Actor Richard Brooks. Photo Credit: Adam Hills.

Actor Richard Brooks. Photo Credit: Adam Hills.

GALO: Well, that’s something to aspire to, and to realize that even though nothing is perfect, you can at least try to have it all.

RB: Yes, I think you can try to have it all. I think that seems to be how we are programmed. Even if a lot of times, in my own experience, the woman would rather be taken care of than having to work — I think in that way, what’s hers is hers and what’s his is hers. That’s really having it all.

GALO: You played A.D.A Paul Robinette on Law and Order for 16 years.

RB: Well, I was an original cast member. I only did it for three or four seasons, and then I came back [with a] recurring [role].

GALO: Oh yes, I’m sorry. Law & Order premiered the year I was born.

RB: Oh man, I guess time is flying on me. Oh my God, that’s incredible.

GALO: Once the show ended, did you ever consider taking a break from film and television acting? I know that you started your career singing and acting for the stage. Did you consider going back to that full-time?

RB: Well, I definitely started in the theater. And I think what happened with the leads and the great roles on Broadway and things like that, there actually started to be a push toward having [renowned] television and film actors play the leads for the box office to sell tickets. So, at some point, it becomes another catch-22 where the more success you have in television and film, the more likely you are to be offered the great roles on stage. So that’s what I found. You know August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf? I was the original lead in that.

GALO: Oh wow!

RB: In his own words, he wrote it with my voice in mind when he wrote the role. But at the same time, when it came time to go to Broadway, there was a political situation of who was the hotter actor.

GALO: Who could draw the audience in?

RB: Exactly, exactly. Even though I had originated the part and it was written for me in that way. You know, I just try to bounce between everything. I just look for great work and great writing that I can just try to add something to it and elevate it, whatever format it is — although, I am looking for a really good film right now. I would like to have another good movie.

GALO: Stemming from last year, there has been a push to get black actors on the small screen, and even the big screen as well.

RB: Yes, television has really risen. Everyone wants a TV series, which is interesting between the writing and the work. And the black female leads have really taken over. It’s definitely a great time to be a black female name actress.

GALO: When I was a child in the 1990s and I turned on the television, I got to see Cosby, Fresh Prince, Living Single, Moesha, and so many other shows. After that, though there were black characters on shows (you on Law and Order, for example), there was a huge erasure of people of color on television. I think that now with shows like Being Mary Jane, Empire, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder, we are returning to television that looks much more like the ’90s and our society in general. Why do you think that is? Do you think that this is something that will be sustained and even push through into film during the coming years?

RB: Well, the trend I noticed over my career was more of a technological push. In the ’90s, we added FOX Network to the three big networks, and FOX went to the African-American programming because it was a void, an underutilized market. So that helped build up their network. And so, as we extended into cable and everyone started to have cable in their homes, we saw a proliferation of cable channels and they needed programming. I think now that viewership has been dwindling so much for the networks, and across the board when you have Hulu and Netflix and all of these other mediums coming up (even Amazon with its programming), it’s the new media [age] basically. So we are seeing more programming because everyone is trying to find an audience and tap [into that], and we are a great audience.

GALO: We are a spending audience also.

RB: Exactly. Also, hopefully the world, our country, and the media is starting to reflect the diverse society that we are — and everyone can identify in the same way that we can identify with people of other races and enjoy their movies. Hopefully, they can watch ours and identify with us and enjoy our stories. We are all just humans at the end of the day.

GALO: Expanding from television into film and entertainment in general, what do you think of the backlash from this year’s Oscars and the #oscarssowhite movement on social media? Do you think that mainstream Hollywood will always be resistant to backing stories from and about people of color — or even saying that black films don’t sell overseas?

RB: I don’t know if I really think Hollywood is resistant to backing our stories. I just think that we also have our own contradictions, you know. And what I’ve realized is that we like to be entertained. So some of our characteristics, we might not want everyone in the world to know. There are always two faces. We have our own kind of humor, and at the same time, we also want to be respected, honored and renowned. What really has to happen, I guess, is that we have to show that we ourselves want that kind of quality drama, and support it when it comes out. If it makes money, it’ll make sense to Hollywood. But a lot of times with our past and our history, even if something is historically important or relevant, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the 21st century audience wants to remember a victimized past. We are more concerned with a brighter future and what we are trying to achieve. I just think that we have to tell more stories, and keep pushing and find a way to balance that. We have a hard past that a lot of people don’t like to revisit that often. It’s not entertaining to us. So, its two audiences, the Oscars is one audience and we’re another audience.

GALO: For sure. There are so many people that don’t even watch the Oscars.

RB: Yes. And even a lot of the movies that win at the Oscars, they’re not [always] movies that we would run to the theater to see. I don’t think anyone has seen Birdman, or most people haven’t seen it. I mean, I want to — I definitely want to see it.

GALO: It’s not necessarily a box office draw.

RB: No, it’s not. Now Fifty Shades of Grey, everyone is going to see that, but I don’t think it will get an Oscar nomination [chuckles].

GALO: No, but it was very entertaining, if I can say that much [laughs].

RB: Yeah. So I think that where it’s happening [now] is on television, and with networks like BET allowing the creative to push the boundaries that are just great stories and high entertainment. We definitely need to translate that to the movies, though. As far as the foreign box office, I’m not sure if I really believe that. I think that there are genres that work. The main problem that I’ve always found with the international market is that they like to dub movies in different languages and they like to have translations. And in these countries, a lot of the main markets for movies are European.

GALO: Yes. And our culture does not always translate.

RB: Well, I think our culture translates; everyone wants to be cool like African-Americans. We are style makers and trendsetters. But I think that when you have a white American dubbed in German, he can also look like he’s a German. But when African-Americans are dubbed…if they have some sort of negative stigma about Africans as immigrants in their country or whatever, there’s another kind of, I don’t know if it would be racism, but nationalism in other countries — Western civilizations. And in our country, Africa is not counted as well. Africa is an amazing market.

GALO: Yes, Nollywood [the Nigerian film industry] alone is one of the top film industries in the world.  

RB: Yes, but you know [with] bootlegs and all that kind of stuff — you can’t really see how much money we’re making. We are probably making a lot of money, but it might not be making it all the way back to the distributors.

GALO: So, tell me more about your LP Smooth Love. What was the inspiration for that project and Flat Top Entertainment in general?

RB: Well, with Flat Top, at the time I had a few artists that I wanted to put out and I wanted to launch my music career. I started singing; I starred in musicals when I was a kid, and then I met some producers and I started writing and putting out music. We just sort of got caught in the transition time when record stores were starting to shut down. CDs and everything were starting to go. Technology changed and now we are an iTunes kind of world. I launched [Flat Top] right at that transition time, when everything was changing — everything was starting to go digital. So now I’m actually looking to start a new production company, and to release a new album knowing what I know and what I learned with all the modern social media and networking, and things like that. I’m working on a few things now and I may even reissue Smooth Love to some extent, because it didn’t really get out as much as I would have liked [it to]. My distributors went bankrupt. It was an amazing drama when it was all said and done. It was that unsettling period where everything sort of changed. You can’t even find a record store now. I took a little bit of a loss on that one, but I’m coming back.

GALO: Well, that is all that you can do, continue to move forward. And I’m definitely excited to hear more of your music.

RB: Thank you. Yes, the music is coming along really well. I put a few things on YouTube and I just worked on Tyrese’s new single. He’s doing a short movie instead of a music video with Paul Hunter directing it and Jennifer Hudson [starring] in it. We just shot that a week or two ago, and I guess that’s coming out in May. I met some more music people there, so I’m working on a Barry White type of album now; a tribute to him. I think this summer there will be a lot more music coming out from me. I think people are ready for it now. And I think it’s funny, I think that Patrick and Being Mary Jane changed people’s perception of me a little bit, so now I can actually be a rock star and it will be OK.

GALO: [Laughs] Isn’t that so interesting, how people can only see you in one way, and one thing can shift their entire perspective of you.

RB: Yes, exactly. I think people loved [Paul] Robinette, but it was hard to see him on the mic singing Teddy Pendergrass or somebody. But now everyone is receptive and it’s a wonderful thing. I’m a little older, but I still got it.

GALO: And that’s all that matters. Well, I don’t want to take up too much more of your time, but I did want to ask you one last question about Being Mary Jane. I know that you can’t say much, but if you could give us just a little hint about where we may find Patrick in this season? 

RB: I think at the end of season one that was a crucial turning point [for him]. There is no going back for Patrick on that angle. That was a wall. That was a moment of OK, one slip back and peeing in the cup that was enough. That’s not going to happen [again]. But what we will see is him being more responsible, and actually being more of a father, a better father. We will see him getting a second chance at being a good dad and just a hardworking man. He just continues to struggle to stay on his feet and stay independent.

GALO: Well, I am certainly looking forward to it because you guys have gotten me hooked on the show, so I’m very excited to see what’s going to happen next.

RB: Thank you. We have some good excitement, its going to be a great season. It is a great season [already], but it’s going to continue to surprise people. It’s very rich, and what I also love about the show is that we are able to touch on cultural issues in an entertaining way that really reflect our lives, and things that we deal with. So, we’ll have a little bit of a Ferguson moment. We definitely have some things coming up where we didn’t go into it as much because it happened after we finished the season, but these are struggles that black men deal with as far as police pulling us over and racial profiling and things like that. Patrick is definitely the everyday black man in the story dealing with it.

GALO: Wonderful. Thank you so very much for your time. I really enjoyed it.

RB: Me too. Thank you so much.

Have you been tuned in to “Being Mary Jane?” Leave us your thoughts and comments below! Catch Richard Brooks on BET’s “Being Mary Jane” on Tuesdays at 10P/9C.