LeVar Burton was cast in the groundbreaking role of Kunta Kinte in the landmark television series Roots, at age 19, landing him on the cover of Time Magazine. You will also know him as Geordi La Forge in the iconic “Star Trek: The Next Generation” television series and films, but it’s his role as host and executive producer of the PBS children series “Reading Rainbow” that he’s most proud of.
In this episode, we dive into LeVar’s meteoric rise as a young actor to lessons learned of the last 40 years in the business for upcoming artists. We also get it into education, the revival of roots, and race relations in America. LeVar shares so many great lessons from his extensive career that reveals how we can all use self talk, hustle and perseverance to change the world.
You can’t change the world from an absentee point of view.
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Some Questions I Ask:
- Why did you choose to be on the other side of the camera in the most recent version of Roots? [3:34]
- How old were you when you started in the first Roots? [5:18]
- How do you decide what creative projects to pursue? [7:17]
- How did you get your start in acting? [8:50]
- When you auditioned for Roots, did you know what you were auditioning for? [13:45]
- What kinds of failures did you make as a 19 year old that have helped shape who you are today? [18:50]
- Any advice for the people who are looking for validation? [23:58]
- How much of a part in your own turnaround was your self talk? [28:35]
- How did you fall into Star Trek? [33:38]
- How did you look at your role in Star Trek? [35:50]
- Did you have a sense that you were facilitating an understanding for people who had disabilities? [38:44]
- What dots have you been able to connect looking backwards after playing Jordy for that long? [40:00]
- How much about the relationships you build during work is about being open in the creative process? [41:47]
- How do you top Star Trek? [44:40]
- Did your mom and her love for reading draw you to Reading Rainbow? [47:20]
- What would you like the listeners and watchers of this to do? [59:06]
- What books are you passionate about? [1:00:45]
- What is something people don’t know about you that they’d be surprised to find out? [1:03:19]
- What did you learn yesterday? [1:03:51]
- Can you talk to us about race relations in America? [1:05:00]
- Talk to me about the conversation that we should be having about race [1:08:31]
- What kind of world are you trying to create for your children? [1:10:40]
- What kinds of habits do you have? [1:12:07]
- What would you like us to do around the Roots release besides watch it? [1:14:15]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- How one thing, passion, guides all of LeVar’s decisions. [7:50]
- The lessons LeVar learned from his mother about education and how he learned to love reading. [9:50]
- Where many of LeVar’s pivotal moments come to him. [11:59]
- The dreams that drew LeVar towards priesthood and eventually acting. [13:10]
- The pressure that becoming an adult in the public eye can put on you. [19:36]
- How LeVar had to make peace with the possibility that he may not ever do better work than his first gig by getting busy and looking for new opportunities. [22:33]
- Why today is a great time to be an artist, creative, or content creator because we all have the ability to tell and share our own stories. [24:30]
- Hustling. [25:30]
- The value of the questions we ask ourselves in our “mirror time”. [27:30]
- How creating a circle of trusting friends propelled LeVar on a journey of self discovery and improvement. [30:57]
- You can’t change the world from an absentee point of view. [32:52]
- What LeVar liked so much about playing Jordy in Star Trek and why he connected with the character. [36:05]
- How having LeVar’s eyes closed for 8 years made him a much better actor. [37:57]
- Why today is a great time to build a community for anything that you’re interested in. [43:51]
- How finding a way to do your best work with every opportunity will guide you to your best work. [44:53]
- How Reading Rainbow hacked the system to benefit kids and education. [46:22]
- How LeVar turned the cancellation of Reading Rainbow into an opportunity. [49:02]
- Exactly what LeVar sounds like when you reach his, and many other Kickstarter campaign funders’, voicemail. [56:27]
- Why you should include reading to reach your full potential. [59:20]
- How only three generations ago, it would have been illegal for LeVar to know how to read, and now he’s a symbol for childhood literacy. [1:07:26]
- Why LeVar believes that literacy and lifelong learning is the key to freedom, the antidote to slavery, and healthy democracy. [1:11:28]
Links From the Episode:
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