Intro thank you so much thanks for your thoughtful [Music] questions we're going we don't need Ro Miss Jones it is an honor to see you again this is genuinely the best performance of your entire career so seriously thank you for taking the time I appreciate you thank you uh I'm going to start out this interview by honestly just admitting that I I think something's wrong with me because I have become more protective and care more about Sunny's safety than I do most human characters on television and it's the same thing like with the dragons on House of the dragon or like if there's a dog in a movie I'm sort of curious what does it say about me or anyone like me that I care more about sunny and dragons and dogs in in pop culture than often I do the humans in the story I'm not going to psychoanalyze you that is not my job I'm not going to do that today I'm not going to judge you um but I think what you're saying is that TV writers are doing their job actors are doing their job right cuz you care um so that that's a good thing um I think also that's you know it's weird we do kind of as humans we can very quickly adopt this feeling and care and empathy for something if it's if we're given enough information to believe that we should care about it and I definitely relate to that I felt like there were times when I would look at sunny and she would you know power down and i' be like Sunny no you know which is crazy because it's not real but that's that's sort of our gift and our curse as people is that we very quickly can accept our circumstances and have empathy for things that might not even be truly real I mean that's that's the you're exactly right also that's a sign of good performances and good writing that we're watching fictional stories and we're caring about creatures and people that don't exist so I'm with you 100% you have been a part of of so many different projects where I feel like the setting the location played such a massive part on your character in the story I'm thinking of like uh the office and and parks and wreck and obviously this series does I'm sort of curious for you as an actor what's the the most a shooting location has ever affected your experience with a role or your experience working on a project as a whole well I'm not I'm not just saying Japan this because we're talking about sunny but I think it it has to be sunny you know I lived in Japan for six months and so I definitely experienced the the the the reality of being a foreigner in a foreign land and I love ja hand absolutely love it but it does feel like as an outsider it's very hard to penetrate the culture and really understand the culture um and everybody was so nice and so welcoming but at the end of the day there is a there's a slight kind of isolation that you feel just not being home um so that was very real for me for sure that makes sense uh speaking of home uh I am talking to you from you can't really see cuz it's very cloudy real behind you this is real yeah this I'm in my apartment this is is happening in yeah that's that's that's live right now here here in Chicago uh but speaking of Chicago uh I I'm a massive fan of uh your documentary Quincy um and your obviously your father is nothing short of a genius born here in Chicago he experienced Chicago uh very differently than many people who live here in the city right now I'm just sort of curious I would love to know uh what you remember about him telling you about his time in our city and maybe your own experience in Chicago yeah I I Chicago love Chicago I've been there a few times um you know my dad grew up on the south side of Chicago in the 30s which is almost a hundred years ago at this point um he had a very different experience than I'm sure people do do now um but he has a lot of Chicago Pride um and I don't know there is something that I mean it's such a great City there's so much going on in Chicago culturally um that I have to believe that was some seed of who he was started to grow there even though he moved to Seattle when he was about nine no yeah eight or nine um he that's you know that's where he was born and bred and I know you know he talks a lot about like his father's style and how he wanted to be like his dad I feel like Chicago is very well known especially during that time for the style the fashion was really popping off but also you know there was a lot of hardship for him there yeah well he he obviously made uh a lot of it and I love sort of the the tie that obviously Oprah isn't from here but the you know her she has such a huge part of of our city and and them getting to work together um I I'll cut you loose on this obviously AI is is such a massive topic that is not just being focused on in this show but everyone is talking about I'm sort of curious it was a massive uh conversation point of the strike last year uh at what point in your career have you started to notice it seeping into your industry did you start noticing that it was it was having an impact even before it became a conversation Point both with this show and the strike last year that's a good Artificial Intelligence question I don't know I don't know if we would see it kind of yet in our industry I mean I know that they use AI already directors use AI to kind of prep for movies and stuff um and I know there's some kind of big debates going on about you know voices and using AI to kind of you know recreate voices and actors and Destroy jobs in every industry but I do think there's probably stuff we take for granted I mean they already use AI with all these algorithms with all these streamers with all of you know our searches online they are mining data and they're using these very sophisticated quick quickly training um AIS on to to do that together and I think we you know this is as much a conversation about ownership and IP as it is about privacy because the truth is every everybody's Gathering data and training their AI for their particular for-profit conglomerates right now so it's something that everybody should be talking about and in every industry because it's a is a massive it's probably the biggest one of the biggest conversations of our time and I think that's one of the impressive things about this show is that it's it's so many different emotions that you're feeling but also sort of you know buried inside of it is also at a really great conversation Point um I could talk with you all day they're pulling me out here I just want to say thank you for for being a part of so many uh projects that mean a lot to me um and this is this is uh near the top of the list so seriously thank you for taking time thanks for your thoughtful questions thank you I appreciate you take care have a nice day bye thanks bye we're going we don't need loes