E-mail a friendDonald Faison
airdate May 5, 2009
Donald Faison's career choice was greatly influenced by his parents, who were members of Harlem's National Black Theatre. He's been acting since childhood, steadily progressing from school plays to TV commercials to major motion pictures, including in Waiting to Exhale, his film debut. His breakthrough came in a supporting role in the comedy film Clueless, which he reprised in the TV spin-off. A star of the sitcom, Scrubs—which is wrapping its eight-season run—Faison is next up in the adventure comedy, Next Day Air.
Scrubs star describes watching his parents perform in the Black National Theatre in Harlem. (1:37)
Full interview. (12:54)
Donald Faison
Tavis: Donald Faison is a talented actor who stars on the Emmy and Peabody award-winning comedy "Scrubs," which is now in its eighth season, having moved from NBC to ABC - more on that in a moment.
You can also catch him in the new comedy "Next Day Air." The movie opens in theaters around the country this weekend and it also stars Mike Epps and Mos Def. Here now, the trailer for "Next Day Air."
[Clip]
Tavis: I have not seen this yet, but I can tell by the trailer where this is going.
Donald Faison: Yes.
Tavis: (Laughs) Whatever's in that box must have been very valuable.
Faison: Well, yeah, if you're in that line of business. (Laughter)
Tavis: I didn't say what it was; I just said it had to be very valuable. If you're going to the door and you got the heavy standing behind you saying, "Get my box back?"
Faison: Right, that's something - yeah.
Tavis: Yeah, I figured it's not an iPod.
Faison: No, no, no, no, it wasn't a VCR.
Tavis: Some tennis shoes, VCR, something like that.
Faison: Right, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, it wasn't a collectible or anything like that. (Laughter)
Tavis: What is it that you like about the challenges or the opportunities to do comedy, because obviously, TV show, movie. You like the comedy genre.
Faison: I love comedy. The challenge is to make someone genuinely laugh, and it's difficult. I try a lot. I try at home all the time, and my girlfriend doesn't necessarily laugh that much, but I try my jokes out at home because when she does laugh, I can get her going for, like, 15 minutes, and it's a big win. It's a big win. (Laughter)
Tavis: Every actor has the thing that he or she wants to accomplish when they're on the stage or on the screen. Why is making people laugh so important to Donald Faison?
Faison: I don't know. Well, one, because it beats making someone cry, you know what I mean? Or breaking someone's heart. Laughter comes from love, it seems like, and so yeah, if I can make someone laugh, that's great. That's why it's important.
Tavis: Eight seasons - and maybe you know more than I do. I'm trying to figure out whether or not this is the last season. Nobody's really saying it's the last season but they're kind of acting like it's the last season. What do you know that you can enlighten me about tonight about "Scrubs?"
Faison: Well, I know that we're having a great season right now. It's one of our better seasons. It's weird to be able to say something like that. Eight years is a really long time.
But yeah, if it were to come back, that's a great opportunity and that's something that I'll address when it does come around, but I don't know. I can't sit here and tell you it's gone. I can't sit here and tell you that it's coming back either, though.
Tavis: It's a funny show.
Faison: Thank you.
Tavis: And yet in this funny show you get to play a doctor who's obviously an African American. That mean something to you significantly or it just happened that way, or do you take pride in that?
Faison: Yeah. There aren't a lot of Black doctors on television, and if there are they don't really have a lot to do on television, other than be the Black doctor on the television show. I'm very lucky on "Scrubs." I get the opportunity to help carry the show.
I get the opportunity to have a lot of the jokes and have a lot of the storyline. That's rare on television. Usually there are a bunch of White doctors and there is one doctor - he might have that one or she might have that one special show, you know what I mean? (Laughter) But not on "Scrubs," and so I'm very lucky and I'm very happy to be on a platform where I can show I guess whoever watches the show that Black doctors do exist and they go through the exact same thing that White doctors go through, not just on special episodes.
Tavis: The notion of being able to survive on television, particularly these days - they don't give you long to find your legs on TV, as you well know. So the miracle, the blessing, the opportunity, pick your word, of being able to do something for eight seasons is getting to be unprecedented.
Faison: Yeah, it's - yeah, shoot, it's a record in my life, you know what I mean? (Laughter)
Tavis: Is that your way of saying it's the longest relationship I've ever had?
Faison: Probably -
Tavis: With a TV series?
Faison: Yeah, it is. (Laughter) You're absolutely right - this is the longest relationship -
Tavis: I'm going to stay out of that, though. (Laughter)
Faison: - I've ever been in, and it's been great. Will I get lucky like this again? Probably not. This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity and I've enjoyed it thoroughly. I've enjoyed it all the way, to the max. As much as you can possibly enjoy it, I've enjoyed it. So yeah, if we go a ninth season, that's just gravy. That's just dessert.
Tavis: I've often wondered - and you said something to me now, Donald, that makes me think about it - but I've wondered from time to time whether or not, because I get a chance to interview so many great actors on this program, whether or not for those who get a chance to be a part of something that is so successful, that runs so long, whether or not when actors are in that moment they really understand that this is probably the only time in my life that I will get a run this long.
Faison: Probably in the beginning. In the beginning when you first get it you enjoy that first, second, third year. And then I think maybe you get a little jaded and you stop thinking about it. But I definitely think once it starts to wind down and you realize all the things that you've accomplished while making the project you definitely look back.
Even your obstacles and even your disappointments seem to be so great, seem to be a part of the climb, if anything, you know what I mean?
Tavis: I did not realize that your parents were part of the national -
Faison: Yeah, Black Theater in Harlem.
Tavis: Black Theater in Harlem. That's how you got started?
Faison: That is how I got started.
Tavis: As a kid, sitting around watching your parents on stage?
Faison: Yeah, yeah.
Tavis: What was that like, growing up with two parents - with two actors in the house?
Faison: It's different. My mom will go on for days about how in college she was voted most likely to succeed and stuff in comedy, and I don't think she's that funny. (Laughter) I love you, Mom, but.
But out of college, she went to the National Black Theater where she met my dad and they did plays every night. And instead of hiring a babysitter and me having to sit with the babysitter, I'd have to go to the shows with them. And it got to the point where I knew everyone's lines and I would recite the actor's lines on stage before they would say them.
Tavis: Hopefully not out loud.
Faison: No, no, out loud, to the point where it was a problem.
Tavis: So you were the annoying kid in the audience who knew everybody's line and wouldn't let the folk enjoy the play.
Faison: Right. And I remember the play was an interactive play where the people on stage actually interacted with the people in the audience, and I was very much a part of that show, whether they wanted me to be a part of it or not. I was very much a part of it, and because of that I'm an actor now.
I knew right then and there, and at a young age, too, at, like, four or five, this is what I want to do. This is it, this is it.
Tavis: What do you recall at that young age about what you were witnessing as a kid, because you didn't know what it meant to be a thespian, you didn't know about being trained to do this and you didn't know acting techniques. What do you recall, if anything, at that young age that was like the magnet pulling you to?
Faison: Well, that it was two different people for me, because when the actors walked off stage, they were completely different and they treated me completely different, too, except for the times where I maybe got a little too involved. But it was just two different people, so this one guy played a drunk, and for some reason he was always out of it because he's playing the drunk on the show.
And then he'd get off stage and he was a cool dude who'd have conversations with me, and he was never drunk. And I was, like, that's awesome - so you get to act funny on stage and act weird when you're out here, but when you go back there you're really this guy - got it. And that drew me to it. I was, like, that's cool, because I always wanted to be Han Solo. (Laughter) So I get it. If that's how I can do it, then that's how I can do it.
Tavis: This must be cool, though, for your parents to have taken you to the theater with them every night, you're sitting there watching them, and then now they're sitting at home watching you on "Scrubs."
Faison: Yeah. My mom looks at me like I hung the moon, and Mom, I haven't - really, I haven't. (Laughter) But -
Tavis: I think all mothers do that, whether you're on "Scrubs" or not. I'm just on PBS and my mama feels the same way. I'm not even on networks, and she feels the same way.
Faison: You did it (unintelligible) you did it. And that's great.
Tavis: And they're still at the National Black Theater.
Faison: Well, they're still at the National Black Theater. They have different jobs now, but yeah.
Tavis: That's a long commitment to the arts, though.
Faison: Well, yeah, my mom took a little hiatus from it. She went on to become an agent for a little bit. She actually became an agent at the agency that I was at, growing up, and she has a lot of people on Broadway, a lot of people off-Broadway, some people in movies and stuff like that. My mom, she's done her thing and now she's giving back to her community.
Tavis: Ms. Faison, never mind that Donald doesn't think you're funny. (Laughter) Here's to you. (Clapping)
Faison: I give it up for you, Mama.
Tavis: Here's to you for all these years - yeah.
Faison: I give it up for you, Mama. (Laughter)
Tavis: Here's to all these years of commitment to loving and serving Black theater in Harlem and beyond.
Faison: That's what's up.
Tavis: And Donald, nice to have you on.
Faison: Thank you for having me, Tavis.
Tavis: "Scrubs" on ABC, and "Next Day Air" at a movie theater near you. Nice to have you on.
Faison: Thank you.
Back to May 5, 2009