A Quote by Harry Belafonte
I didn't like The Wiz and it wasn't because black people were doing it. I didn't like The Wiz because it was a badly made movie off a classic. Why are you remaking something unless you have something better in mind?
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The name 'Wiz' comes from me being the youngest dude in my age group of people that I hung out with. I was pretty good at anything I tried to do, so they would call me a young wiz.
If you're nervous about doing something, plan to do it badly, giving yourself credit for just doing it. That takes a weight off your shoulders because anyone can do something badly.
I'm like, 'What world am I living in?' Aren't movies made to have something to say? Why make a movie if you don't have something to say? What are you doing it for? Are you doing it because you want to make a lot of money?
People think, 'Oh, you're doing 'The Wiz' because 'Empire' is such a big hit.' The truth is, staging this musical has been a dream of ours since the '90s, but the rights were tied up. It's just coincidental that, this year, when we were choosing a new musical, the rights were cleared.
For whatever reason, the success still blows my mind - that I'm able to talk to people about the music I've written. I always felt like there was something there because you don't put out music unless you have a sense that people will maybe like what you're doing or you're standing for something artistically. I don't mess with that. It's more about just music and trying to keep the integrity, I guess.
I grew up being a dancer, so I was always doing some sort of dance number, like the Tornado in 'The Wiz.'
If a movie is received badly, and I'm in only one scene of it, I still feel responsible. I feel like it was my fault at all times. If people were like, 'This movie sucks!' I'd be like, 'Well, that's because I'm terrible.'
I think the illest thing about Wiz Khalifa is how true to himself he's always been, and I miss that from artists. Nothing about what he does ever felt like he was reaching to be something that he wasn't.
What world am I living in?' Aren't movies made to have something to say? Why make a movie if you don't have something to say? What are you doing it for? Are you doing it because you want to make a lot of money?
It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide "This is a movie I don't like," basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive.
Why does any kind of cynicism appeal to people? Because it seems like a mark of maturity, of sophistication, like you’ve seen everything and know better. Or because putting something down feels like pushing yourself up.
Am I doing the movie because I'm really excited about it and want to do it, or am I doing it because it seems like it's a big budget or something like that? It would still have to be the right thing, because my lifestyle's really cheap and I'm able to exist doing smaller movies, so if I'm able to do that, I'm happy to do that. But if something bigger came along that seems really cool, then that would be great.
I know like the Wiz Khalifah one, got me excited because I like his music, and its almost like you know I can relate to his music, so I feel like dang if he listens to my stuff and thought it was good then maybe I'm as good as him, you know what I mean?
I would say I'm black because my parents said I'm black. I'm black because my mother's black. I'm black because I grew up in a family of all black people. I knew I was black because I grew up in an all-white neighborhood. And my parents, as part of their protective mechanisms that they were going to give to us, made it very clear what we were.
Whenever I think I know something is a classic, or an amazing song, I realise it's still so subjective, because you and your friends could be talking about something, say, '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' - an amazing classic song - or someone would be like, "'Hey Jude' is an amazing song!", and I'd be like, "I don't really like it."
Maybe my movie isn't over, I say, because sometimes moviemakers trick the audience with a false bad ending, and just when you think the movie is going to end badly, something dramatic happens, which leads to the happy ending. This seems like a good spot for something dramatic to happen, especially since it's my birthday.
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