 All right Lou, I want to see if I can get you to revisit a younger time in your life, an older time in your life. Can you tell me about your earliest experiences with expressing yourself as an artist? I was very fortunate man, I got to say that early on, and I'm directing more now, I just did A Fear of the Walking Dead, I directed an episode of my show Longmire, I'm writing more, I'm getting back to that, but early on when I was in high school and in college, I did a lot of writing, I did a lot of directing, I look at it as different branches of the same creative tree, you know, being a storyteller, being a communicator, it's just that acting for me took off and those other things kind of, you know, got put off to the side for a little bit, but now I'm getting back to actually doing some writing and getting behind the camera and working with actors and telling stories in different ways. You know man, it's interesting because like the very first play I ever did was in the sixth grade and I co-wrote it, we basically ripped off Charles Shelton, did a take off on Peanuts when I was in the Philippines and being on stage and getting a lot of laughs man, you know, that's where the bug bit, you know, and it's like wow, I've made people laugh, I've entertained people, I've made them happy and then throughout high school I grew up in Texas for the most part, we did a thing called the University Interscholastic League and I would compete, you know, in acting and I was winning awards. So obviously I was getting this great support, this great feedback that I was good at this and that is what eventually, you know, led me to believe that I could do it for a living, that, you know, I enjoyed it so much as something that I was really gratified doing and it made other people happy. So I think that's the thing, you know, if you've got kids or if you yourself, you know, want to get into the industry, you want to express yourself either through acting or dance or writing or whatever it is, you need that support, you need people to encourage you and to give you a platform where you feel safe to, you know, to try because it's tough, it's a really hard business and you're going to fall on your face and there's a lot of rejection. So you have to have somebody, anybody around you to go know it, you're good, you can do this, you can get better and then you can soar. This is a more philosophical question. You know, growing up my friends were a bunch of knuckleheads on Friday, you know, I was always up to trouble, up to something and our party and I spent a lot of my time at the movie theaters and then I got, you know, I got a lot of shit for that. I got, you know, people would talk a lot about it, about me spending all my time at the theater. Now I don't regret it, I love spending my time at the movies. So, you know, movies and television, they had a real positive influence on me. While I watch a lot of people who could have been mentors or peers or people I look up to, like I watched a lot of them, you know, mess up. So for me, my next question is, how do you feel about the influence that, that art and the stories, you know, have on people? You know, I think we're entering a phase in this country, thank God, where there is more representation, you know, there's more inclusion. Young people are looking up on the screens or they're looking at their television sets or they're buying music from people who are like them. You know, it's not just, you know, a certain group that becomes famous anymore. But with that comes a lot of responsibility, you know, you have to get a message out, you know, some artists are, you know, I don't know, they're sort of condoning the wrong things, they're promoting the wrong things. You know, we need positive role models out there. And like it or not, if you become famous, you suddenly have a platform and people listen to what you say, you know. So hopefully we have more people taking that responsibly, doing good things with our art, being inspirational, you know, with our art, and putting very positive messages out there, you know, like education, like empowering yourself, like bettering, you know, your life for yourself and for your family. All of these things are extremely important and this is what art is supposed to teach us. I mean, we're going through a lot of turmoil in this country right now and people say, well, you know what, actors should just shut up or, you know, basketball players should just dribble. It's like, no, it's our job to reflect society. It's our job to examine what's going on in our world and what is happening in the human condition and to reflect that and to if things are wrong, fight for change. So it's not just, you know, playing make-believe. There's a definite life behind it and a definite philosophy, if you will. Speaking of the change, this movie still affects people. It's 30 years old. My man, I love him, you know, Edward James Olmos. We've affected a lot of lives and a lot of teachers have used it as a teaching tool. You know, I was actually very, very proud. I remember like back in the 90s, I was doing a seminar at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan and a young Puerto Rican actress stood up and she goes, you know, for the first time when I saw standing in the liver, I saw people who looked like me up on the screen and she felt like she could do it and then she was there at the New York Film Academy to learn acting. So, you know, that's one person that I know I've made a difference for in their lives and it means a lot because, you know, you make a film, you cut an album, you write something, it stays there forever and it's part of your legacy.