Here's Lee Daniels.
Explain to us the genius of this man.
Lee dramatizes and humanizes the corners of
society that don't often get play in television.
Lee Daniels is fierce.
His vision is different than anyone I've ever
worked with before.
There's not a school for what it is that I
have had.
You know, I didn't go to film school.
I'm a filmmaker.
How did I get there?
When I was a young kid, a couple of things
changed my life.
First was Rogers and Hammerstein "Cinderella"
with Leslie Ann Warren,
which was a musical,
and the other was "Sweet Charity" with Paula
Kelly and Shirley MacLaine.
Paula Kelly affected me so deeply and she
represented chicness and sophistication.
It was jaw dropping.
All of the work that I do has been, sort
of, if you really study the music.
Even when it's not a musical, it's a big thing.
When I was a young kid,
Forget about white or black, but that there
was such a thing that a director was.
My dad was a cop that was killed in the line
of duty.
My mom was left to raise
me and my siblings on her own.
She was tired of me being bullied.
She knew that the environment that I was in
was not going to be a safe one.
So she was very intuitive, my mom.
She knew to get me out of those streets
at a very ripe age
I knew that I was drawn to Hollywood.
I still didn't really know that I wanted to
direct.
This girl that I was dating, the only girl
that I've ever dated,
gave me $7.
When I came to Los Angeles,
I was actually homeless and I didn't think much about it.
I was okay.
I had snuck into the back of a church
and I stayed there
and the pastor discovered me and said,
"If you want to stay here, you got to clean."
I said, "Okay," and I noticed that there was
a theater that was there.
I knew I could write.
I knew I was a storyteller
and I said, "Do you mind if I put on one-acts here?"
That's my first time actually directing.
I knew that that was meant for me,
that whatever was my destiny was on the stage,
that will change my life.
I learned
from the streets.
I've used my life experiences and everything
you see up on that screen is my life
and I'm not afraid
to tell you my life.
Isn't this what an artist does?
It wasn't until I felt comfortable
with my sexuality
and my color
that my dreams were
becoming fulfilled.
Music has always been a part of the world
that I'm in too.
So all of the work that I do,
it plays a very strong part of the telling of the story.
You're drawn and sucked in by music because
music, I believe, is a healer.
I know what makes my heart
beat fast
or gives me goose-bumps.
For me, it's about making you feel that way,
to give you goose-bumps,
to give you feeling.
Here's the great part about it.
Now, in "Star,"
they are in the exact same
outfits when they can sing that song "I Can Be,"
they're in same exact outfit that Paula
Kelly's in, down to the shoe.
Artists, like she,
have paved the way for me to be here.
So I honor her.
Success is a combination of
belief in a higher power
I'm sure there are more talented directors than I,
I know there are.
It's not just about talent.
It's about your drive with that talent.
I often get asked, "What does it take?
How do I get in?"
And I think the only answer for me,
is an unwavering belief
in myself.
I think that's what separated me from the
people that I grew up with,
you know, to dream
is a big thing.
I keep dreaming.
