- Hi, this is Mariah Golo
from The Hollywood Reporter
and I'm in studio today
with Anthony Hemingway.
- Hello.
- [Mariah] Hi, Anthony.
- How are you?
- [Mariah] Thank you so much
for coming in, I'm fine.
- Thanks for having me.
- I wanted to talk to you
about your amazing directing career.
But also, we gotta talk about directing
and executive producing Unsolved.
- Yes.
- So, tell me how did you--
- What do you want to know?
- Oh, well
I mean, okay so who did it?
- Well, ya know it would
be a spoiler I think
if I shared that right now
in front of the audience.
I will refrain from giving spoilers.
- The first thing I want to ask you
is what's your favorite Biggie song
and what's your favorite Tupac song?
- Well, my favorite Biggie song
really is touches my heart,
it pierces it, it's juicy.
I think it's been the
anthem of my life, really.
Rags to riches, basically.
Knowing that I grew up in
the projects of the Broncs
and knowing that that didn't
define me or my future.
- What are you most
excited about people seeing
as they're watching Unsolved?
I mean, we're watching
the investigative side,
there's the wonderful amazing
90's flashback moments.
Are you excited about
anything in particular
for people to discover
as they watch this show?
- I think there's so many things,
one of the things that really
excited me about it was
the idea of changing the narrative
of what we've been shared
I think when you think of Biggie and Tupac
and to me that is the real tragedy
and the despair of not having
the ability to really I think,
know who they could have been today.
So, the idea of being able
to tap into their friendship
was so exciting and I think
that it's something that
I have championed and
really leaned into heavily
just to, ya know, as we
try to use the platform
in our ability to
dimensionalize story-telling
and images especially
dealing with real life.
Giving examples that need to be seen,
positive imagery.
- All right, you've kinda become an expert
in true crime drama with all of the work
that you've done with American Crime Story
and now with Unsolved,
you're the one who uses fiction
to flush out actual events.
So, tell me what are
the challenges of that?
- It's a huge challenge.
(Mariah laughs)
Anytime you're dealing with real life
and people especially
when they're well known,
it requires a lot of tender care
of just really trying to mold and shape
just to straddle the balance
of what your intentions are.
And I think if it starts with
the first place of just asking
yourself why you're telling this story
which is simple.
Hopefully, that will unlock
everything that you need to
tap into, ya know, tell its truth
and understand how you
want to respectfully
and with sensitivity I think
just chronicle back storytelling.
- And you've said before
you just said a few moments ago
that one of the most important things
about the Unsolved
stories is the friendship
between Tupac and Biggie.
Who is the first person who
kind of clued you in onto that?
Who told you about their friendship?
- Well, I think something
that loosely is known
depending on where you're from
and of course being from New York,
there were moments I remembered that
clearly get swept under the rug
when anything comes in
and overshadows that.
So, it wasn't a lot discovery for myself
but I think even in exploring
what Kyle Long created here
was this really beautiful structure
and ability to, I think, let
it really be a human story.
And I think be relatable
in so many different
other walks of life.
Clearly, having this
opportunity to look back
and realize what changed
when that happened
just in the world of hip hop
as we got deeper and deeper into it
over the course of the season,
there are many things in a
lot of layers that get exposed
and shown that we did not know.
- What were some of your
biggest days of shooting?
Like, what are you kind of,
what do you want people--
- The stress.
- Tell me about one day in
particular where you're like
this is the scene was the scene.
- Well, I mean first and foremost,
the scenes that reenact
their murders were the most
heavy lifting and I think
the hardest to really
figure out the right ways
and how to approach it
and just make sure that
asking all the questions
and getting the fine details of it was,
it just was so surreal
when we got to shoot it
and of course outside of
Petersen Museum as well
in doing a reenacting
Biggie's murder and death.
Those are definitely--
- That was just a few
blocks away from here.
- Yeah.
Yes, exactly, we were right on Wilshire.
And it's crazy, it's just those are
the ones that are definitely
the most challenging
because of the obvious
layers and elements that have to deal with
that become really surreal.
- People seeing this series,
do you think it's going to
shake loose some memories
from the 90s?
- Yeah.
- Do you think people
are going to see this
and maybe start remembering things?
- I think so.
Even for me, it really was very nostalgic
in so many ways of just
kind of remembering
moments within the story
where certain songs
from either of them and I realize I never
gave you a Tupac song.
- Yeah!
- I got stuck with Biggie, it was like
I'm like, that's my man
ya know what I'm saying?
I love Tupac too and I think
just as well I'm gonna,
I'm so all over the place
just like juicy was such an anthem for me
keep your head up was as well
and it's just and those both are so
the reflections of what the
storytelling in the music was.
It really is really
remarkable to realize that
how young they were then.
The ability and the gifts
that they had to be aware
of just the consciousness
of their every day
and reflecting their
reality and their humanity
was just beyond remarkable, I think.
And incredible for those
two kids to be able to
see that and to be able to speak about it.
That's why one of the major themes
in the show is perception
and how perception challenges
your best judgment.
It's just a really
interesting thing for anyone
to look in from the outside
and create a perception about someone
or a situation that doesn't
always mean that it's true.
And so seeing them, I think,
really live in this
time that just kind of,
it was sad just to kind of see them get
kind of swallowed up in the
belly of the beast like that.
- [Mariah] Right, yeah do you think I mean
if we're looking at how
much time has changed,
how Los Angeles has changed,
how the hip hop community has changed,
- Right.
- [Mariah] I mean, do you
think that anything like this
could happen now?
- Absolutely.
- [Mariah] Yeah?
- And that's why I think
it's very important for us
to really pay attention
and reflect on these things
and learn, I think we
have to really understand
and the unfortunate of course is having to
use the loss of someone else's life
to hopefully learn from but I think
it's important for us to pay
attention to these things
and I think, ya know,
learn.
- Yeah.
Have you heard anything
from the hip hop community
house like Diddy or Snoop
seeing any in these episodes?
- For the most part, I
think everyone has really
respected what we have
done in terms of being as
authentic as we can.
Knowing that we're not telling
it from any perspective
or another,
Excuse me.
But the fact that it is ringing bells,
as being nostalgic for a lot of people
and just, ya know, I'm
hearing great reactions
and I'm hoping that again
any of the parties that are
affiliated with the story
and character, ya know
are not sitting back
feeling attacked by any way
because that was never an
intent in any of our intentions.
But, of course just trying to tell it
as truthful as possible
and as layered and complex as we could.
- Yeah, my guess is if
anybody had a problem with it,
you'd probably would have
heard of them already.
- I think someone would
have said something
but I'm just proud it's like,
we had a screening in New York
and Doug E. Fresh is a
really good friend of mine
and he hosted that screening
for him to see it
and be effected by it
of course someone who was
even a more of a contemporary
to both Biggie and 'pac
then any of us like to see that
and to see the level of care that
I think that we've put into this
and really focusing on the
humanity he was blown away
and has been such a great support.
- A couple of quick questions
before I let you go.
- Yes.
- The first job that
made you say I made it.
- When president Barack
Obama said thank you
and my name rolled off his tongue
was the moment I arrived and I was done.
Nothing else had to be said after that.
When he clearly publicly
said to the director
Anthony Hemingway, I thank you.
- Wow.
- I lost it, I was like oh my god.
This is it, I'm done.
That was the moment.
- That's great.
Best biographical story that
you haven't seen made yet.
- It's not totally biographical
but it is close enough
and is close to my heart,
it's a little generalized
but it's James Baldwin
book, Giovanni's Room.
- [Mariah] Wow.
- That's a story that I love,
a story that is a part of my reality
and I want to tell that
story so much, so bad.
Wow, there's a lot.
I could give you a list.
- That deep well again.
Last social or political
cause that you championed.
- Trying to think the last one I did,
I supported MC Lytes Foundation
that supports and
champions inner city kids.
That was one but I'm all over the place,
I contribute to
the AIDS foundation,
there's a lot.
I'm all over the place,
I want to be a vessel
to help heal the world.
- Yeah, very nice.
Worst Biggie Tupac
conspiracy you've heard?
Conspiracy theory.
The worst one.
Like ugh, no.
- I don't know.
I don't know that answer.
They're all bad.
- Yeah.
- I'm so acutely aware
of all the misconceptions
and conspiracy theories it's just crazy.
I don't know.
I pass.
- [Mariah] Okay.
Mark and (???) were
I think they said the one that
Tupac's like living in Cuba.
- Oh yeah.
That is so awful.
It's so terrible.
We actually, well I'm
not going to spoil it.
Okay, yeah that's a bad one.
- So, Anthony thank you
so much for being here.
- Thank you.
- The show is Unsolved,
it's on every Tuesday night.
- Every Tuesday at 10 p.m.
9 central on USA network.
- Yeah, all right.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
