Jimmie Fails Discusses Gentrification in San Francisco

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Now, from a veteran actor in the role of a lifetime, to an incredible debut from our next guest Jimmy Fails. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is a semiautobiographical film which follows Fails as he tries to regain his grandfather’s house in, you guessed it, San Francisco. A passion project for its star. He and Director Joe Talbert first conceded the film when they were just teenagers. And he told our Hari Sreenivasan how he feels now that it is one of the best reviewed films of the year.

SREENIVASAN: What is the movie about?

JIMMY FAILS: God, a bunch of things. I mean I guess I always just say it’s a love story between a man and a house, as weird as that sounds. That’s usually what I would go with. But it’s also about friendship and identity, masculinity, vulnerability. It’s about a lot of those things. Family.

SREENIVASAN: Why?

FAILS: Because I felt a certain way about how my city is changing. That’s pretty much what inspired it. Me not feeling like I even belonged in this place that I was born and raised in and that I feel like made me who I am.

SREENIVASAN: So people that watch this show all over, how is San Francisco changing?

FAILS: Well, first of all, the title, right. There’s not a lot of black people here. That’s a big part of it. There’s just doesn’t even seem like there’s much of an art scene anymore.

SREENIVASAN: Is it because it’s less affordable today? Is it —

FAILS: Yes. A lot of them have moved to Oakland. A lot of my artist friend that I know. And Oakland is even starting to change now so pretty soon I don’t even know if they’ll be able to afford Oakland. You know what I mean?

SREENIVASAN: There are a lot of scenes in the film where when you’re traveling through town, the director chooses shots where people are looking back at you. They’re kind of glaring, they’re staring, kind of an oddity.

FAILS: Uh-huh.

SREENIVASAN: Is that based on what it’s like to walk through San Francisco today?

FAILS: Yes. But, I mean, that’s more of like gentrification in the beginning sort of thing. Now it’s like they don’t even look at you. They don’t care. They’re probably looking at their, you know, phone or tablet or whatever it is. They don’t really care that much. That’s another thing that was lost in, you know, the older San Francisco with more artists and more people. You could meet someone on the bus and strike up a conversation or just from a glance on the street because people were curious and they looked at other people, and like oh, he looks cool or whatever. But now, you know, that sort of thing rarely happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you seen that house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. I mean I’ll be there all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That’s not your old house. And that’s not your black ass neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your disrespectful (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SREENIVASAN: How much of this movie is autobiographical?

FAILS: Yes. I like to leave that a little bit open but there’s real, you know, everything is emotionally real. The main story is real and true about my grandfather and the house and my family history.

SREENIVASAN: Your grandpa had a house here in San Francisco?

FAILS: He had several. But yes, that was the main family house that I was in.

SREENIVASAN: Why is a house important to a family?

FAILS: It’s the foundation. It’s their home base. It’s what brings everyone together. A house is important because that’s where the family is. I lost my house and since I haven’t had a family sort of thing. You know what I mean? I lived there with my aunt, my uncle, my cousins and all sorts of stuff and we’re barely in contact any of us now. So that was the last place I had a family dinner with my family when I was, like, 6 years old, probably.

SREENIVASAN: Wow.

FAILS: You know what I mean.

SREENIVASAN: So when you lost that house, the family went with it?

FAILS: Pretty much.

SREENIVASAN: In the movie, your character has a past that is slowly being revealed in the film. One of the plot points is that he lived in a car for a while and that the car got stolen it looks like.

FAILS: That’s a true story.

SREENIVASAN: It is? You lived in a car?

FAILS: Yes. I lived in a car and it got stolen by my dad’s friend.

SREENIVASAN: Yes, let’s take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I like what Junior dad did with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So much you drove off with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I borrowed it. I didn’t — come on. I drove off with it. I borrowed it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a matter of fact, I saw your dad the other day. He was good and lonely by his self.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told him we need to get you a cat or a dog, a woman or something. Damn. He’s at home alone. He’s alone with no home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you live in a car by yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but I’m not alone. People like me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SREENIVASAN: It’s kind of a profound point just slid into the end there about what loneliness is. And what was it like living in a car?

FAILS: Fun, I guess.

SREENIVASAN: How old were you then?

FAILS: I was probably, like seven to like nine or something. It was awhile we lived in the car. So seven, eight, seven and eight. I mean it was —

SREENIVASAN: Did you realize that (inaudible) friends —

FAILS: Yeah, I mean it was something that I thought about but it was, like, you know, you couldn’t just think about that sort of thing. It was like I just looked forward to going to school so I didn’t have to be in the car then and whatever else going to park and going to someone’s house wherever. You know, you look forward to things that aren’t that, basically. But it’s also, like, you know, it was me and my dad on the road all the time. You know, my dad, you know, showed me a lot of older music that I was kind of brought up on, you know, so that was always cool. And that’s some of the good memories I have of my dad even though we were in the car or whatever. You have to make the best of your situation.

SREENIVASAN: How is your relationship with your dad now?

FAILS: All good. I see him a lot. I mean that’s who raised me. So he actually lives close. He lives down the street so I see him often. Probably go see him after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your grandpa built it. He was the first black man in San Francisco. That’s what they called him anyways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This house? I do mean to talk about this all the time but (inaudible). Always exaggerating. Trying to be all special.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were in a group home?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, for like a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SREENIVASAN: There’s a lot of relationships between black men in the film that is not like what you see Hollywood portray black male relationships as. I mean, do you see black men allowed to be vulnerable?

FAILS: Exactly. Exactly. Allowed to be vulnerable which is crazy to even say allowed. You know what I mean? Because, yes, in Hollywood, that’s never really a thing. So, you know, but it’s also — that’s also not just something that Hollywood has done. It’s, like, also in the culture. You know what I mean, for black men and other black men not letting them be vulnerable.

SREENIVASAN: Sort of a lenient force —

FAILS: Not just Hollywood. Yes. So it’s like — it was for — as much for us as it was for everyone to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I never made you feel like you weren’t welcome here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never felt like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don’t care where you’ve been. You don’t have to tell me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SREENIVASAN: Is San Francisco still home?

FAILS: Yes, always. Whenever I come, it’s home. If I’m here, even when I’m away, it’s still home but always, yes.

SREENIVASAN: So you’re going to pull a Danny Glover? You’re going to somehow figure out a way to have a Hollywood career and live here in San Francisco?

FAILS: For sure. For sure. That’s one of my idols. I definitely would like to do that.

SREENIVASAN: And you got to work with him. What was that like?

FAILS: Crazy. Crazy. Yes, I mean like he called me. Like, before we even cast him, he called me out of nowhere. We were just talking about San Francisco and he Fillmore. He grew up in the Fillmore, he was telling me all about it. I was picking his brain for that. And I think it just inspires you to be able to reach that level of expertise in your career but it’s also just amazing. Just like taking a master class. And also he was acting (inaudible) from Jonathan Majors who’s like God level actor at this point. So I just had, you know, Rob Morgan also which was amazing. So it just, you know, it was very helpful for me to have these people being so humble also and understanding that it was my first.

SREENIVASAN: It was a kick starter campaign.

FAILS: It was.

SREENIVASAN: And then from there, here we are. The people who backed “Moonlight” and you got Brad Pitt’s company, some big Hollywood names. Did did you ever think you would be in that stratosphere?

FAILS: Would you have thought? I know I didn’t. I thought at most we would show the movie at a small theater. Maybe the Roxy and then, you know, our friends and family would see it. Like hey guys, great job, call it a day. That’s the most that I thought.

SREENIVASAN: Is this movie a postcard, a love letter, a time capsule?

FAILS: All of those things, I guess, you could say. I mean it’s like I wouldn’t say it’s the best postcard but there’s definitely a love letter. I mean it’s an honest love letter. I think we archived the scene that we know and love. And it’s already a period piece. There’s some places that don’t even exist that are in the film, like the (inaudible) Projects.

SREENIVASAN: What’s happened to them?

FAILS: Completely tore down. I think they’re just rebuilding them hopefully and making them better and hopefully they’re doing something positive with it.

SREENIVASAN: You know you say in the movie that you can’t hate something unless you already love it. So what is your relationship with San Francisco? Do you love it? Do you hate it?

FAILS: It’s a love, hate relationship as with any family member or friend. You don’t love them all the time but — I mean you love them all the time, you don’t like them all the time.

SREENIVASAN: What are the things that you love about the city? What are the things that would make it —

FAILS: Before most of the natives got kicked out, the people of the city, that’s one of the things I loved about it, the community of everyone. You know, the fact that it was so diverse and there were so many, you know, when you go to the park you’d see Mexican kids, outdoor kids, black kid, white kid, all together in one group. You know what I mean? That sort of thing. All the artists and all the interesting history of it. And I mean, it looks beautiful too. I love how it looks. I love the old Victorians and the old architecture. So those are a lot of things too.

SREENIVASAN: And what makes your blood boil?

FAILS: All the new ugly condos that look like shelves, basically. They just look like big shelves or something. You know what I mean? Big coverage or something. The remote control skateboards, when I see those, I really hate those like a lot. It kind of defeats the purpose of even getting a skateboard. You know what I mean? So I don’t like that.

SREENIVASAN: You used to skate?

FAILS: It makes my blood boil. Yes, absolutely. There’s a lot of things. Man, I don’t want to say too much and I would end up getting into something but those are some things that I don’t like.

SREENIVASAN: What do you hope people see in it?

FAILS: I hope see how it feels to be gentrified. That’s one thing. I hope they see black men in a different light as well. And I hope they get a little bit feisty about San Francisco too. I hope they go to see because whenever they shoot here, there’s never stories or real stories of real San Franciscans sort of here. It’s always just like shooting (inaudible) or something or when they blow up the Golden Gate Bridge or whatever. You know what I mean? It’s never real, raw sort of San Francisco. So I think I’ll — I mean I know I do but I hope they see that, as well. The real side of San Francisco that they’re not going to put it on postcards basically.

SREENIVASAN: Jimmy Fails, thank you so much for joining us.

FAILS: Thank you for having me.