Actor Romany Malco from Weeds, 40 Year-Old Virgin, and Think Like A Man talks black movies, making money on YouTube, Tijuana Jackson, and growing up in a bad part of town.
Speaking of 2012 blockbuster, Think Like A Man, led by Kevin Hart, Romany gets real and says, "I come from the crossover side of things. Think Like A Man was my first real black production." He says that when you do a film like 40 Year-Old Virgin, the press junket takes up multiple floors in a hotel, but when you do a press junket for a film with a black lead, it's just a fraction of that.
"When we showed up to the press junket, I actually thought we were in the green room," he jokes.
He adds, "Through social media and our concentrated efforts, like collectively we all just did a lot of promoting of the film, we heightened the awareness of our movie to a movie about ten times its size."
Romany's online presence blew up with his over-the-top character Tijuana Jackson, who calls himself "the street rendition of the Oprah Show." Romany says, "He's an ex-convict turned motivational speaker."
However comedic those videos may be, the inspiration comes from a very real and personal place for Romany. "I grew up in the street," he says. "That's a side of me that I don't necessarily honor, but Tijuana Jackson has given me an outlet to expose that.
"There's this whole generation of kids that have all this energy, but they're very misled by the propaganda and the things that they've been conditioned to believe, and they know something's up but they can't place a finger on it," he says. "Tijuana Jackson is my way of telling you what that is in a very slick and kind of rude and crazy way."
That's a big reason why he jumped onto YouTube - to reach that audience. "I have issues with network television," he says, adding that it can stunt people creatively and he's more into cable.
He laments that network productions have become so clean-cut, describing his dream content as "Richard Pryor meets Aristotle."
While he confirms that Weeds is not coming back and had an amazing eight-season run, Conrad does reveal that Weeds creator Genji Cohen is developing a new series called "The New Orange" for Netflix.
Subscribe to Tijuana Jackson on YouTube and follow Romany on Twitter.
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