Dar Dixon, Actor: It made me indirectly think about things and the next thing I know I’ve got long hair, I stopped shaving and I’m like “What am I doing?”
Film Courage: Yes…but I can see you being an author and writing science fiction or just…I think it works for you.
Dar: I think it does or it doesn’t. I think it does and I like it and again…you know one thing that’s come out of this also? I started to look…this is going to sound maybe potentially crazy and that’s okay. That’s fine. You are entitled to your opinions. Looking at my life as performance art. Living my life as a performance piece. Not just being weird or I’m going to grow my hair now man…yeah….you know? I’m going to dye my eyebrows baby! Not that way, not that there is anything wrong with that because honestly deep inside of me when I was a younger man I really wanted to do that. I admired folks. Kate Bush is not a performance artist, but the first time I heard Kate Bush sing…”What is happening?” Blew my mind! The first time I heard Al Jarreau start scatting I was like…it’s one of my favorite albums of all time is Al Jarreau live and it was ’77, looked at a rainbow…unbelievable. But I didn’t do it. I was too scared for right?
But yes I think that concept is really kind of beautiful and I like it and it’s working for me right now so I’m going to keep doing more of that. So if the long hair and the beard has precipitated me looking at things from a bigger perspective or start talking about things from more of a business aspect or transmedia or living my life as a performance artist, so be it, so be it.
Film Courage: It’s just interesting that you are cast as somebody who is not really who you are. It’s very convincing but I can tell that from being around you these few hours that’s not who you really are, but you just really can’t judge a book by its cover.
If I saw you walking down the street I would have thought maybe you grew up in Missouri or Texas or you are from the mid-West. I would not have…just to think that there’s a whole other world inside of you and that’s just so interesting because we don’t know about people walking around, we think we know.
Dar: And that’s the most interesting thing. That’s where all of the juice is. That’s where the most beautiful stuff happens, right? I told you earlier, so my father-in-law was a really great man and I did an interview in San Antonio and the girl afterward was like “Oh can we do a Facebook live?” “Sure, great. Let’s do it.”
And she says “So that must be really hard for you…those are big shoes to fill.” And I’m like “Well first of all, I’m not a black man. I’m not a Christian. I’m not a minister. I’m not a PhD in Mathematics, all of which my father-in-law was. So he is he and I am I. I am me, right?
Second thing is, I’m not trying to fill his shoes. He’s always over here but I use it as motivation to keep going forward. On his tombstone he put down “I tried.” That’s what he wanted to have as his epitaph “I tried.” He certainly did try. And if he tried that hard and what he an Uncle Martin [Martin Luther King] did in many ways allowed my folks to even get together.
So in a very real way, I wouldn’t even be here if it were not for the Reverend and my mother-in-law Juanita and uncle Martin and aunt Coretta [Coretta Scott King].
So I’m not trying to fill their shoes. I’m trying man. I’m doing the best I can to keep moving forward to do what I can do in whatever way that is possible. I started to say this earlier and I’m kind of all over the place but I decided that I was going to try and contribute and help and be of service and I met some people and there’s this thing called Southern California Ceasefire and it’s for victims of gang violence and we meet in South Central one a week and it’s a place where everyone can get together and share their stories and their pain or what’s going on. Or what kind of…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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About Dar Dixon:
Dar Dixon was born July 1962 in Tehran, Iran. He is an actor and producer, known for NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), This Is Us (2016) and Silicon Valley (2014).
Dar Dixon was born July 1962 in Tehran, Iran. He is an actor and producer, known for NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), This Is Us (2016) and Silicon Valley (2014).
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