire generations to come. He's been having this

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career since he started back in 1953 during that time, he worked

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as a stage manager as well as an actor in certain productions,

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and eventually he would end up getting his Broadway debut in

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1957 becoming the legend in the theater that everybody knows for

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his presence, his voice, his gravitas, and night after night,

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day after day, performance after performance, he would just bring

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To Life countless characters like boxer Jack Johnson and the

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Great White hope to being for me personally, if it's not Laura

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spitchburn playing these characters, I see James Earl

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Jones playing Shakespearean characters like King Lear and

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Othello. And during this time. He ended up starring in over 40

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or almost 40 different stage productions throughout his

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entire career, even recently doing a stage production of

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drive him as Daisy with Angela Lansbury. And during that entire

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time, while he was on stage, he was just cooking in every other

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space when it came to television, to movies, to just

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even voice acting like you know, when you think of someone who's

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on the stage, you never think of the fact that they had the

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opportunity to jump into all these other places and get their

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names known there. And it's perfectly reasonable for him to

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do so with a voice like that. Why he is an EGOT winner, and

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during his time on film, you will see him in basically a part

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of 190 productions, like It's wild. That's

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those are Sam Jackson numbers. Those aren't rookie

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numbers, yeah,

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and for us in particular, you know, we didn't

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get a chance to see a lot of his early work when it was first

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coming out. We heard of it. We we saw clips of it, maybe in

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passing, in school, none of that. But the thing that I

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definitely remember growing up with were two roles, in

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particular Star Wars, showing the villainous dark side that he

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could put forth his dark fader, and then showing us the lights

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against the shadowland as Mufasa, The voice that basically

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guided young Simba and many other lion kings that would

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inspire a generation of people to look at Disney and love the

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way that they put together these animated productions. And

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really, if you really, really look at it, it's such, basically

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a telling, a retelling of the story of Hamlet in animated

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form. And it makes so much sense by a Shakespearean actor, one of

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great work like James Earl Jones, was able to get that

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role.

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I mean, the the humanity and and gravitas he was

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able to bring to an animated lion. It's still absolutely just

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crazy to wrap your head around. You know, this animated lion

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that he really brought such dignity and power to, um before

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his before the lion dies. I mean, I was gonna say spoiler,

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but if you haven't seen Lion King, I really don't know what

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you're doing here.

ComicChams: 00:07:44

There are moments where there's a spoiler, and

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then other moments when it's a historical fact about our

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society.

Arete: 00:07:54

Yeah, I mean that that regal nature is, is really what

Arete: 00:08:02

I think drew people in, and what made it so tragic when he went,

Arete: 00:08:06

I mean, Mufasa is not on screen a ton of time before he, like,

Arete: 00:08:11

he you go back and watch that movie, and it's like he's in it

Arete: 00:08:14

less than you think, and but he made such A powerful impression.

Arete: 00:08:19

And I think that really is the kind of overarching thing about

Arete: 00:08:26

James L Jones career that he has done so much, but everyone, I

Arete: 00:08:33

think, could reach to a role that that he's had, and say that

Arete: 00:08:38

had a major impact on my life, on on my entertainment and

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enjoyment, because I don't think every every actor can't claim

Arete: 00:08:48

that. Every actor can claim they've had good roles, and

Arete: 00:08:52

they've had roles that people might recognize, but the ones

Arete: 00:08:55

that make an impact. I don't think everyone can claim that.

Arete: 00:08:58

And certainly as Mufasa and you know, certainly goes. It almost

Arete: 00:09:04

goes without saying, but Star Wars, yeah, he Darth Vader. You

Arete: 00:09:08

know, originally he wasn't even supposed to be Darth Vader, the

Arete: 00:09:14

original actor, David Prowse, sorry if I'm butchering that.

Arete: 00:09:19

They recorded the whole movie with that David's voice, and at

Arete: 00:09:23

the end of it, the director was like, Oh, I don't know. I don't

Arete: 00:09:27

know about this voice that you did for the entire movie. Since

Arete: 00:09:31

Darth Vader was in a mask, very convenient, they were able to

Arete: 00:09:37

dub it over and for $7,500 James L Jones put on the performance

Arete: 00:09:45

for the first Star Wars and from and for the first two movies. He

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didn't even take credit. He wanted to give all the credit to

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the actor that was physically there in the room. But once

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people started to recognize him, he's like, Ah, I guess I better

Arete: 00:09:58

put my name down in here too. My

ComicChams: 00:10:01

imagine he was like, "You got me! Let me just write

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my name now"

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my hand behind my back, and it is a role that he

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continued to do as long as he was able, until Obi Wan, which

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is when he made a decision that I understand is controversial,

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and my and people definitely are entitled to have feelings about

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it, one way or the other. But at the time Obi Wan was being put

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into production, James Earl Jones signed away the rights to

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use his voice specifically for Darth Vader, so Disney and

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perpetuity is allowed to use his voice as Darth Vader using AI

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software and archive footage of what they've already collected.

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So he made sure to establish this sense of continuity for a

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character who is one of the most iconic characters in pop culture

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history. And that's not to take away anything, and that's

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certainly not to say that a voice actor, given the chance,

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couldn't give us a Darth Vader that was approximate or just a

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new take on Darth Vader we haven't heard, you know, like a

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joker kind of thing, where they're, you know, you have a

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baseline, but there are different ones. But I do think

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it says something that even though I personally don't think

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I would do the same, I don't I think I would like my voice to

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rest after I've gone, um, I do really have to admire his

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decision to ensure the fans had that, to ensure his voice would

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never leave the fans in this character that meant so much.

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The measures he took were really bold, and I really think that

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that's something to commend, that he chose to make that even

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when he's no longer benefiting from it. I really think that

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that is something to to really think about and meditate on

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after he's gone.

ComicChams: 00:12:19

Yeah, I Yeah, yeah, I I'm even thinking about it

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right now. I don't think I'd be brave enough to do that, because

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now that hearing the story in this particular way, I had some

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insight, but then had the specifics, like we have like I

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have now about what he did. And I mean, I gotta say, I do

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appreciate, as a Star Wars fan, the fact that he wanted to offer

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that to us, because he knows that there are people out there

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who love the world, who love the stories, and if he can, he wants

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to continue contributing to it. I do hope, though, this does

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mean that Disney will be very respectful of not just this

ComicChams: 00:13:12

character in general, because now you're not just creating

ComicChams: 00:13:18

stories for a character. It's not like that anymore. It's not

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like a Joe Schmo number 13, who you're ranking the story for.

ComicChams: 00:13:26

This is some a character who was became an icon since it since

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his appearance in the 70s. And now, given the fact that the

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original voice the person who was just like, if you're ever

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going to put this character out there is, I really want to make

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sure that it's me while still recognizing the people who are

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doing the bodywork of this character. I really hope that

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Disney, as well as whoever is the the main person who is

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working as Darth Vader, takes into consideration that whatever

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they say, however story they want to put forward, they really

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have to also recognize this man in particular for, again,

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creating a character that will stand the test of time and be

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ranked as one of the top villains of All time and have

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such an amazing backstory too, like this is a character that

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really became connected to James Earl Jones. It's a character

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that many people, especially nerds like ourselves, who we, if

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we had the opportunity to, we would love to hear him say, use

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any of the lines, or say any of the lines in front of us. So

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between Star Wars and Mufasa, I gotta say that that was

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definitely for me, some of the earliest memories I have of

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James Earl Jones. There is one last one that will always stick

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with me, because I watched this movie every single time that.

ComicChams: 00:15:00

Came on Channel 11 when I was growing up. It wasn't until

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recently that I got the chance to see the full unedited version

ComicChams: 00:15:06

of it. He's,

Unknown: 00:15:07

of course, talking about Meteor man.

ComicChams: 00:15:14

Well, I gotta add another one, then your man, but

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also coming to America,

Unknown: 00:15:22

the king of Zamunda, yes,

ComicChams: 00:15:27

just having the energy that he brought forth

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into that, you could tell that he was having fun, you know,

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especially when you look back and you see it, realizing he's

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playing all these very kingly roles with these Shakespearean

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roles, and he's just like, I'm gonna give you the same energy,

ComicChams: 00:15:45

but I'm gonna have so much fun with this. I'm going to put in

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scenarios that are outside of what you will see as Regal, but

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treat them truly regal as possible, like loved and coming

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to a coming to America, the sequel, where he decides to have

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a funeral, and he is alive for his funeral, and it's just like

ComicChams: 00:16:09

this is exactly what you would expect from the way he handled

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it, exactly what you would expect from a very regal person

ComicChams: 00:16:16

who wants to be recognized. And it gave me a lot of joy to see

ComicChams: 00:16:19

that at the age that he was at, or definitely within his late

ComicChams: 00:16:23

80s, definitely going to early 90s. He was just like, in a way,

ComicChams: 00:16:27

it was kind of preparing us for his own homecoming, in the way.

ComicChams: 00:16:31

So I'm glad to see that James Earl Jones had an opportunity to

ComicChams: 00:16:35

give us that moment to, in a way, say goodbye to him on film.

Unknown: 00:16:42

Yeah, and if you haven't seen it, a little more

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believable that you haven't seen this than Lion King, but see it

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because I think you know James Earl Jones, he's done much more

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than, of course, Lion King and Star Wars. His theater work is

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just incredible. If you look at his resume, it's absolutely

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outstanding. You know, he won the Tony Award for great white

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hope before it became a movie, and he was nominated for an

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Oscar, one of the few at the time, black actors to ever have

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that honor of being nominated for Best Actor. You know, he he

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really paved so much the way for so many other people, so and

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coming to America also, we get to see a different side. You

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know, if you're used to seeing the serious or, you know,

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threatening side through Mufasa, go watch coming to America and

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just let make let him make you laugh, because even I've seen

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the movie countless times. And I still, I still crack up every

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time he comes on screen and has a misunderstanding about

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American culture coming from zamudah. And he, he is just so

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funny. And definitely in that in Meteor man, even though it's a

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joke, whatever he's doing with his hair and Meteor man also

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makes me laugh. It's such a random movie of act in terms of

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actors assembled, but definitely also worth checking out. And you

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know some and he was everywhere. He played Santa Claus on recess.

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He played he was in an episode of adventures of Lois and Clark.

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If you were gonna bring it around to DC, things he has, he

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had done so much, done so much. So if you really are wanting

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more of him. There's a good chance there's so much of his

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work you haven't even seen or touched yet. So you know, jump

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on Wikipedia, start looking some stuff up, because there's so

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much more he had to offer. Not to even mention his audiobook

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and his narration work. Those are whole other categories of of

Unknown: 00:19:05

art for him, from him that you can see,

ComicChams: 00:19:09

yeah, and just even some of the funnier stuff, like,

ComicChams: 00:19:13

you know, he's done a lot of stuff on Sesame Street, so it's

ComicChams: 00:19:17

already there. He was just like, I'm gonna work with the future

ComicChams: 00:19:19

generations. And even for us older people, fun, fact, he's

ComicChams: 00:19:24

the voice of Maggie Simpson. Yeah, it is definitely an

ComicChams: 00:19:31

episode where he is the voice of Maggie Simpson. So definitely it

ComicChams: 00:19:37

does highlight for me that he has so many roles that tend to

ComicChams: 00:19:42

be forgotten about, because you never would expect to see

ComicChams: 00:19:46

someone like him in these roles. But once he had hit a certain

ComicChams: 00:19:50

age, you could tell that he was just like, I'm I've done a lot.

ComicChams: 00:19:53

I've done so much to change the landscape of theater. Done so

ComicChams: 00:19:57

much to change the landscape of sci fi. Like storytelling and

ComicChams: 00:20:01

all that, so why not just have fun with the spaces that I've

ComicChams: 00:20:05

been able to enter in? And it does give me a lot of joy seeing

ComicChams: 00:20:10

that all these lesser known works of his are still just as

ComicChams: 00:20:15

has just as much gravitas as his King Lear or his Darth, Vader.

ComicChams: 00:20:21

It is amazing that someone who was in this space for so long

ComicChams: 00:20:29

was able to finally reach a point where he could just have

ComicChams: 00:20:32

some fun. So because we are definitely a superhero show,

ComicChams: 00:20:44

podcast we we've shared so much about capes and caps and every

ComicChams: 00:20:51

single outfit in between, but the most important part too

ComicChams: 00:20:55

about us is that we are also black nerds. So while we love

ComicChams: 00:21:01

those stories of superheroes and super villas, battling out for

ComicChams: 00:21:05

good and evil, we also recognize how much of an impact we as a

ComicChams: 00:21:12

people have made within community, throughout to our

ComicChams: 00:21:15

communities and to everywhere throughout time. And James Earl

ComicChams: 00:21:20

Jones is just one of the many, a big one of the many who's been

ComicChams: 00:21:25

able to do that and so Andrea, I wanted to ask you, how do you

ComicChams: 00:21:31

think that James Earl Jones has influenced the landscape of

ComicChams: 00:21:35

actors and even specifically black actors?

Unknown: 00:21:40

I think he showed them, it's possible. I think, you

Unknown: 00:21:46

know, it's we, of course, we've had so many great black actors,

Unknown: 00:21:51

you know, Sydney, Poitier of Denzel Washington, that have

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really broken these barriers down, but I think James R Jones

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just stood as a just a reminder of where you could come from,

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where you could go, and that there was no ceiling if you just

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pursued it hard enough with emphasis and passion he was

Unknown: 00:22:26

supposed to, you know, he thought he'd be in the army. You

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know, for a while he served in the Army, and he thought, Okay,

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I'll do acting for a while, and then I'll be in the army, and

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that'll be in my life. But he was able to after he got

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discharged, came back, worked as a janitor during the day, and

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did theater at night. And one of his first performances, he had

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one line to walk in, and he forgot it. He forgot the line

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because he got nervous, but he said for a year he stood in one

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place, set the line again and again, and in that theater they

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in the last years of his life, they renamed it the James Earl

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Jones theater, and it is in Manhattan to this day. So now

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there's a whole theater where people can't walk in without

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acknowledging his presence and what he meant to everyone. And I

Unknown: 00:23:29

mean, you can just look at the tributes to tell about his

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impact, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, of course, Denzel, and

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that's just the tip of the iceberg. Spike Lee, Viola Davis,

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Mark Hamill, Barry Jenkins, Courtney van Jamie Fox, so many

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different people from so many different backgrounds have come

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out pouring pouring out their hearts to honor his work and

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what he's done, and he did get an Honorary Oscar. But I think

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this is also on the cases as great as this is just a reminder

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that give, give pioneers like James Earl Jones their flowers

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while they're here, name that theater after them while they're

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here, tell them about how much of an impact they've had while

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they're here. Because when, when you are a person does that that

Unknown: 00:24:30

does not fit the classic image of Hollywood, which is, let us

Unknown: 00:24:36

be completely real here. Let's put it in the context, as some

Unknown: 00:24:40

would say, the traditional notion of Hollywood was the lead

Unknown: 00:24:44

actors were white, the stories were about white people, and

Unknown: 00:24:49

everybody else was supporting. And James Earl Jones was no

Unknown: 00:24:53

supporting character. Even if you put try to put him in a

Unknown: 00:24:57

supporting role, you're not getting away. With dropping

Unknown: 00:25:00

James Earl Jones and walking away, he took the presence in

Unknown: 00:25:03

the room, he showed that it was possible. So I think he is one

Unknown: 00:25:11

of the biggest stepping stones. And the reason why we also

Unknown: 00:25:14

talked about Lion King and Star Wars so much is because I'll say

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it again. I've said it before. I'll say it again. One of the

Unknown: 00:25:22

most important things for breaking down barriers across

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the world is starts with people seeing people that they don't

Unknown: 00:25:33

live with, they don't interact with on a daily basis. They have

Unknown: 00:25:37

to see them just living life, and then they'll understand

Unknown: 00:25:42

ideally. They would meet them ideally. But we don't live in an

Unknown: 00:25:45

ideal world. So the next best thing we have is to create works

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where people are just living their lives and looking and then

Unknown: 00:25:53

when those are presented, people can say, Why am I scared? I see

Unknown: 00:26:00

things that we have in common. I see things that we share. So

Unknown: 00:26:06

when you have an actor like James Earl Jones who crosses all

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the barriers where people listen or so entranced by the

Unknown: 00:26:14

performance, they don't care where he came from, that I don't

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care what race, creed, country he identifies with, and then

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they find out and still embrace him. That's how you open up the

Unknown: 00:26:27

world. Because they say, if I can do that for for Darth Vader,

Unknown: 00:26:33

if I can do that for Mufasa a lion, if I can do that for a

Unknown: 00:26:37

lion, if I can give that that grace and dignity to a lion, I

Unknown: 00:26:43

can give that grace and dignity to human beings. It it starts.

Unknown: 00:26:48

It's also often starts with art. So you know, it's, it's hard to

Unknown: 00:26:53

simplify or condense what he brought to the world and how

Unknown: 00:26:57

that impact has radiated out. But it's there. It's it's

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everywhere around us, and it'll continue to be so I think he

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will stand as, as I said earlier, he'll stand as one of

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the goats of black actors and culture, because of all the

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barriers that he knocked down, I think there are so many others

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that can walk freely in and move freely in Hollywood, because he

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was there first with that booming voice, a voice so

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booming, no wall, no standards, no boundaries were ever gonna

Unknown: 00:27:37

hold him back.

ComicChams: 00:27:40

Well, said, man, well, well said I like there is

ComicChams: 00:27:47

nothing else I can add. Um, I will just say one thing to

ComicChams: 00:27:51

close. James Earl Jones, thank you. Your 93 years of life. You

ComicChams: 00:27:59

spent seven decades of it entertaining, generation after

ComicChams: 00:28:04

generation, community after community, person to person,

ComicChams: 00:28:10

heart to heart. Thank you.

Unknown: 00:28:16

Yeah. And I'd also like, you know, normally we we

Unknown: 00:28:20

do the joke at the end, but I think it is most appropriate to

Unknown: 00:28:24

leave with words that He Himself said, you weren't going to the

Unknown: 00:28:29

theater to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the

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world, the thinking and the feelings of the world. He took

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that chance and every time he succeeded, so thank thank you so

Unknown: 00:28:48

much. James Earl Jones, rest easy and know that in your 93

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years, you changed our thinking, our feelings and perspective of

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what a black actor could be. I.