The daily Post

Larry Greenberg says, “I am a big fan. You have played some amazing historical figures Joseph Stalin, Eisenhower, Adolf Eichmann, Robert E. Lee. Do you have a favorite?”

Robert Duvall: Robert E. Lee was the favorite, but the most challenging, and yet fulfilling, in a strange way, was when I played Stalin.

Kam Williams: Why so?

Robert Duvall

: Because the great Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov’s father, who worked under him and wrote the country’s national anthem, said I touched the soul of Stalin when I played the part. That’s the best review I could get from anybody in the world, coming from a guy who knew Stalin personally.Kam Williams: When you played Robert E. Lee, did you channel him, since he’s an ancestor of yours?

Robert Duvall:  W

ell, somewhat, but plenty of other people in Virginia are related to him as well. All I did with Robert E. Lee was talk like my father, who’s from that part of the country, Alexandria. They speak with that soft “R.” It was very easy to cultivate that dialect, because I’d grown up with it around my dad and my uncles. 

Robert Duvall

The “Get Low” Interview

with Kam Williams

Headline: Legendary Oscar-Winner Reflects on an Illustrious Career

Robert Selden Duvall was born in San Diego on January 5, 1931 to Mildred Hart, a descendant of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and William Duvall, an admiral in the U.S. Navy. Robert served in Korea in the Fifties, before getting bitten by the acting bug while stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia. After being honorably discharged, he moved to New York City, where he roomed with another aspiring actor named Dustin Hoffman.

Duvall made his big screen debut in 1962 as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, thus kickstarting an illustrious and enduring career which would realize a half-dozen Academy Award nominations including a win for Tender Mercies. Among the legendary thespian’s more memorable 100+ screen credits are outings as a disgraced Southern preacher in search of redemption in The Apostle and as a crazy Army colonel in Apocalypse Now.

He also appeared in everything from The Godfather I & II to Lonesome Dove to The Great Santini to A Civil Action to Bullitt to True Grit to M*A*S*H to Network to The Natural to Deep Impact to The Road to Crazy Heart, to name a few highlights. His latest offering is Get Low, where he stars as a reclusive hermit who decides to throw himself a funeral party while still alive. The true tale, which transpired in Tennessee in the Thirties, also features Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Bill Cobbs.

Kam Williams: Hey, Mr. Duvall. Thanks for the time.

Robert Duvall: Yeah, how ya’ doin’?

KW: I’m honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.

RD: Thank you sir, and nice to talk to you.

KW: What interested you in Get Low?

RD: Well, the characters, really. My character’s terrific. And the screenplay, especially after they brought in Charlie Mitchell from Alabama who added some touches and embellishments to make it a true Southern tale. But Chris Provenzano’s initial idea of a guy who goes to his own funeral had already interested me a lot. I found it unique.

KW: How did you prepare for the role?

RD: I studied the part over the Christmas holidays in Northern Argentina, while looking at those beautiful Andes Mountains with a sense of peace, privacy and solitude, which I think this character had in his life. I’d find myself daydreaming a lot, and I just went with my instincts.

KW: Was that the biggest challenge in taking on this role, conveying the sense of solitude of a man who’d been a hermit for decades?

RD: I didn’t see it as a big challenge or as intimidating. I felt like I knew how to do it right from the beginning. Wherever it took me, I just went with it.

KW: What message do you think people will take away from the film?

RD: I don’t know. That’s an individual thing, I guess. I suppose a sense of forgiveness and humaneness.

KW: Did you research the Tennessee folk legend the story is based on?

RD: No… No… I knew of it. The movie is based on that, but this is fictionalized. I just went with the good writing, my imagination and anything from my family in Virginia that had rubbed off on me.

KW: Attorney Bernadette Beekman says, given this movie’s storyline, would you like to attend your funeral?

RD: No way! No sir, once it happens, let it happen for real. No, I have no reason to do that, nor would I want to.

KW: Cinema Studies Professor Mia Mask asks, do you still love the smell of napalm in the morning?

RD: [Chuckles] I still have no idea what it smells like.

KW: Did you sense how enduring that line would be when you were shooting Apocalypse Now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXVGQnJm0w

RD: No, I didn’t. But I do know that that phrase has become very famous. What’s funny is how someone will come up to me and quote it with a kind of attitude as if he or she’s the only one who’s ever appreciated the line.

KW: Children’s book author Irene Smalls asks, is there a mountain you still want to conquer in your career?

RD: There are quite a few wonderful projects out there sitting on the table as we speak. But the money’s not there, so we just have to wait and see.

KW: She also wants to know, what cinematic accomplishment you’re most proud of.

RD: I don’t know, I’ve been in a lot of wonderful movies. I love this one, Get Low, but I also still love the character I played in Lonesome Dove, the Texas Ranger [Gus McCrae].

KW: Larry Greenberg says, “I am a big fan. You have played some amazing historical figures Joseph Stalin, Eisenhower, Adolf Eichmann, Robert E. Lee. Do you have a favorite?”

RD: Robert E. Lee was the favorite, but the most challenging, and yet fulfilling, in a strange way, was when I played Stalin.

KW: Why so?

RD: Because the great Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov’s father, who worked under him and wrote the country’s national anthem, said I touched the soul of Stalin when I played the part. That’s the best review I could get from anybody in the world, coming from a guy who knew Stalin personally.

KW: When you played Robert E. Lee, did you channel him, since he’s an ancestor of yours?

RD: Well, somewhat, but plenty of other people in Virginia are related to him as well. All I did with Robert E. Lee was talk like my father, who’s from that part of the country, Alexandria. They speak with that soft “R.” It was very easy to cultivate that dialect, because I’d grown up with it around my dad and my uncles.

KW: Yale Grad Tommy Russell asks, how did it feel to be awarded the National Medal of Honor?

RD: Wonderful! Wonderful! It was just terrific.

KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

RD: I can’t think of one. I been asked a lot of questions. [Chuckles] I really have.

KW: The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?

RD: Oh, I have ‘em a lot when I get around [Godfather co-star] Jimmy Caan. I’ll be with him tonight, and I’ll have a good laugh, because I want to see his brother pin his 93 year-old mother in the lobby of the movie theater again.

KW: What do you mean by pin?

RD: A wrestling pin. He pushes her down to the ground and pins her.

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

RD: I’m reading a book about the Comanche Nation that they’re going to make a movie of, and I just finished a few about the Middle East that were pretty interesting. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416591052?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1416591052

KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What are you listening to on your iPod?

RD: Oh, all kinds. I like Salsa and Pop, and I love Country Western music. Merle Haggard, and guys like that. .

KW: That makes sense since you’ve sung a lot of Country over the course of your career, including for your Oscar-winning performance in Tender Mercies. And most recently in Crazy Heart. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

RD: I see myself. [Laughs]

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

RD: My favorite dish to cook would probably be my mother’s Maryland crab cake recipe.

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

RD: To get all four movies financed that I have on the table waiting to be made.

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

RD: Lying in my bed, I think it was in Annapolis, Maryland, or maybe it was in San Diego, where I was born.

KW: Do you ever have moments when you’d like to have your anonymity back?

RD: No, no, no, whatever it is, it is. I get noticed to the extent that it’s flattering but not so much to be a nuisance. I’m just grateful for the opposite of anonymity, and that my work has been seen by so many people. I’m not plagued like some of these big movie stars who can’t walk down the street.

KW: The Tavis Smiley question: What do you want your legacy to be?

RD: Oh, I don’t know, that I did some good work in my profession, and that I had a good journey from the cradle to the grave without stepping on too many toes.

KW: Thanks again, Robert, and best of luck with the film.

RD: Thank you, sir, and have a good day.

To see a trailer for Get Low, visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz_8o2CTZ3M

RZA

“The Next Three Days” Interview

with Kam Williams

Headline: AKA RZA

While best known as the founder, producer, and mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA has built an incredibly diverse and successful career as a musician, a composer of film scores, a producer, an actor, a businessman, a player and advocate of chess, and as the author of the best-selling The Tao of Wu and The Wu-Tang Manual.

            He was born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs in Brownsville, Brooklyn on July 5, 1969 and first surfaced on the hip-hop scene during the early Nineties. After brief stints as a member of the group All in Together Now and as a solo artist under the name Prince Rakeem, he formed the Wu-Tang Clan in 1992. Based in Staten Island the band went on to become one of the most successful and influential hip-hop groups of all time.

            Their debut LP, 1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), driven by RZA’s unique, groundbreaking beats and signature gritty production style, has become a definitive hip-hop classic and is revered as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. Meanwhile, he has released several solo albums under his own name, under that of his hedonistic alter ego, Bobby Digital, and also as Digital Bullet, Birth of a Prince, and, most recently, Digi Snax. 

            An avid chess player, RZA created WuChess.com, the world’s first online hip-hop chess community. At the website, hip-hop fans can learn to play from chess masters, compete for scholarships and square-off against him and other hip-hop celebrities.

            RZA is a Grammy Award-winning music producer, with a distinguished body of work scoring movies for filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino. His acting credits include Due Date, Repo Men, Ghost Dog, The Killers, Funny People, American Gangster, Life is Hot in Crack Town and Derailed.  

Here, he talks about his latest outing playing Mouss in The Next Three Days, an action-thriller directed by Academy Award-winner Paul Haggis and co-starring a couple of other Oscar-winners in Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson.

Kam Williams: Hi RZA, thanks for the time.

RZA: Peace, man. What’s up? You having a good day?

KW: Can’t complain. I really enjoyed The Next Three Days, an edge-of-the-seat thriller that takes you on an exciting roller coaster ride.

RZA: I loved it, too. Those last 40 minutes were adrenaline-filled.

KW: What was it like to work with a trio of Academy Award-winners in Paul Haggis, Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson?

RZA: Oh, man, it was a pleasure and a great learning experience. When you’re dealing with the cream of the crop, all that does is make me sharper. My having a chance to work around those gentlemen has helped me become better at what I do. I couldn’t have asked for a better acting credit to add to my resume.

KW: Harriet Pakula Teweles asks: What’s it like to play a drug dealer?

RZA: [LOL] It was cool, because I played a cop in the last film I did with Russell Crowe [American Gangster]. So, to be on the other side of the law this time was a lot of fun, and a nice challenge for me.

KW: Harriet also says: Some soundtracks try to manipulate the viewer’s feelings by having a heavenly chorus suddenly start singing when your emotions are being played upon. How do you use music when scoring a film? To shape and frame the action? To manipulate the viewer’s emotions?

RZA: I do incorporate those elements into my scoring. When scoring, empathy is the key. And it is just as important to use music to express the actors’ emotions as it is to move the audience.

KW: Larry Greenberg says: You’ve got a lot of AKA names.  Do any of them come with their own persona or swag?

RZA: The answer to that is “Yes!” Actually, most people have many different personalities. I’ve just learned to identify them and to name them.

KW: When is your next album, The Cure, finally coming out?

RZA: That’s something I haven’t been able to answer for ten years. [Laughs] I know my fans who are interested in this subject are getting tired of hearing it, but all I can say is, “I got it!”

KW: You’re a Renaissance Man who does acting, directing, producing, performing, recording, scoring movies, and more. Which is your favorite?

RZA: I guess I feel more inclined towards this or that form of artistic expression at different times. Right now, I feel very hyped-up about the work I’m doing in front of the camera on the silver screen. It brings me joy to hear that people are laughing at my scene in Due Date. And I had some buddies with me at the premiere of The Next Three Days, and they were happy to see me get aggressive, because they remember me being like that when I was younger. However, I’d say that directing is in my heart. And that’s where my focus is, like a laser beam. That’s what I’ve been studying for a long time, and I think that everything that I’ve done before has contributed to the development of my craft as a director.

KW: Who would you like to act opposite as a love interest in a romantic comedy?

RZA: Hmm… Hollywood is full of some of the most beautiful people in the world. I wouldn’t mind being in a movie with any one of those pretty girls. It would take me an hour to answer that question, but I would love to star in a romantic comedy. [LOL]

KW: I know you love movies, especially karate movies. What is your favorite movie of all time, and what is your favorite martial arts movie of all time?

RZA: You can’t ask a movie buff like me that kind of question. I’d like to ask you that type of question and see if you can answer it.

KW: No, I couldn’t either. I have a hard time just picking my favorite film of the year. Most critics put out an annual Ten Best List, but I put out a Hundred Best List because I like so many movies.

RZA: See? I understand exactly! I can say this, though. The one kung fu film that has inspired me the most is called The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. It’s been a great inspiration to me.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MM0LEG?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000MM0LEG

KW: Somebody told me that you’re from a very large family. Is that true?

RZA: That’s super-duper true! [Chuckles]

KW: How many people?

RZA: At least a 1,000 in my extended family, easily. My mother had 11 kids. ODB’s [The late Ol’ Dirty Bastard] father and my grandmother are brother and sister. His mother had 8 children, and they all had a lot of babies. And all of these people live right here in the 5 boroughs of New York.

KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

RZA: Yeah, are you having a good time?

KW: The Tasha Smith question: Are you ever afraid?

RZA: Rarely, but yes, of course.

KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you happy?

RZA: Yes.

KW: The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?

RZA: You made me laugh a few minutes ago. [Chuckles]

KW: What is your guiltiest pleasure?

RZA: It has to be women, but I’ve learned to curb my appetite.

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

RZA: 50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1847246702?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1847246702

KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What are you listening to on your iPod?

RZA: I’m listening to Kanye’s new music, and to my buddy John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

KW: Who’d you like to collaborate with musically, that you’ve never worked with before?

RZA: I would love to get a chance to rock with Stevie Wonder.

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

RZA: My signature dish? I have a special style of frying tofu that even the most carnivorous meat and potatoes eaters enjoy. I will give you a taste of some tofu that I could open a restaurant and get rich off of.

KW: The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?

RZA: The clothes that I’m wearing right now were actually designed by some buddies of mine who have a company called Resist. They have the coolest T-shirts. But as far as a classic designer, I’m gonna stick with Gucci, because Gucci has never let me down.

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

RZA: I see a chance for a better world.

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

RZA: Universal peace.

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

RZA: Having a piece of cake at my great-grandfather’s birthday when I was 3. I remember taking off a hunk of the icing with my hands because I didn’t think that flowers belonged on a cake.

KW: The Nancy Lovell Question: Why do you love doing what you do?

RZA: Because it helps my family, and so many other people in the process.

KW: The Flex Alexander question: How do you get through the tough times?

RZA: I feel like the tough times are behind me.

KW: The Rudy Lewis question: Who’s at the top of your hero list?

RZA: My moms, Linda G. Hamlin. She was a great rode model.

KW: The Tavis Smiley question: How do you want to be remembered?

RZA: I haven’t decided. I’ll leave that to the world. Besides, I ain’t ready to leave this planet yet, man. [LOL]

KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

RZA: Do the knowledge, meaning: look, listen, observe, and also respect. If you do that, you’ll have a strong foundation to build anything you want to do in life upon. Know before you do. Look before you leap. And if you want to follow in my footsteps, make sure you step in the ones that went in the right direction.

KW: Thanks again for the time, RZA, and best of luck with everything.

RZA: Thanks, Kam, and I look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

To see the trailer for The Next Three Days, visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxNlTTzjqtU

“The Other City” Interview

with Kam Williams

Headline: A Heart-to-Heart with America’s First Black Billionairess

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila Crump Johnson is the only African-American female to enjoy ownership in three professional sports teams: the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals. Furthermore, as CEO of Salamander Hospitality, a company she founded in 2005, Ms. Johnson oversees a growing portfolio of luxury properties, including Woodlands Inn, in Summerville, SC, which is one of only a handful of properties to receive both a prestigious Forbes Five Star rating and a AAA Five Diamond rating for lodging and dining.

In 2007, she acquired Innisbrook, a Salamander Golf & Spa Resort. Set on 900 acres, this 72-hole Florida getaway hosts the PGA Tour’s annual Transitions Championship and the LPGA Legends Tour Open Championship. The company is also building the eagerly-anticipated Salamander Resort & Spa, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in charming Middleburg, VA.

In addition, Johnson is a partner in ProJet Aviation, a company specializing in aviation consulting, aircraft acquisitions, management, and charter services based in Winchester, VA. And she is a partner in Mistral, a maker of fine bath, body and home products.

Ms. Johnson has long been a powerful influence in the entertainment industry as a founding partner of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and, most recently, as a film producer. In partnership with other investors, her first film, Kicking It, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. She executive produced her second film, A Powerful Noise, which premiered at the 2008 TriBeCa Film Festival in New York, as well as her third film, She Is The Matador.

In 2006 she was named global ambassador for CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting poverty worldwide by empowering women since they are in a pivotal position to help their communities escape poverty. “Sheila’s I Am Powerful Challenge” was instrumental in raising funds for this important work.

A fervent supporter of the arts and education, she was recently appointed by Barack Obama to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Parsons The New School for Design in New York. She sits on the boards of Americans for the Arts, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Tiger Woods Foundation, the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, Howard University, the University of Illinois Foundation, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

An accomplished violinist, Ms. Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts in music from the University of Illinois, as well as honorary degrees from numerous other institutions. Ms. Johnson, who lives in Middleburg, VA, is a mother of two, and remarried to the Honorable William T. Newman, Jr.

Here, she talks about her new film, The Other City, an expose’ about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Washington, DC which recently premiered at the 2010 TriBeCa Film Festival.

Kam Williams: Hi, Ms. Johnson, it’s an honor to speak with you.

Sheila Johnson: Thanks, Kam, how are you?

KW: Fine thanks. I saw The Other City and loved it, and I told my readers I’d be interviewing you, so I have plenty of questions to get to.

SJ: Oh, great!

KW: Reverend Florine Thompson asks, what is it about HIV/AIDS that prompted you to produce the film?

SJ: I really wanted to do this film in order to ignite the discussion, and to reeducate. What has been happening, that is so wrong right now is that AIDS has disappeared from the radar screen. It’s no longer a celebrity-driven cause anymore, so I wanted to bring it back to the people. I also wanted to give dignity to the victims now suffering with AIDS, so that people can see not only that the disease hasn’t gone away, but is spreading at an alarming rate and disproportionately affecting African-American women. So, I think we need to get out and start educating young people, and especially the black churches need to be talking about it from the pulpit. And we, as a society, need to stop hiding behind the stigma in order to be able to give the disease the platform we need to start the reeducation process and halt the increase in the transmission rate.

KW: 2010 Florida State University grad Laz Lyles would like to know what was the most surprising thing you’ve discovered about the epidemic?

SJ: How it has increasingly become a heterosexual disease. The thing I wished the movie had emphasized more was how many married women we now have coming down with it. Their husbands are bringing it home to them. I had three women come up to me and say that the only sin they committed in life was getting married. That’s very sad. The other surprising thing we’re finding is that AIDS is hitting at a younger age, as young as 13 among gay males.

KW: Lester Chisholm says that Urban Prep, an African-American male charter high school in Chicago has a 100% college acceptance rate, and it’s aiming for a 100% college graduation rate. He wonders whether we might accomplish a 100% success rate in the fight against AIDS, if we adopted this same attitude for a given population.

SJ: I think that we really could stop this disease, if we seriously educate our young people, starting in junior high, and continue delivering the message in high schools and across college campuses. I really do. Meanwhile, scientists and doctors are still working on finding a cure, and some say they’re getting closer and closer. Between education and research, we can stop it.

KW: Larry Greenberg says, “I know that in addition to your enormous accomplishments in business and philanthropy you are a virtuoso violinist.” He asks, “Do you still find time to play?”

SJ: I don’t. I’m very ashamed about that. My mother’s on me all the time about that, and so, is my husband. He always says, “You’re such a great violinist. Why don’t you keep playing?” I guess what has happened is that between raising a family and trying to keep businesses afloat I just do not have the time to practice, because I’m such a perfectionist. I suppose I could make the time, even if I sat down for just an hour every day, but I’ve lost the discipline of practice.

KW: Rev Thompson asks, “Who has been your role model along your journey? Who or what has been your source of inspiration in life?”

SJ: I’d have to say there have been many, many people. Basically, educators have been my role models. There are two teachers in particular, from high school and college, who I stay in touch with and talk to on about a monthly basis. And as I’ve gotten older, there have been more and more people I’ve met in life who’ve become role models. Four years ago, I remarried, and my husband is one of the most inspiring men I’ve ever met. He’s a Chief Judge, and I just love to watch him on the bench to observe how he tries to find a silver lining in the most hardened of criminals in order to give them a second chance. Another person I admire is the President of the University of Illinois, Joe White, who I think is brilliant. He’s always giving me terrific advice on different issues. I am lucky to have a lot of extraordinary friends who really do help me including, of course, my mother, who’s living with me now. She was there from the beginning, and even at the age of 87, she’s still constantly pushing me forward, encouraging me with, “You can do it!” and “Don’t give up!”

KW: Reverend Thompson asks, “What would you like to accomplish that you haven’t already?”

SJ: I’m in the third act of my life with this hospitality company,Salamander. The one thing I really want to do is to continue to build this resort that I’ve been working on in Middleburg, Virginia. My goal is to get it finished and open. It’s been a seven-year battle for me, because I very naively built south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I didn’t realize that there was still this much racial tension in the country. I was very naïve about it. Racism smacked me right in the face while doing this project, but I did not want to lose this war.

KW: So, I guess the rumors I’ve heard about what you’ve encountered are true.

SJ: It was unbelievable… the death threats… you have no idea.

KW: Did you regret endorsing Republican Bob McDonnell for Governor of Virginia, given that after he won the election he issued a proclamation declaring April Confederate History Month?

SJ: Yep, I think I’ve been thrown under the bus. It was quite an embarrassment. My husband had warned me, too. The one thing I learned from this experience is that I will never get involved in politics again on either side. I’m declaring myself an independent. I was just shocked. A group of us, including the President of Hampton University plan to meet with the Governor soon to discus it.

KW: Yale grad Tommy Russell says, “Since you’re a former media executive, what do you think about Comcast’s move to buy a controlling stake in NBC/Universal–good move or bad move from NBC’s perspective?”

SJ: Well, I will tell you that not only print, but all media are struggling right now. These are business decisions that only the people running the company can really answer. Those on the outside shouldn’t be too judgmental about these mergers. There are reasons why they’re happening, and it’s really for the survival of the market.

KW: From Reverend Thompson again: What most informs your spirituality?

SJ: I have always been a strong Christian? Growing up, I never missed church. I’m not as good about going right now, because I’m always travelling so much. But I pray every day… before I get out of bed…and when I go to bed at night. I have a very strong spiritual core.

KW: Finally, the Rev asks, what advice would you give a young lady who seeks the level of success you’ve attained?

SJ: Stay humble. Don’t ever, ever take anything for granted in life. Don’t assume anything. It’s is very important to have love and passion for whatever you do.

KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

SJ: [Chuckles] I wish someone would ask me to be an ambassador someday.

KW: The Tasha Smith question: Are you ever afraid?

SJ: Yes, there are times when I’m afraid. Just building that hotel inMiddleburg made me fearful on many different levels. Sometimes, I get anxious. One of my biggest problems is that I tend to get very impatient, especially during this recession. I’m a little bit afraid about the economy, because it really does affect everyone, and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you happy?

SJ: I am very happy. I have reached a point in my life where I feel safe for the first time. In my personal life, I have lots of friends, and I’ve learned to be comfortable with myself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything. I’m following my passion, and I wake up everyday wanting to do more.

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

SJ: Game Change. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061733636?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061733636

KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What are you listening to on your iPod?

SJ: It depends on my mood. I tend to listen to a lot of jazz. If I’m going to bed at night, I might listen to classical music, but I do like jazz.

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

SJ: Anything that is Italian. Pasta is my favorite food in the world.

KW: The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?

SJ: [LOL] I laugh every day. Let me think f the funniest thing that happened recently… My husband is a very funny man for a judge. He just told me a joke that I can’t remember, but he keeps me laughing all the time.

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

SJ: It would my first day of school in kindergarten. I was sitting in the classroom, and the little boy across the table made pee-pee on my foot, and I’ll never forget that. [Chuckles]

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

SJ: Oh, I see a woman that is aging gracefully, who’s happy, and seems to be at peace with herself.

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

SJ: To recover from this recession and have my hotel opened.

KW: The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?

SJ: Donna Karan.

KW: The Laz Alonso question: How can your fans help you?

SJ: By, instead of asking for a handout, offering to help me help others.

KW: How do you want to be remembered?

SJ: As a woman who was always generous, not only with her pocketbook, but with her heart.

KW: Well, thank you for being so generous with your time, thoughts and feelings here. I really appreciate it.

SJ: You are so welcome.

To see a trailer for The Other City, visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6b6htdGv_U