When I reached out to this man the other day via social media, I crossed my fingers that he would reply back. When I saw a message from him, I was on cloud 9. Actor/producer/acting coach, Ty Granderson Jones has a face that you'll always remember, and acting skills that make him stand out from his colleagues. Let's hear from him and see what he's been up too.
GrinderZZ: Good afternoon Ty, and welcome to the GrinderZZ studio. Please tell my audience a little about yourself.
Ty: Well, I’m Creole-Cuban OG with New Orleans’ French Quarter roots, who was raised in Tampa, Florida, a professional actor, a veteran of stage and screen for the past 30 years or so who also writes, produces, directs, makes films, and teaches, coaches acting when I have the time away from performing or filmmaking. I consider myself an actor who writes who’s learning to be a filmmaker. Nonetheless, no matter always looking to evolve as an artist and human being and constantly reinvent myself and share my journey and experiences artistically thru my performances on screen or stage, or screenplays that I write or a poem. I’m also a published poet from back in the day. At one time, I had a spoken word group that included the legendary drummer of The Doors—John Densmore. I was mentored as a poet by the late, great Gil-Scot-Heron. And as an acting teacher/coach, I don’t consider the process as “teaching” but as “sharing”. I really don’t like the concept, word or description of “Teacher”, just feels arrogant and insinuates that we have all the answers…and we don’t. As for teaching acting, I don’t think it can be taught. Many do not know that I coached the late Tupac and Whitney Houston from time to time. I kept that undercover for years. Anyway, that’s who I am and what I do. I’m also a Class 5 whitewater rafter, cowboy and former amateur Muay Thai Kickboxer. I have been called a Renaissance man of sorts by others due to my interest in so many different activities and cultures.
GrinderZZ: You're from Tampa Florida. At what age did you make that move to California?
Ty: It’s not that simple. I dreamed of going to Hollywood, California and being an actor
ever since I was a small kid. I just think show business is in my DNA, a product of my environment growing up as kid. My family was always connected somehow to either music or politics. My uncles are the late Jazz greats Cannonball and Nat Adderly. Another one of my uncles was the Road Manager for Marvin Gaye and James Brown, and my Grandfather, my father’s father worked for both icons Cab Calloway and Lauren Becall, who was a huge star in the 50's/60's, married to the iconic character actor Humphrey Bogart. So I was always around that show business energy. And I was always just a natural performer, but never musical, although I play around with miscellaneous percussion. A lot of the acting bug was inspired by my late father and his father being movie buffs. I was the lead in a play in third grade wherefore I played Rumpelstiltskin…lol. And then my Grandfather (my father's father) and my father who passed in 2014, he was my hero, like I stated he and my Grandfather were movie buffs, they both loved the movies and television and all they would do was go to the movies and watch television shows. When my Grandfather would baby sit me, he would put a pile of thick blankets next to his recliner and we both would just chill, eat tons of ice cream and watch movie after movie after movie and they were mostly the old B&W movies that you see on Turner Classic Movies on cable these days. We watched a lot of the Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson movies. When Movie Stars were Movie Stars! Movies like Key Largo, The Roaring 20's, Public Enemy. My dad would quiz me on movies and the names of stars, etc. And like I mentioned my family was connected to the music industry and people in show business. I knew show business somehow was my calling. Then I started watching films on my own and got into foreign films of all sorts from Japanese cinema with directors like Akira Kurosawa to Italian cinema with directors like Bernardo Bertolucci to Federico Fellini and everything in between. I would ask my grandfather to find these movies on television or when they came to the movies. And this was when I was barely 8 years old. I knew as a kid that I wanted to be an actor. I was always fascinated by film. I never knew how I was going to make it to California. It was a long journey. I studied theatre at both Florida A&M University and Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida as a co-op student. While at Florida State University, the great Acting Teacher Lee Strasberg visited and conducted a workshop. One day I got in his face and threatened that I would come to New York City and study with him when I graduated, and that is just what I did. But while at the Actors Studio in NYC, the late great American Director Alan Schneider discovered me and recruited me to workshop Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. But we could not finish because he had been offered by the University of California, San Diego School of Theatre to go and develop an MFA program in Directing. At the time, Mr. Schneider was running Julliard’s Acting Program. Long story short, Mr. Schneider asked me how would I like to get my MFA in Acting at the UCSD with a full-fellowship?? I was like, huh?? I was thinking La Jolla, California is close to Hollywood. I was not thinking about the MFA in Acting. So I auditioned for the program and got in with a full-fellowship, one of the few of color at the time. So during the summers I would drive 90 miles north and explore Hollywood and the energy. I wanted to let Hollywood know this little Florida boy was coming at some point…lol. Not telling you my age at the time….lol. This OG not dating himself any more than I have to.
GrinderZZ: You also received a MFA degree from the University of California. How proud were your parent's at that very moment?
Ty: Well, my parents were extremely proud, especially my late dad. He was a great man. He marched with MLK. Everybody in Tampa knew my Dad, Goosby Jones. When I was growing up in Tampa, it was the true mean streets. I got into the gangster thing, got incarcerated post High School, and my father stuck his neck out with my late Uncle Alton White and got things expunged. Told me to prove I was worth it. I never looked back. I put myself thru college studying theatre. When I got my MFA I gave it to me dad. No words, just tears.
GrinderZZ: This entire time, watching you in different movie's, I thought you were of Mexican descendant, but actually......you're Creole and Cuban. Do you also get mistaken for being another nationality?
Ty: People always ask me “What are you?” And I often reply “I’m America muthafucka”, all that. I get Puerto Rican, Dominican,…you name it. But in some ways my Latin side opens me up to play different cultures. Sometimes it gets in the way of playing African-American roles because White Hollywood assumes I not Black enough. I don’t fit the stereotype. But when Light skin brothers are called…all good…smh!
GrinderZZ: You have a long line of great film's you've acted in. CB4, Con Air, Harlem Nights, Twins, Going Under, and so on. You've also played on television as Cue Ball Rodriguez on the show ER, and the sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris. Out of all the movie's you've done, which one you enjoyed doing the most?
Ty: I have to say it was Con Air. It was the first and only above 90 million dollars movie I had been a part o, and working on it for 4 months from location to location flying around with Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich and an entire cool ass motley krew of hard ass, dynamic actors including Ving Rhames and Dave Chappelle. But enjoy is a tricky concept, because just because I enjoyed it does not mean it was my greatest work like the short lived series UC:Undercover on NBC starring me and Ving Rhames. I am also proud of my work recurring on ER as Cue Ball Rodriguez opposite John Stamos. And of course I am proud of creating the iconic character 40 Dawg in CB4 alone side the late great Charlie Murphy. I enjoyed that. I got stories hanging out with Charlie and Isaac Hayes and a ton of iconic folks.
GrinderZZ: You played the character, 40 Dog in the movie, CB4, and I couldn't stop laughing. When you were first approach to do be in the movie, what did you think about the character you were placing?
Ty: Well, first off I had to audition. Charlie had already known me from Harlem Nights which his brother wrote and directed and cast me. I and Charlie had to read together for Chris Rock and the director Tamra Davis to see if I matched well with Charlie. You know…chemistry and that we had and became the best of friends. I miss him. There was not much to think about other than just dive into the crazy little gangster’s psyche. Originally it was written for the Rapper Too Short, but it did not work out for him. I am grateful it did not…lol. But who knew CB4 would become a classic that influenced the future of Hip Hop.
GrinderZZ: You've also taught acting classes in Beijing China. What was that experience like?
Ty: 3 Months in China was 3 Months too long. I never want to see China again. It was not a bad experience, but just like being on Mars or some shit. Teaching was so enlightening nevertheless. And everybody should see China once. I learned more about my own craft. I was hired by one of the top studios in China to school about 15 of their contract players. They are like on the old Hollywood Studio System with contracted actors. They wanted their actors to learn better film craft matching the standards of the west, America. I had to do this with a translator. I created, developed and taught a state of the art Acting for the Camera workshop for 3 months. And I got to lecture at the University of Beijing. It was emotional the day I left China. I had bonded with them and we all grew as artists. I learned so much about my own craft and my theories that acting is not just dialogue. It is reacting to emotion. No matter what culture, we all have emotion.
GrinderZZ: What advice could you give to someone right now who maybe thinking about going into acting?
Ty: Honestly, I don’t think there is any advice to give. Everybody’s journey is different. But I will state this; don’t play around with this. The journey and career of a professional actor is not for the faint or the meek. You truly have to be an artist in a modern world and that is hard to navigate between feast and famine…and there will be famine. How one weathers the storm in between gigs is just as important a being a pro as having the gig itself. It’s a tough game. You have to believe and gamble with your life. And it ain’t about fame and fortune. The odds are you will never achieve fame or fortune, but that does not mean you won’t be successful. There is more failure and rejection than anything. My favorite quote is from one of the greatest playwrights to have lived, Samuel Beckett—“Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter, try again, fail again. Fail better.”
GrinderZZ: How can fans reach out to you?
Ty: Hit me at my Instagram. Find me at @KingCreole55 or just look up Ty Granderson Jones. I also have the Ty Granderson Jones Fan Page on FB https://www.facebook.com/ActorScreenwriterTGJ/ and of course Twitter @TyGrandJones
GrinderZZ: Any last words/shout outs?
Ty: Yes, please stay focused and healthy and Vote Biden/Harris!! We gotta vote this Trump Bigot out. In the meantime, Please go to Amazon Prime and watch a little award winning short film I wrote, produced and directed called “Diamond” link up at https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Tessa-Lynn-Farrell/dp/B07JQHRKM2 FYI Prince dropped some of the funding on me. I starred in a Hip Hop Classic film called Tapped Out where he was a silent producer with Madonna’s company, Maverick Entertainment. The soundtrack for Tapped Out is sick. It was written, directed by and starring R&B Artist Georgio.
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