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Special Episode: Glenn Davis on the purpose of ‘Purpose’
00:29:00
On today’s episode, Matt Tamanini is in conversation with the Tony-nominated star and producer of “Purpose,” Glenn Davis. On stage, David plays Solomon “Junior” Jasper, a role for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best Featured Actor in a ...
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- [00:07]
Matt Timminenni
Welcome to a special interview episode of Broadway Radio. My name is Matt Timminenni. On today's episode we are in conversation with not one but two time Tony nominee for this very season, Glen Davis. He can currently be seen on stage at the Helen Hayes Theater playing the role of Solomon Jr. Jasper in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Purpose. Not only did he receive a Tony nomination for best featured actor in a play for his role, but because he is also the co artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theater Company which is a theater company that originally commissioned this play from Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, then did the world premiere production and then is producing the show on Broadway, he received a second Tony nomination. In our conversation we talk about the remarkable journey that he has had with this show. First as an artistic director and also as a performer. How remarkable the work of playwright Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, director Felicia Rashad and the rest of this incredible cast is on stage every night. And because he also co starred in Rajeev Joseph's play off Broadway a few seasons ago, King James, and he lives in Chicago, I asked him the age old question LeBron versus MJ. Of course we will have information on where you can purchase tickets to see Purpose, which is just extended on Broadway for two extra months in the show notes if you want to check it out and I highly, highly recommend that you do. All right, with all of that out of the way, here's my conversation with two time Tony nominee Glenn Davis.
- [01:44]
Interviewer
Glenn, first off, congratulations on not one but two Tony nominations for this show. Obviously first your nomination for best featured actor in a play, but also the nomination as the co artistic director for the Steppenwolf Theater Company where Purpose premiered. I wouldn't dare to ask you which one means more to you, although if you have one, you are welcome to share that. But I am curious on a personal level, are you able to separate these two nominations? They obviously celebrate two incredibly different parts of your jobs, but I'd often have to imagine that they intertwine a lot too and overlap from the start of this process to where you are now on Broadway.
- [02:25]
Glenn Davis
Yeah, that's very good questions and I.
- [02:27]
Co-Interviewer
Can answer them both.
- [02:29]
Glenn Davis
I would say that as artistic director, as producer, as friend to Brandon and sort of being a part of this project from its nexus, I think that the, the fact that we were nominated for best play is hugely important to me. It's, it's, it, it's something that when we, when we, when you commission a play, when you decide to produce a play, in the best case scenario, you think, oh, this play will, you know, maybe make it to New York.
- [03:04]
Co-Interviewer
Oh, maybe it'll go to Broadway. Maybe it'll win a Pulitzer.
- [03:08]
Glenn Davis
Like all those things are sort of pie in the sky that you can't.
- [03:12]
Co-Interviewer
You can't sort of count on.
- [03:14]
Glenn Davis
You just try to do the best.
- [03:15]
Co-Interviewer
Work that you can.
- [03:16]
Glenn Davis
So the fact that those things are.
- [03:20]
Co-Interviewer
Sort of on the, on the table.
- [03:22]
Glenn Davis
That, that this play has become so well regarded and, you know, many folks are considering it an instant modern classic, but that is the most gratifying feeling you can have as a producer, as an artistic director. When you set out to, to take a big swing like we did with, with this play. Being nominated for best feature actor is something I did not count on. When it happened, I was as surprised as anyone. I had people text me everything from it's about time to you question mark. You know, so it was, it was, it was surprising and I'm very thrilled about it, but it wasn't something that I counted on at all. It wasn't. You know, I was just, I was. When I started getting text about it, I said, wow, that's. I didn't even know how to react to it because I was, I was so thrilled about having been been nominated for best play as the producer artistic director that by the time I best featured actor, I was like, oh, wow, that's. That's surprising, you know. So, yeah, I'm thrilled about them both.
- [04:40]
Interviewer
Well, I've heard you discuss that Commissioning this show was a risk for Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf has commissioned shows throughout its entire history. Why did you feel like this one was a big swing for where the company was when it began, that process?
- [04:57]
Glenn Davis
Yeah, so commissioning the play was obvious. That wasn't a big swing at all. That was something that, you know, you, you, if you have Brandon Jacobs Jenkins in your, in your staple of writers that you're commissioning, then that's, that's obviously a positive thing. But I didn't think that we would be able to produce the play because he hadn't written it. And so he had.
- [05:27]
Co-Interviewer
We had done several workshops of it.
- [05:28]
Glenn Davis
And he had about somewhere between 35 and 40 pages.
- [05:33]
Co-Interviewer
And so I thought, okay, we're still.
- [05:34]
Glenn Davis
A ways away from being able to produce this play. And so at the moment that myself and my co artistic director, Audrey Francis were sitting there looking at the season, the potential plays in the season, we kept coming back to this Brandon Jacobs Jenkins play. We were like, you know what?
- [05:53]
Co-Interviewer
There's something there.
- [05:54]
Glenn Davis
And those 35, 40 pages that he.
- [05:56]
Co-Interviewer
Does have are incredible.
- [05:59]
Glenn Davis
What if we just said we're doing it? And everyone in artistic office looked around at us and said, I mean.
- [06:09]
Co-Interviewer
How.
- [06:10]
Glenn Davis
You know, how are you gonna do that? And I said, I'm just gonna call up his agent. I'm gonna call him first and ask him if he, if, if he wanted to do it and, and if he could do it if he had the bandwidth. And I'll call his agent and, and, and see if we can, we can get this train on the tracks. So I called up Brandon, I said, hey, look, man, we're looking at that. We can give you for this play. Do you think you can finish it? And he said he was very surprised. He said, so you're going to program it without me having finished the play? I said, if you tell me you can do it, I'll do it. And he said, I think I, I, I can do it. He said, yeah, let's do it. And I said, great. So I called up his agent, I said, I, I want to, I want to program this play. And he was as surprised as anyone else. And he said, really? I said, yeah. And so I told him the timeline. And, and we all agreed that, you know, Brandon will come in, we do another workshop, we get the play going.
- [07:09]
Co-Interviewer
And by the time we started rehearsal.
- [07:12]
Glenn Davis
We had essentially the same 40, 40 pages because Brandon loves to refine. You know, he, he, he'll, he doesn't.
- [07:21]
Co-Interviewer
Build the play until he's in rehearsal with you.
- [07:24]
Glenn Davis
And so we started with the 40 pages, and everyone at the, at the theater is looking around at me going, hey, man, when are we going to have this play? And I said, you, Felicia Rashad at the helm, obviously, she, she has been doing this a long time, and I trusted her and Brandon to, to crank out this play. So, you know, in the first few weeks, Brandon started to write. You know, he wants to hear the actors. It, it, his process is so incredible because probably the first week we just.
- [07:53]
Co-Interviewer
Rehearsed the pages that we did have.
- [07:55]
Glenn Davis
And so by the time we got the second week, all the actors are.
- [07:58]
Co-Interviewer
Like, what, what is the play?
- [07:59]
Glenn Davis
What are we, what are we going to be doing?
- [08:00]
Co-Interviewer
And none of us knew.
- [08:02]
Glenn Davis
And Brandon would come in with a scene in the second week and then another scene and then another scene in the third week, and he would slowly build it.
- [08:12]
Co-Interviewer
But what I realized now, in retrospect, was that in the first week, he was listening to the actor say his words. He was listening to how the words.
- [08:20]
Glenn Davis
Fall out of your mouth, the cadence of, of your vernacular, your language, your.
- [08:27]
Co-Interviewer
The intonations of your voice. He was listening to it all.
- [08:30]
Glenn Davis
He's like scientist in that way and an archaeologist, you know. And so as he started to build.
- [08:38]
Co-Interviewer
The characters onto us, onto the actors.
- [08:42]
Glenn Davis
Slowly but surely the play was revealed.
- [08:44]
Co-Interviewer
To us and revealed to him.
- [08:45]
Glenn Davis
And by the time we got to the first night of previews, we. We still needed about 40 pages. And so we were all sitting on the stage in tech our last day of tech, prepared to do the play the next night with whatever we had. Whatever he brought in, he brought in.
- [09:05]
Co-Interviewer
The last 40 pages of the play.
- [09:07]
Glenn Davis
We're reading it on the stage, and the entire theater is aware, is there with bated breath, hoping that this play is. Is. Is. Is good. He delivers the play. We read it on stage, and at.
- [09:24]
Co-Interviewer
The end of the play, everyone is crying.
- [09:27]
Glenn Davis
And I don't know if we're all crying because the play is so beautiful or is because we got a huge sigh relief that we have to play. But I'll never forget that moment because we were all connected. It was our first time. It's what the.
- [09:40]
Co-Interviewer
The audience experiences every night now. It was our one chance to experience it all together.
- [09:45]
Glenn Davis
And it's one of the most powerful moments I've ever had in the.
- [09:50]
Co-Interviewer
In the theater.
- [09:51]
Glenn Davis
And we're all sitting there crying, and then we said, read it again. And we knew we had something special. So we canceled the first preview and we rehearsed all day, and Ms. Phylicia Rashad teched it. The paid the new pages and we, we came up with some blocking, but we went on stage with pages in our hands that, that first preview, and people leapt to their feet after, after that performance, and we went on to sell out the rest of the run as Brandon, you know, was. Was, you know, did what he usually does. He.
- [10:29]
Co-Interviewer
He delivers.
- [10:30]
Interviewer
Yeah. So is it now, like, what did it end up at in terms of the number of pages? If you started with those 3540, is it at 70? Is it at 80, 85? Because it's not a short show.
- [10:40]
Glenn Davis
No, we're probably at 120 pages, something like that.
- [10:43]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [10:44]
Glenn Davis
Yeah.
- [10:44]
Co-Interviewer
So essentially, we started with about a third of the play.
- [10:47]
Glenn Davis
We started rehearsal and he wrote was.
- [10:54]
Co-Interviewer
Sort of tailor made to that cast. Something that Brandon does, though, is that.
- [10:59]
Glenn Davis
When we brought it to New York, he changed it all again because, as you know, we added two new actors to the show and he needed to listen to them.
- [11:08]
Co-Interviewer
He needed to hear how the words came out of their mouths.
- [11:12]
Glenn Davis
So he, He. These parts are bespoke to whoever's in the role. And I've.
- [11:18]
Co-Interviewer
And I found that when I talked.
- [11:20]
Glenn Davis
To other actors, directors who work with.
- [11:23]
Co-Interviewer
He does that with every production that.
- [11:25]
Glenn Davis
He, if he's involved in it, if he's going to be there for rehearsal, you should prepare yourself that he's going.
- [11:31]
Co-Interviewer
To write and rewrite because he loves to continue to refine and the specificity of how it fits to each actor.
- [11:39]
Interviewer
I want to talk about this cast because the cast did tie a record with five acting nominations in a play, which is incredible. But I want to, I want to start with you because you have been a Steppenwolf ensemble member since 2017. As we said, you took over as a co artistic director in 2020. So I wonder, between you and me, has it been easier to be cast in Steppenwolf shows once you took over as ad? Like, do they kind of have to say, okay, Glenn, what roles do you want to do? I know you just announced the five shows for the 50th anniversary season. I did see that you were going to be in two of them. So it's like is that kind of part and parcel with being the AD getting to pick and choose what roles you want to do.
- [12:17]
Glenn Davis
Yeah. So what's funny, and you wouldn't know this unless you're in in the building. So every role that I've done at.
- [12:26]
Co-Interviewer
Steppenwolf, save for maybe one so far.
- [12:31]
Glenn Davis
Are roles that the previous artistic director.
- [12:34]
Co-Interviewer
Had cast me in and the casting.
- [12:36]
Glenn Davis
Director with Steppenwolf, led by Anna Shapiro at the time, had put me in. So I did a play called Downstate that I was already I had already.
- [12:47]
Co-Interviewer
Done in London previous to becoming in.
- [12:50]
Glenn Davis
Chicago previous to becoming artistic director.
- [12:52]
Co-Interviewer
So I came back to New York do that.
- [12:55]
Glenn Davis
Then I did a play called King James that was supposed to happen in the Pandemic, the Pandemic year, but obviously didn't that I was previously cast. And so I came back to do that in Chicago, New York and LA after I became artistic director. And then this play I was already cast in purpose by Anna Shapiro because she was artistic director when we originally.
- [13:24]
Co-Interviewer
Commissioned it and he was writing it for myself.
- [13:29]
Glenn Davis
Alain Arenas and John Michael Hill. So yeah, I think I've cast myself in one play, Archery myself. I think we've cast me in one place since I've been artistic director. We're in year four, but all the other ones have been were sort of I was already attached to previous to becoming artistic director. So I guess yes and no. Now I have the ability Audrey and myself to look at the season and say, where do we fit in? I think that what we try to do is curate a season that gets.
- [14:02]
Co-Interviewer
As many ensemble members in as possible.
- [14:06]
Glenn Davis
But we. We don't. We don't look to. We try to at least be in.
- [14:12]
Co-Interviewer
One show a season.
- [14:13]
Glenn Davis
Myself and Audrey, this season, I was not in any shows at Steppenwolf because I'm obviously in New York. Obvious reasons, but yeah. So we try as much as we.
- [14:23]
Co-Interviewer
Can to at least do one, because it's just. It's great for us as artists and.
- [14:27]
Glenn Davis
It'S great for the company if the art artistic directors are obviously working at the theater.
- [14:36]
Interviewer
Well, with Junior, it just obviously. You talked about the fact that Brandon was building these characters on you as actors, but it's interesting. I've heard you talk about. Despite the fact that by the time I saw it during the final previews on Broadway, you're so charismatic in this role. It makes sense that he is somebody who had a thriving political career before everything went sideways. But I did hear you talk about the fact that it did take you some time to really feel comfortable in that role. I wonder what was so elusive about this character, which you said was built on what you do well. Why did it take a little bit of extra time for you to kind of sink into it once you actually got into the Broadway run?
- [15:22]
Glenn Davis
Yeah, I would say that that was. That wasn't. That wasn't just me. I think that was all of us as actors. Because part of the tightrope of working with Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, which is probably the most thrilling process I've been through and also the most arduous in that. You don't know. In theater school, you work on plays that are already written. Right. It's not often that you work with.
- [15:54]
Co-Interviewer
A playwright as they're building the thing so that.
- [15:59]
Glenn Davis
That ability to work with a. With with work words that.
- [16:07]
Co-Interviewer
That, you know will change.
- [16:09]
Glenn Davis
You know, I'm doing one version of the play today, but I know for a fact it's going to change to.
- [16:13]
Co-Interviewer
Varying degrees, maybe large degrees by tomorrow, next week. That's.
- [16:17]
Glenn Davis
That. That's.
- [16:18]
Co-Interviewer
That's not what we're accustomed to doing.
- [16:20]
Glenn Davis
As actors in the American theater, usually. And so when you're working with a playwright like Brandon and a new play in general, that's the process, is that you're saying something today to help him.
- [16:35]
Co-Interviewer
We're all serving the play. We're all serving the playwright.
- [16:37]
Glenn Davis
Right.
- [16:38]
Co-Interviewer
So we're saying it today. We're performing it today so he can Identify things that he wants to shift and refine tomorrow.
- [16:45]
Glenn Davis
Right.
- [16:45]
Co-Interviewer
Or the next day.
- [16:46]
Glenn Davis
And so you have to be. You have to be of service to.
- [16:49]
Co-Interviewer
The play and the playwright and your director. You're offering your talents up to them so that they can find the thing.
- [16:56]
Glenn Davis
That they need to. So that takes the emphasis off of you as an actor.
- [17:01]
Co-Interviewer
Right. It's not about you.
- [17:04]
Glenn Davis
Right. So in that scenario, you can sometimes feel like, okay, I'm.
- [17:12]
Co-Interviewer
I don't know what the character is yet.
- [17:14]
Glenn Davis
I don't know what the characters, the.
- [17:17]
Co-Interviewer
Major thrust of what they're after just yet.
- [17:20]
Glenn Davis
Because it's shifting.
- [17:22]
Co-Interviewer
Right. And it needs to shift as he's finding it.
- [17:25]
Glenn Davis
So I think that this process has been unlike any other in that we.
- [17:32]
Co-Interviewer
All had to find the characters. With Brandon, he didn't come in with.
- [17:36]
Glenn Davis
A play that was fully baked and say, hey, all right, let me tell you about each one of these characters drives and motivations.
- [17:41]
Co-Interviewer
In many ways, we would sit down.
- [17:43]
Glenn Davis
With him and he would be just as interested in what we thought the.
- [17:46]
Co-Interviewer
Character was after.
- [17:49]
Glenn Davis
In lockstep with what he might have started out building that character's identity upon. So we were all in the same boat trying to. Trying to determine, okay, what's the spine of this character? What are the important things in their journey that we need to identify and.
- [18:10]
Co-Interviewer
Outline for the audience?
- [18:11]
Glenn Davis
So that is, that is. That was scary, but also thrilling. I would do it over and over again, many times over, particularly with Brandon.
- [18:22]
Interviewer
Yeah, well, now that those words are locked, the show is frozen. I'd imagine, though, knowing the acting prowess and experience of this six person ensemble, that things are still changing from scene to scene, from night to night, from performance to performance. What has it been like working with this group of, like I said earlier record tying five nominations for this cast, but everybody is just so incredible. What has it been like working with them? Obviously you said some of them you did the show with in Chicago. Some of them are new in Kara and Latonya. How has that process been to finally feel like, okay, this is the version of the show that we are in and then to get to explore this version with that group.
- [19:07]
Glenn Davis
Yeah, and that's. I guess that's what I was intimating a second ago, is that everyone's not.
- [19:12]
Co-Interviewer
Built to work on a Brandon Jacob Jenkins new work. You have to.
- [19:17]
Glenn Davis
There's.
- [19:17]
Co-Interviewer
There's a certain, there's certain characteristics you.
- [19:19]
Glenn Davis
Need to have as an actor to be able to, to go on that journey with him. And so the, the journey that we.
- [19:28]
Co-Interviewer
All went on Together, particularly this cast, was incredible.
- [19:33]
Glenn Davis
And there are moments where you're frustrated with yourself. There are moments where you're like, you're. You surprise yourself. Like, I didn't know I was capable of that.
- [19:42]
Co-Interviewer
I think I've learned so much about myself as an actor in this process.
- [19:45]
Glenn Davis
Things I didn't know I could even do. Right. And I think to your point, it's.
- [19:50]
Co-Interviewer
A testament to the work and the process that Brandon and Phylicia took us on that we.
- [19:56]
Glenn Davis
That five out of the six actors were nominated for Tony Awards. Right. That that just doesn't happen.
- [20:01]
Co-Interviewer
This is a moment that we're all pinching ourselves.
- [20:04]
Glenn Davis
The fact that Brandon won the Pulitzer four, four days later, like, this is a moment.
- [20:09]
Co-Interviewer
This is a moment in history.
- [20:11]
Glenn Davis
And I'm sort of documenting it all in my head.
- [20:14]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [20:15]
Glenn Davis
But I think that this company of actors is the greatest company I've ever been a part of. I can't. I couldn't have dreamed that this is what we would have created together when we first started down the.
- [20:28]
Co-Interviewer
Down the road with this play.
- [20:30]
Glenn Davis
I look at every actor on stage.
- [20:31]
Co-Interviewer
And I think that's a master at the top of their craft. And that rarity.
- [20:35]
Glenn Davis
Kara Young, who's been nominated for four straight Tony Awards, is the Tony Award winner for Best feature Actor.
- [20:43]
Co-Interviewer
For Pearly Victorious.
- [20:45]
Glenn Davis
Latonya Richardson Jackson, who's been on stage more times than I can count and has been Tony nominated herself twice, and it's just a legend at this point in her life, and talks about all.
- [20:58]
Co-Interviewer
The work that she's done and the.
- [20:59]
Glenn Davis
People that she's worked with, and you're.
- [21:00]
Co-Interviewer
Just sort of blown away.
- [21:02]
Glenn Davis
John Michael Hill, who's been nominated twice now for best best. Best Best Featured actor in a. Well, best featured and best actor in a play now, but also the youngest actor ever to be accepted into the Steppenwolf ensemble, Alana Arenas. I. I tell people she is the greatest actress of. Of my generation to come out of Steppenwolf. We look at her and we go, she's ferocious.
- [21:33]
Co-Interviewer
And people are now seeing how amazing she is.
- [21:37]
Glenn Davis
She gets exit applause after every scene.
- [21:39]
Co-Interviewer
You know, I've never seen anything like it. She's just phenomenal.
- [21:44]
Glenn Davis
And Harry Lennox, you know, who was last on Broadway, I think something like 17 years ago, doing radio golf, August Wilson's play. And so to watch him come back to the boards and the work that he's doing playing Solomon Jasper, who's, you know, this titan of industry. And Harry fills those shoes immaculately.
- [22:08]
Co-Interviewer
To watch him build that Character over.
- [22:10]
Glenn Davis
The last few months has been a dream. So I'm working with the greatest selection of actors I've ever been a part of. And I'm thrilled that folks have been recognized in one way or another for the work that they're doing.
- [22:26]
Co-Interviewer
It's blown me away.
- [22:29]
Interviewer
I've got a couple real quick questions that we'll wrap up on. I'm going to kind of steer away from purpose itself and talk about Steppenwolf in general. I think a lot of people know the name Steppenwolf, but if they aren't Midwesterners, if they aren't Chicagoans, they might not really know the impact of that company. And as arts organizations and theaters across the country are still struggling with the impacts of COVID now they're dealing with. With budget cuts at the national level. How important is what not only Steppenwolf does for Chicago and regional theater and the art form itself, but how important is the work that regional theaters across the country do, not only for their communities, but for the art form itself?
- [23:12]
Glenn Davis
It's hugely important. I mean, we all look to New York as the center of the universe in terms of entertainment. And while I appreciate that, I think that places like Stepped Wolf that are.
- [23:26]
Co-Interviewer
In the Midwest or regional theaters around.
- [23:28]
Glenn Davis
The country, we represent.
- [23:33]
Co-Interviewer
More.
- [23:34]
Glenn Davis
More of what the country actually is.
- [23:37]
Co-Interviewer
You know, New York is very specific.
- [23:40]
Glenn Davis
And we all want to go to New York and experience it and go.
- [23:43]
Co-Interviewer
See shows on Broadway and experience the culture.
- [23:45]
Glenn Davis
But the average American city, the average American big city, I think, is more representative in places like Chicago. And so the Midwestern values, the culture that we.
- [23:57]
Co-Interviewer
That permeates there is one that I come from.
- [24:00]
Glenn Davis
And, you know, we love making great.
- [24:03]
Co-Interviewer
Work and then bringing it to places.
- [24:05]
Glenn Davis
Like New York and London and all.
- [24:08]
Co-Interviewer
Across the world in the country.
- [24:10]
Glenn Davis
But I think that it's important, the work that we do, because it is so representative of mainstream culture.
- [24:18]
Co-Interviewer
Outside of New York.
- [24:19]
Glenn Davis
And I think that foundations are being attacked and institutions are being attacked, and.
- [24:27]
Co-Interviewer
It'S made it more difficult.
- [24:28]
Glenn Davis
You know, daily I'm reading things in the news. Challenges that we have with places like the Kennedy center and other places around the country. Stepmov has been affected.
- [24:40]
Co-Interviewer
Every other theater will be affected, I think, in some form or fashion.
- [24:44]
Glenn Davis
So I think it's important for us.
- [24:46]
Co-Interviewer
To remember that and find other ways.
- [24:48]
Glenn Davis
To come together that theater and others around the country want to get behind and support the work that we do. So, yeah, I think a lot of it is troubling, but I think it'll hopefully It'll bring us all together to support one another.
- [25:16]
Interviewer
Yeah, well, a few minutes ago you mentioned the show, the Rajeev Joseph show, King James. I am a native Ohioan. I'm three or four years older than LeBron. I saw him play multiple times in high school. You obviously played a die hard LeBron fan in that show, but you are the AD of one of Chicago's most revered arts organizations. So I have to ask, ask, who's the goat? LeBron or MJ?
- [25:41]
Glenn Davis
Well, I love both these players and this debate is diplomatic.
- [25:46]
Interviewer
Okay, I see it. Yeah, yeah.
- [25:48]
Glenn Davis
I think this debate will not go away anytime soon. I would say LeBron has the greatest.
- [25:54]
Co-Interviewer
Career I've ever seen of an NBA player.
- [25:56]
Glenn Davis
I mean, 20 plus years at that level. I think it is indisputable at this moment that he is, in terms of a career, the greatest player that have. Has the greatest career. I would say that I, you know, I came up watching the Jordan Bulls and to watch Jordan in real time do what he was doing at the time, I think if, if you asked me this question, if you had one player to play a game with your.
- [26:23]
Co-Interviewer
Mother'S life on the line, who would you want?
- [26:26]
Glenn Davis
And that I would say Michael Jordan, because I saw it and I experienced it. That being said, I love both these guys and I love the careers that they both have had and we can.
- [26:38]
Co-Interviewer
Parse to championships and longevity and all those things.
- [26:41]
Glenn Davis
And I'm just fortunate. And I think you're fortunate, Matt, in the same way that we got to see both these guys in our lifetime. So, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna kick the can down the road for someone else to, to, to. To establish who's the greatest of all time and what, what, what meets those parameters. But I think that both these guys are incredible in their own right.
- [27:03]
Interviewer
Yeah, I've always parsed it. As for the impact that he had on the game and like the, the largesse that he had at the time that he played, like, you've got to give it to Michael LeBron because he is bigger, stronger and faster. Like I would say, like he's probably the best physical athlete. So if you can separate them in terms of impact versus the athleticism, like, I think you can do that. But it is, I mean, impossible probably to, to differentiate between the two, especially because they played it in very different eras of the game. But I'll wrap it up here. From your perspective as an ath, as an actor, as an artistic director, as a producer, what is the purpose of.
- [27:43]
Glenn Davis
Purpose for you to see yourself. I think he's written this play so.
- [27:49]
Co-Interviewer
That you can see yourself on stage, see your family, see and determine for yourself why. Why are you here? What are you meant to be doing?
- [27:56]
Glenn Davis
So many people come out of this play, and they. They rediscover things about themselves that they.
- [27:59]
Co-Interviewer
Lost, and they see things that they. They didn't quite know what was there.
- [28:04]
Glenn Davis
So I think that's. That's why I wrote the play. Come. Come find your purpose.
- [28:10]
Interviewer
I did not expect you to have that answer right away. It sounds like you've answered that question before.
- [28:16]
Glenn Davis
I like that question. I like that question.
- [28:18]
Interviewer
Yeah. Awesome. Well, Glenn, congratulations, Obviously, a tremendous feat, both from a programming and a producing and an acting perspective, really, in all of this show, and so excited for all of the success that you have had and this company has had and Steppenwolf has had. So enjoy the last few weeks of the Tony run and the last few weeks of the run of the show on Broadway and excited to see what's next from you and from Steppenwolf.
- [28:43]
Glenn Davis
Thank you so much. Matt. Thanks for taking the.
- [28:49]
Interviewer
Sam.