to do it, but I thought you had to be a
genius to do that and remember lines in
thirty minutes. With a lack of knowledge,
I shunned away from it. Because I am who
I am, I like a challenge, and after I got to
a certain age, I felt like I still have a challenge that I had to defeat. That’s what I
did and I’ve been going strong at it since
1993. My first film was Meteor Man.
Urban Grandstand Digital: Man, I used
to love that movie.
Ro Brooks: Yea that was a classic right
there.
Urban Grandstand Digital: You had
Marla Gibb, and so many people…
Ro Brooks: Everybody was in that movie. Luther Vandross, Bill Cosby, Naughty
by Nature, Cypress Hill, and they had so
many other big actors in that movie.
Urban Grandstand Digital: That has to
sit heavy in your mind, for that to be
your first project.
Ro Brooks: Yea that was the icebreaker
for me. I knew from that day forward that
this was what I wanted to do. Once I submitted my Polaroid, and I got that phone
call saying I would be a background
performer, it was crazy once I got on set. I
was like, this is it.
Urban Grandstand Digital: Now you’ve
also done some amazing things, giving back to the community. Talk to me
about Men of Color?
Ro Brooks: That company was
spear-headed by a friend of mine named
John. It’s not really around much anymore. They have a branch called Engage
the Vision. That’s what it is now, but Men
of Color was called M.O.C.I.T.I. (Men of
Color in the Industry). We would meet
once a month, and it was maybe 100 of
us. Not just black, but different minority
races. We all had different talents related
to the business, whether it was acting,
producing, writing, dancing, entertainment lawyers, and so forth. Everybody
had a different talent to contribute, and
everybody had great skills. We would
meet up and encourage each other. We
would have speakers. Oba Babatunde
was the ambassador. Every month we
had great speakers who would come and
drop jewels on us.
Urban Grandstand Digital: It’s good
because it promotes that unity.
Ro Brooks: It does, and you need it. It’s
like church, like the bible. You go Monday through Saturday fighting the world,
and Sunday you need to get that armory
touched up. This is what M.O.C.I.T.I. is
for actors. We get all these no’s. No jobs
booked, and get the doors slammed on
us all through the month. Then we go to
M.O.C.I.T.I. and get to be around people
just like us to help revive us and give us
that energy to make it another month.
Outside of that part of it, we had the
mentorship program where we went to
Martin Luther King Elementary School,
or either the Obama school, and talk to
young men and boys, and mentor them
on everything from hygiene to things
about school, etiquette, and things like
how to be respectful and respect women.
Most of them are growing up in a home
without a daddy.
Urban Grandstand Digital: This is a
perfect way to show them that somebody cares. Tell me your dreams, and
then I can tell you how to make that
happen. They look at the things you’ve
done, your past struggles, and what
came from it. It’s awesome. You have
so many people obviously who do it,
and then many more who don’t. So it
says a lot that you take the time and
get out there. The flag football games
are huge.
Ro Brooks: I do everything I can. If I know
it has the potential to help a child, I show
up. I know just from showing up how
their faces light up. I’ve seen their grades
go from failing to passing, and not just
barely passing, but to A’s and B’s. Some
of them don’t know what they want to be
or have career ideas when they first come
to us, but when they leave, they know
what they wa