Best Moments by Bill Duke
Bill Duke, Actor/Filmmaker/Author: I had a martial arts teacher once and he gave us lessons in terms of…the teacher said “If a man wants to fight you, run away from him as hard and fast as you can.”
He said “But if he runs after you and he catches you, make sure he never chase you again.”
[On work ethic] I think a lot of [people] think I’m crazy. I mean if I can’t get it done, I can’t sleep. No matter how tired I am I know if I don’t get it done (my work done) that day, I can’t sleep. I’m worried about it the next day and Okay how many hours do I have? And so I meditate and the meditation helps me.
Do I see people working harder than me? I can’t imagine that but if I do it inspires me to work harder. I mean good is not good enough and great is not good enough. Excellence, excellence, your names on it. And even if you don’t have the budget you need, you’ve got to take what you have and do the best you can. You have to make 1 million look like 20 [million]. It takes work and sleep is not something you do.
Film Courage: Were you always like this?
Bill: I had parents who taught me ethics that I didn’t know they were teaching me at the time. I was very, very young and my father and mother used to say to my sister and I “Bill and Yvonne, always remember this. You’re no better than anybody else, but nobody is better than you.” And they said “Never ask anybody for anything. Go get it.”
My father worked three jobs, my mother worked two, seven days a week sometimes. And they wouldn’t take welfare or social assistance, they were too proud.
So I had hit a low point in New York City one time and was almost homeless. I literally was getting high all the time with these different things and I was on the street. I had my hand out and was begging for money. And this older lady came by one day and she looked at me. And I said “Ma’am can I have some change?” And she looked at me and walked by and I thought she was gone so I asked the next person. And I felt a little tap on my back. It was the same old lady. And I said “Yes ma’am, you got change?” She looked in my face and she said “Son, do your mama know you’re here doing this?”
I said “No ma’am.” She just shook her head and walked away, didn’t give me a dime. I turn around and sat on the steps, I never begged for money again.
Film Courage: Do you still see her face?
Bill Duke: Yes…oh yes. I watched her…she walked two blocks and took a left and I watched her. Changed my life. It reminded my of what my parents told me. And I had a college education, I had a Master’s Degree…blah, blah, blah. My mother and father went to the second and third grade and they never asked anybody for anything. I had to carry that legacy on. Changed my life.
Family-wise, relationship-wise, I’ve never been married. I’ve been very selfish and the women in my life have hated that because of my work ethic. I try not to bring my work home but the next day I want to go prepared. So okay let’s have a few moments of camaraderie whatever…okay great! I go work on the script. That’s not the most comforting of things in a relationship because we owe each other the attention that each other needs and I’ve always struggled with that, always have in relationships.
And the other thing it sounds crazy but being a black man in this business, I felt I always had to be better, not as good but better because as good is not good enough. I was always paranoid. I’ve got to be super, duper super prepared. So I’ speaking for more than myself as an individual, I’m speaking for a culture because we’re judged like that you know?…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
