Andy Drachenberg – You say in your book that you felt the need to go to the Inauguration for your parents and for your daughter.
David Alan Grier – That’s what it started-out as…but it went on to become so much more…I wanted to witness it and to be able to say that I was there…when the day actually came, I was just so swept away and overwhelmed by it all.
AD – How will you tell your daughter about that day?
DAG – I already write her stories about our time together so she can read them when she’s older…I’ll let her read the book one day and, most important, will talk to her about witnessing it all.
AD – I loved the prologue of your book, which was written like you were close, personal friends with President Obama and he sought you out during his speech at the Inauguration.
DAG – That was inspired by a story which really happened with Nelson Mandela and Eddie Murphy. Mandela was giving a speech shortly after he was released from prison, and he spotted Eddie Murphy in the audience and began telling him how much he loved him…Eddie was so embarrassed by the attention…so I started to think about what it would be like if that happened to me at the Inauguration. Did you know there are about 500 Inaugural balls? I thought there was only one…and the president can’t go to any, he just goes to a couple. But in my mind, that was my dream for that day.
AD – I also loved when you talked about the woman you met at the Inauguration. You couldn’t find your family, and she couldn’t find hers and asked you to be her family for that day. I love how you never get TOO sentimental in your stories…I was on the verge of tears when I read that part, but you quickly turned-around and it made hilariously funny.
DAG – Because that’s exactly how it happened! She told me she had lost her family, and for a second, I thought she meant they all died! I thought they were bludgeoned to death or something…but she just meant that she couldn’t find them. She asked me if I would be her family…I told her she would…and then some other black chick said she’d be her family, too. She was trying to steal my new cousin!
AD – In your book, you quote Ray Charles’ belief that timing is everything. Your life experiences have really proven that, haven’t they?
DAG – Absolutely. Had my TV show never been cancelled, I wouldn’t have been able to do RACE.
AD – You have done so much! When do you feel the most fulfilled…when you’re writing, acting on film or on stage?
DAG – I love that I am able to go onstage and repaint and recast myself. Somebody came up to me at the stage door the other night and said, “I didn’t see you onstage at all tonight.” This gig, right now, has been the most challenging and rewarding. There is also something really special about being onstage with somebody and just looking into another actor’s eyes and letting the characters speak.
David Alan Grier (Henry) Perhaps best known for satirizing issues of race on the comedy series “In Living Color” and “Chocolate News,” Grier is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and has appeared in the Broadway musicals “The First” (in which he earned a Tony nomination for portraying Jackie Robinson), “Dreamgirls” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”