0:00
yeah that's a trailer from one of the most influential shows that we've seen in in recent years you can find it on
0:05
the cw and it's called all american and my cousin karine grimes is here and let
0:13
me run it down the line man you know him as preach if you watch all american preach is one of the most standout
0:19
characters one of the most consistent characters and preach actually brings balance to the storyline uh that you see
0:25
in all american this is about high school kids who go and face a lot of adversity in the world what happens to
0:32
them in school what happens to them out of school um growing up in these challenging environments and preach is
0:39
somebody who came from the streets and really reformed his life but still got that beast in him and he's played by a
0:46
man who's been in a lot of films i'm talking about the ice cream first in
0:52
boys in the hood let me run down the list have the be back in 1991 and he was the ice cream truck kid remember that
0:58
all right uh do dirty and baby boy in 2001 he was wealthy and jarhead in 2005
1:05
uh andre in the basement in 2018 og in 19 summers in 2019 i haven't even talked
1:13
about the tv roles you know lil red and swat eric davidson for the love of jason
1:18
michael d role and unsolved: the murders of tupac notorious b.i officer middleton
1:24
and groanish and to add to his repertoire i have to be i didn't name them
1:30
all is it e the the latest appearance you just made was oh uh was shondaanda
1:37
rimes oh yeah so we got yeah we got shondaanda rimes so we got uh grey's anatomy grey's anatomy come on welcome
1:45
kareem grimes back to the show yes indeed yes indeed kg family this is
1:53
family here man family man this is family it is so good to see you guys once again good to see you as well
1:59
welcome to los angeles california absolutely absolutely man what are some
2:04
of the dos and don'ts what what do you what do you want us to know i mean listen man it's california so you know
2:10
first of all you can definitely work out anywhere okay yeah yeah damn it all right
2:17
[Laughter] you know what i mean but but but people are very health consscious out here yeah
2:24
like in my neighborhood alone every other building and colani you could attest to this there's a workout like
2:30
these little makeshift boutique gyms absolutely it's a bunch of them i go to
2:35
one inwood called iconics uh it's fly it's right by sofi uh right by the
2:41
cinopoulos real nice they got a pool there the whole nine and then you know
2:46
uh there's group workouts i'm about to go to one after i get out of here my boy where's my boy he has a he has a uh he
2:52
has a free workout um his name is style bell and he does uh free workouts at his
2:57
spot 10:00 in the morning and uh it's free to come and you get a good workout
3:02
and you get fellowship too sway's free at 10:00 a.m when you come on through baby i got to zoom
3:09
i got to zoom past that workout you got to zoom past that workout every wednesday man so that's how we do it man
3:16
la is great people why do you think it is that people make fun of la for being
3:22
health consscious i don't know man that's crazy i'm born and raised so i've never you know what i mean going
3:27
elsewhere is just interesting because la you got beaches palm trees hills parks
3:33
everywhere well everybody has parks but it's like i think it's more of the weather people want to be more out in
3:38
the weather and the sun and you got we got we got ryan canyon you got kenneth han park so you can go on trails i have
3:46
to say kareem it's a little weird for me because of the weather um and to sway's
3:51
point i'm not used to seeing women walking around in like yoga pants and
3:58
belly tops all day long like that's normal and then the area that we're in
4:04
here just with this building west hollywood you know this is a big lgbtq plus community so then there's men
4:10
walking around in the same yoga pants and belly tops as well oh they got the hoochie daddy shorts on the gucci daddy
4:17
shorts on tank tops and so it kind of makes you feel like to su's point am i not doing something right what's going
4:23
on i walked into a store in the neighborhood and the woman i was with kehani our associate producer she said
4:29
"i know you not from here." just based based on your hoodie based off my hoodie
4:35
a skully cap you know what i mean cross body she's like "i know you're not from here." like just didn't even open my
4:40
mouth but people make fun of la because if you got a green juice or if you if you're drinking a healthy something
4:47
you're eating healthy you're bowls and and you're working out and that is true people who visit and come and i take
4:54
them around they be like "man this y'all what's going on y'all eating trees and berries and everything it's just like
5:00
that's just just la man." like to be honest you guys coming from the east coast you can literally walk out your
5:07
house and wear a sweatshirt you don't have to wear a big overcoat and say "oh i think i'm gonna go for a walk." and
5:13
not have to second guess be like "it's it's about 30 below i gotta do it's snowing or raining." it's you can
5:20
literally just say "i'm going to take a walk around my block." it's also a lot easier to eat healthier here than it is
5:25
in fact like there's a gym on every other corner that replace the bodeas
5:32
there's a green juice and that replaces like a health juice store that replace the liquor stores i think the options
5:38
are much easier here okay you know i i i see that as well for sure yeah that's fair now is it like that we're talking
5:45
about the area we're in but is it like that in you know the more let's say
5:51
disenfranchised or what people might call the hood not not really the only
5:56
place i can literally tell you where you can get is kind of like
6:02
sllosen they're simply wholesome that's that's been around for for years
6:07
many years um you know you're that's kind of really like the area there's
6:13
also another spot off of slawson in fairfax it's a brother who owns it and
6:18
you can literally get alkaline water you can get alkaline water oxygen alkaline water oxygen black seed
6:26
oil the whole nine and uh and it's right across the street from mike's deli which
6:31
is another spot you got to go to they got the best deli sandwiches in los angeles mike's deli right off of slawson
6:39
in fairfax okay and then the guy shop it's right across the street right across the street it's in the shopping
6:44
center and he does alkaline water so you can literally get a jug go there fill up
6:50
the whole nine get oxygen therapy the whole nine you know karen grimes is here this is a true la
6:57
resident right here give that man a round of applause and it's interesting and i i want to get your perspective on
7:03
hollywood yes just being in the film and television business sure you have been
7:08
consistently working since 1991 facts 89 89
7:15
89 89 you have been consistently working since 1989
7:21
how many years is that bro that's 36 years 36 years 30 congratulations damn it and outstanding it's just like the
7:28
music business you don't have to have the grammy you don't even have to have a platinum album in the music business but
7:35
you can make a career absolutely talk about that from the actor's perspective yeah man just being consistent you know
7:42
um first and foremost you know i definitely want to give a shout out to uh mara gibbs and angela gibbs um that's
7:50
the foundation they are the learn from the jefferson absolutely they are the l park yes they are the shoulders that i
7:56
stand on um that was my first acting class uh mara gibbs acting class which
8:01
was on crenshaw boulevard right across the street from angelus funeral home the famous shot in boys in the hood um but
8:08
yeah man just really uh being consistent and i love what i do like i love what i
8:14
do and you know it shows in my work and how i show up to work you know what i mean i greet everybody from below the
8:22
line to above the line you know what i mean and that's just what it is and you know i just i i do the work man it's i
8:28
don't look for the fame and fortune i just do the work and then i you know i
8:33
pray that my work speaks volumes you know when people look at it and they connect with that i'm a big believer in
8:40
taking classes like uh if i'm interested in something the first thing i will do is sign up for a class just to kind of
8:46
find out how interested i am um let's use culinary for an example a lot of
8:52
people will say culinary school is a waste of time you need to be in a
8:57
kitchen to really learn how a kitchen works and runs what would you say that in comparison to taking acting lessons
9:05
because you know some people have risen to the top without going through that process without going to julliard and
9:12
all of these different places um but how what are the benefits and then what some are not possibly yeah the benefits are
9:19
uh amazing because it is the uh it lays a foundation everything has a discipline um and with acting class it allowed me
9:26
to be able to open up uh to be able to reach back on um certain situations that
9:32
have happened to my life that i can be able to bring forth into a character or into a scene um it allowed me to be able
9:39
to get out of my shell uh no stage direction stage left stage right you
9:45
know what i'm saying and don't upstage your partner you know what i mean um making sure that you are projecting to
9:50
the back of the room uh theater is live there's no uh i messed up and let me do
9:56
this over again no so once you start building that muscle once you get on tv
10:01
and film yep you can roll you know what i mean but it's a discipline in everything you do absolutely no when
10:08
people say "oh well you have to you uh you don't need to take class." there's a
10:14
discipline because when you get on set i agree and you get in front of somebody who is ready to beast
10:20
i.e viola davis uhu you know what i'm saying and you get into a scene and you
10:26
don't know your line or hitting your mark or being able to fill the scene out and work you will get embarrassed and
10:32
you will get exposed quickly has that ever happened to you no now i have
10:39
gotten nervous okay i've gotten nervous and um i think i don't know if i told you but i did i did a show called er and
10:46
i was very nervous and this brother said hey man let's go play some basketball
10:52
and we played a game of 21 he was like listen man you got the job relax george
10:57
clooney george clooney george george clooney gave you that advice george
11:02
clooney is a big basketball if anybody knows back then they they put a basketball court in the back of the back
11:09
of the set for him so he took pulled me to the side we played a game of 21 and
11:14
he said "listen man relax let's play a game of 21 and then let's go back in." and then what happened when you went
11:19
back in i killed it i did my thing my gosh george clooney you know that brings wow george clooney you did the mule the
11:27
mule you had bradley cooper you had lawrence fishburn was in that right no no you had uh no the mule was um clint
11:34
eastwood clint eastwood yes but you work with i haven't worked with bradley cooper okay so the mule was clint
11:41
eastwood yes sir yes sir was clint as forthcoming you know as george yeah man
11:47
it was uh well clint eastwood was you know legendary so prior to being on that
11:53
um i was doing swat and they heard that i got the role and they was just like "hey man clint does one take you know
12:00
what i mean?" and he was like "you got to be ready." and i i go up there and i'm ready and clint just kind of was
12:05
like "forget the script this is what i'm gonna say." and then he was like "we'll just you know we'll just improv." so
12:11
that whole scene wow in the mule half of that is like all improv damn like clint
12:16
just doesn't say action he'll just be like "all right that's about enough of that." and that's how y'all that's how
12:22
we that's how we created that so it's just about being ready knowing the the circumstances and the situation in the
12:28
scene and you know just listening a lot of acting is just listening listening listening listening listening listening
12:36
that's it you listen there's going to be a reaction a natural reaction period i
12:41
feel like every i don't think everybody has to go through this but i've been booed before mhm right and that was
12:50
probably one of the most learnable moments i ever had in my career cuz it's nothing you can say or do to me once
12:57
you've been booed and i was booed by 50,000 of them boo
13:04
boo but it my fortitude was so solid since then and i almost i'm
13:10
i'm happy i went through that mhm um that's ever happened to you at all or
13:16
something similar oh man i've gotten rejected i i auditioned for the shield
13:21
17 times wow i audition for 17 times you got 17
13:28
chances to go so within 17 i would book they would write the character out or they say "oh we're going a different
13:34
direction." yeah you know what i mean and you know i was frustrated my agent was like "listen they're calling you
13:40
back because they want to see you win." he said "be worried when the phone stops ringing." and i was just like
13:47
and then there was another re there was another time i was auditioned i said i told this and i'm in the hallway and the
13:54
office the the doors here so i'm getting ready and the lady was like "yeah uh i'm
14:01
trying to find the availability for ray j for the role of joe blow." and i'm literally looking and it's the the role
14:07
is what she's asking ray j's agent if there's availability and it's just like
14:13
"ma'am i can i can hear you." and then i got to go in after that wow
14:18
like it it gets deep like it's it's it's many of audition stories of being in an
14:25
audition room and the casting director is reading a book or reading a newspaper and not even paying attention yep but
14:31
you still have to perform so being booed yeah but being in a room
14:38
when you're trying to get a job and the casting director doesn't pay you any any attention it's not for the faint of
14:44
heart like we have a lot of citizens that want to get into the industry and they're like "i'm frustrated i've been
14:50
trying for five years 10 years keep going good luck." you know like you you
14:56
okay you're on your way that sounds about right you know what i mean to get one line in a feature possibly
15:01
absolutely you know um and and that and it's to the point for me kareem like you're saying you have to get past the
15:07
part you're talking about the rejection it's not really the auditions it's the rejections once you learn how to not
15:14
take that so personable then you could get up and go to the next audition and not have those ghosts haunt you in that
15:20
room because those cast and directors will read will look down look at their phone
15:27
having another convers you know complete it you have to
15:32
perform and and and finish it out so i agree it's the the mental you have to get past the mental you have to you have
15:39
to it builds tough skin early and like you said sometimes it's not even about
15:44
you it's not even about you you just got to go in there do the work leave no
15:50
stone unturned and leave and if it's for you it's for you that's it that's the
15:56
learning karen grimes is here you know him as preach uh the new season season 7 of all american is playing every monday
16:02
8:00 p.m yep on the cw is it a difference between getting rejected in the casting office and
16:10
getting rejected by a woman i think it's more of a casting office
16:18
you got to look at this you know if you travel a lot it's a lot of women and it's a lot of men mhm if the one say no
16:24
i'mma go to the next one somebody gonna give me some action somebody gonna feel sorry for me you know what slay that's
16:31
your cousin in the least right the woman or the man could tell you why they ain't messing with you with casting it's no
16:37
and you don't even know why you in they don't even tell you sometimes they tell
16:42
you but most of the time they won't even tell you they be like "thank you for your time you have a good one." that's
16:48
it at least a woman be like "no i'm not interested i got a man or i'm married or
16:53
blah blah blah." okay cool cast and director uh thank you for your time well
16:59
that was great that was great thank you have a good one ray j ray jay there is ray j available
17:07
for this role is crazy that is wild work
17:13
kareem grimes here tracy you want to jump in tracy what up kareem it's so
17:19
good to see you kg thank you for everything that you're you're sharing it's hella insightful when you were
17:24
talking about how um the trainings it doesn't sound like it's solely about professional development it also sounds
17:31
like personal development as well absolutely and it made me wonder if there's been a role or a project or even
17:38
an audition that kind of healed something in you or like made you come
17:44
face to face with a truth you'd even realized you had been avoiding or hadn't been seeing with like the full with m uh
17:52
to be honest i want to say a little bit of all american has helped me deal with
17:58
certain situations you know what i mean with communication um you know i don't
18:03
have a daughter per se or i don't have any kids per se but having to confront you know a past you know what i mean
18:11
that involves another person has helped me to develop to say "hey listen if it's
18:18
bothering you and it's it's inside you got to get it out and you have to be able to communicate that you know what i
18:23
mean no matter what people are going to be hurt but you got to be able to tell your truth and and and tell it like it
18:29
is you know what i mean and this show has definitely helped me personally uh
18:35
with with dealing with certain situations in my life for sure man um mike muse you there too
18:43
yes sir um brother mike oh what's up chris sorry brother yes sir uh one i got a co-sign with you at mike's deli that
18:50
is my favorite go-to spot they haveing they have the best deli sandwiches the best yeah um so learning that i didn't
18:57
know you were such an angelino um one i love all american all american is very much a la based show were there moments
19:05
that you had to interject uh with some of the scenes and with the writers to say um this is an authentic uh scenario
19:13
to the la experience yeah absolutely uh big shout out to enete aoro who's the
19:18
showrunner uh jamie turner a bay area fella um they both know me uh so they
19:24
know uh that you know when i come to set i'mma definitely you know bring it but yeah there's been plenty of times where
19:32
you know there was a certain word or i would you know go about a scene a certain way um and they would you know
19:38
give me free reign to be able to you know uh you know use my input and you
19:44
know collab with it so yeah it was actually a scene uh where i confronted uh the father in the uh in the hallway
19:51
and i had to switch from preach back to the teacher you know what i'm saying oh i saw that scene
19:57
yeah you know what i mean you was like but if it's a problem yeah yeah absolutely you know my get down yeah you
20:04
know what it is you said i know who you are you was like yeah then you know no exactly so that's something that we
20:10
collaborated with you know what i mean so uh like i was very believable by the way brother i feel like you got some
20:16
hidden beasts inside of you you know listen man hey you are from the family
20:24
exactly but yeah it's it's definitely a collaborative effort man and they definitely let me you know do my thing
20:30
do what what happens like you know this is season seven yes you know i it's a
20:35
blessing it's a blessing man it does not happen yes season seven man it does not happen come on man pass that 100 episode
20:42
mark oh yeah we did that last season se season 6 we got 100 got 100 we got 100
20:48
vacation money and you know it's it's interesting like if mike muse takes vacation or tracy
20:55
takes vacation they really miss us after a few after a few days right you know you work with somebody all the time they
21:02
start to miss us a lot this is true i missed you guys yeah thank you thank you thank you but they know they're coming
21:08
yeah they they they know they're coming back mhm right but with with with acting with in these series people get killed
21:15
off written off the show the whole nine and after working with somebody for a few seasons how does that work man do
21:22
you i mean it's you really losing a piece of you you're not just not just a
21:27
colleague but you become friends yeah you become family you know what i mean you are spending 9 10 hours a day 5 days
21:34
a week with a person you build some type of relationship you know what i mean and
21:40
you know it can be it can be taxing you know what i mean if you get killed off or or you leaving and you know um you
21:48
know but the thing is is you know you definitely off off camera you definitely encourage each other and and you know
21:54
keep in contact and make sure everybody's good but it can be tough i feel like you do that but not everybody
21:59
does that yeah i do i try to because the thing is for me it's just like like i said i'm working with these people each
22:05
and every day it's not more of what it is on camera it's more how you doing off camera for me you know what i mean cuz i
22:11
know how this business can get you've been working since 1989 and you don't have any kids right you
22:17
never been married or engaged no right is that on purpose uh at one point it
22:23
was you know i was just really focused on my career um and i i saw examples of
22:31
certain situations that didn't go well where there were kids and they had to step from the business because when you
22:38
have a kid the auditions you just can't be chilling like you got to work a 9 to5 yeah you know what i mean and sometimes
22:45
it can get tough so i've seen that happen and i think for me i just kind of fell back and was just like "this is
22:51
where i'm headed this is where i'm trying to go to." you know what i mean and so i've just kind of just rolled out
22:56
the rolled out the the vision and just stayed the course like literally do you
23:02
do you get concerned because i i see it's a lot of folks you know whose personal business is becoming headline
23:08
now oh yeah yeah are you are you watching the decisions you make like how do you decide who you want i was just
23:13
having this talk with my boy at the barber shop
23:18
my boy tracy mills man uh and shout out to t mills mills t mills mills
23:26
and literally man it's just like when when you get to a certain level in this
23:31
business you have to you have to be able to move you got to move different you have to
23:38
move different because everybody he he said when you dealing with somebody who's in survival
23:44
mode they'll do anything if they're if you're dealing with anyone that's in survival mode they
23:51
will do any and everything because they're in survival mode you know what i mean so you have to be careful who you
23:57
give your attention to your energy to because all it takes is somebody to take a a a dm or whatever it is screenshot it
24:05
and be like "oh look somebody he's saying he want me and this and that and i want him and you know what i mean?"
24:10
and then it gets blown out of proportion you know what i mean so you have to be able to move different man i think we've
24:16
had so many examples in this industry there's no excuse there's no excuse
24:23
give that a round of applause there's no excuse kareem grimes we ain't going to see him in no headlines boy the only
24:30
headline you going to see is giving back there it is it's going to be giving it back shout out to my friend's house
24:37
foundation right my friend house tiffany rose my friend's house we feed the homeless every wednesday uh you know
24:44
between fifth and sixth off san pedro we've been doing it for like 15 years you know what i mean so that's that's
24:50
what it's about that's that's that's what you want that's what i want to be in the headlines for there you go feeding the homeless set me up one of
24:56
these wednesdays i'll come out with you absolutely all right um shondaanda rimes
25:01
grey's anatomy yes indeed we've had shondaanda she's a citizen of the show yes how her scripts are notorious right
25:08
yo what what is it like reading for shan a shondaanda ryan script it's it's amazing man i think any actor in this
25:16
business um you know this this show first of all the show has been running since 2005 yeah that's incredible the
25:22
longest running shows 21 seasons first let's let's let's look at that um
25:29
getting on set is just amazing man it's it's it's like a welloiled machine it's
25:35
like a welloiled machine man and i just had i just had a great time it was a
25:40
blessing just to get the opportunity to audition for a shondaanda rime show so we had randall park here uh last week
25:47
and he spoke about working with shondaanda rimes a show like that and you had to be very specific in terms of
25:54
the script like she takes her writers she respects them you had to say every single word and you being so skilled
26:01
that you're able to improv with like a clint eastwood and go back and forth did you make that adjustment did you did you
26:07
have the same uh challenge first of all in grazing that with the script or you were able to do some improvisation i was
26:13
able to not improv but everything was written on paper so all i had to do was just say what was on the paper you know
26:20
um what was told to me i i i booked it off of a self tape
26:26
so i didn't even go in and read for anybody i booked it off of a self tape and they told me they was like the first
26:31
line you said they said they they were like we knew you were our guy she was like "just the how you set it." you know
26:38
what i mean and for me as an actor every set is different i can't do what i do on
26:43
all american on grey's anatomy because it's totally different it's ran different so for me it was just sticking
26:50
to the words on the page finding out what the circumstances were recalling
26:56
memory and then making sure that i'm able to bring forth that within that character so i didn't have a problem
27:03
because i knew what i was up against got it you know i knew i knew what set i was going to you got to respect that respect
27:10
the architect you know what i mean the architect so it was it was a it was a fun time i had a good time it'll be out
27:15
may 8th uh big shout out to kelly ginret who uh plays opposite uh uh side me she
27:22
was on homecoming yes and we found out we found out that we booked the uh the role at the wardrobe fitting wow and
27:29
y'all was playing opposite yeah she she yeah we we play opposite each other and she was like "what you doing here what
27:34
you doing here i'm on grayson i am too what role you playing i'm his role so
27:40
yeah so yeah yo kareem grimes man this is a success story that you need to know
27:46
man congratulations not many people can say they've been doing it especially in acting since ' 89 and you've been making
27:52
that uh that quota to get your uh sag insurance too listen man i'm so listen my sag insurance is so full right now
27:59
thank you lord there it is okay give it up korean grimes make sure you check it out you know him as preach season 7 of
28:07
cw's hit series all american episodes are every monday at 8:00 p.m my brother
28:13
let's go hang oh shout out to vince staples too the vince staples show season two coming
28:19
yes we just finished it season two we went hard we went hard promoting that
28:25
too um and you play uncle mike on right listen uncle mike is back man uh-huh and
28:31
i think this season vince just pushed the envelope even more you know what i
28:37
mean so be prepared be prepared to be surprised laugh cry it's it's amazing so
28:43
big shout out to vince st did you know vince prior to the show yes yeah how do you know vince i met vince through my
28:49
boy calmatic the director he uh he did a uh a video for uh vince and that's how i
28:57
met vince and then it just cal matic was like "oh he's doing a tv show." and i
29:02
was like "all right cool." so we already had this relationship so does he ever rap while he's on set no vince is like a
29:09
non-rapper on set nonapprapping producer writer hat like vince is actor writer
29:16
and producer hat there's no rapping in vince what what what would you um say his his skill set is like is is he a
29:24
mean director no no no v vince was very like that's one thing man big shout out
29:30
to vince staples again man he literally cares about his cast so you know myself
29:36
uh vanessa bell callaway you know what i mean like he was very like "you guys need anything like what's going on is
29:43
everything working out for you guys?" like that's the type of individual he is man so big like i said big shout out to
29:49
vince st always been a standup guy standup guy always been a solid guy very
29:54
smart knows who he is yes indeed right yes indeed shout out to vince staples and congratulations on season two with
30:00
that as well karine grimes man come on man