What were you looking for when you were casting for the roles of the show?
Mario Van Peebles: Yes. What I wanted was a cast that I felt – that felt smart. That felt like people that you’d want to have a drink with and that at the core felt like people that you would laugh and hug and that are in essence positive and happy to be who they are.
So what do I mean by that? There are certain people that you feel from them that they enjoy being themselves. And I wanted a family that one, you believed was a family that could overcome issues that families often face.
But at the core of the show it’s like life for me. I wanted the family to feel like they were multicultural. That within the dynamic of our American family, you know, you could feel that, you know, at times my wife could be, you know, more the Michelle Obama mode. But at night, you know, when she’s got to get into her full set of, you know, mystic side, other things come out and other sides come out.
So I wanted people who had a duality. People who were multicultural. People who could speak other languages. People who could laugh at self.
And people who were bilingual. And I don’t just mean bilingual in terms of language, but even bilingual in terms of socio-economic divide. That they could talk to the brother or sister in the street or the brother and sister in the trailer park. But they could also talk to someone at the White House, kind of like that Kipling poem.
You know, talk with the crowds nor lose your virtue. Walk with the kings nor lose the common touch. Ifneither loving friends nor foes can hurt you, and if all men count with you but none too much, if you can feel the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds of distance run, yours is the world and everything in it, which is more, you’ll be a man, my son, or a woman.
And I wanted folks who kind of got the joke of life. I felt like if we’re going to do this in the long haul, I want the (funnest), best, smartest, you know, family that I can get. And that’s what we went after. And we found them. And it’s been a ride.
And as we go on, it just becomes more and more that way. Not to mention the fact that some of them are legitimately my family. It’s been great.
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