Eriq La Salle joins Tavis Smiley

Award-winning actor, director, producer and author Eriq La Salle talks about his career and his latest gripping crime thriller, Laws of Solomon, the fourth installment in his acclaimed Martyr Maker series.

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Speaker 2: You are indeed. I'm glad about it.

Speaker 1: We want to thank Javier Becerra, Democrat running for governor

in California, for keeping his word and coming in studio.

We appreciate the conversation. And this is a fascinating season

to be in California or in the country, for that matter.

We will see what happens in these midterms. But everybody

watching California, Gavin Newsom, of course, turned out. And will

it be Javier Becerra or Steve Hilton? The polls indicate, again,

that Javier is likely, Javier Becerra, that he is likely

the next governor of the state of California. And we

thank him for coming in to take those questions for

the last half hour. We close today's program in this

half hour with our friend and brother, Eric LaSalle, award-winning actor, director, producer,

and author. Talks about his career and his latest propulsive

crime theater, Laws of Solomon. It is the fourth installment

of his acclaimed Martyr Maker series. Eric LaSalle, good to

have you back on, man.

Speaker 2: How are you, sir? Hey, Travis. How you doing, brother? Always, man.

Speaker 1: Man, if I can play and not be an integrate,

I'm glad to have you back here. Tell me about

Laws of Solomon.

Speaker 2: Laws of Solomon is the fourth book in the Martin

Maker series. Solomon started off as a peripheral character, was

never really meant to be a main character, but he

just kept growing and became a crowd favorite. And so

I decided to give him his own book. So that's

the fourth book. The cool thing about it is the

fourth book, even though it's the fourth book, it's still

a standalone in the series or it can, I'm sorry,

it can be read as a standalone. So you don't

have to know anything about the series. You don't have

to feel like you got to rush and pick up

the other three because this is more of a departure.

And it reads, a lot of my books are based

on my favorite movies. And so the one that comes

the closest to this or this comes the closest to

is if you think of Denzel Washington, one of my

favorite films, Man on Fire, because it's the story of

this really hardened hitman who's had a horrible life. He

was a child soldier, a mercenary hitman. He's done all

kinds of things. And just as he's retiring and trying

to find some peace in his life, a little boy

is put into his life that's put into danger. And

he ends up having to you know, dust his guns off,

pull him out of retirement and do what he does.

And so that's the action thriller part of it. But

beyond that and deeper to that, it's a very, it's

a spiritual journey. It's a story about redemption. It's a

story about found family. It's about, you know, raises the questions.

Can someone who's done horrible, horrible things in their life

ever truly be redeemed? And can that person ever find peace?

So the book operates on a couple of different levels,

and that's the more spiritual aspect of the book. Yep.

Speaker 1: To your earlier point, Eric, one does not have to

have read the first three in this Modern Maker series

to pick up the new one, Laws of Solomon.

Speaker 2: You pick it up.

Speaker 1: If you haven't read the first three, you're not going

to be lost. But I think it does make you,

when you read Laws of Solomon, want to go back

and get the first three How would you then define

the Martyr Maker series?

Speaker 2: The Martyr Maker series, it focuses on two detectives, two

New York City detectives. That's the other thing about Solomon.

Solomon is the only book that takes place in California.

So the series itself is centered in New York City.

And again, being based on films that I love, it's

similar in scope to The movie Seven, where you have

an Italian-Irish-American cop who teams up with an African-American detective,

and they're considered to be the best closers in the city,

and they only investigate high-profile serial killings. And in the franchise,

they team up with a Jewish female FBI agent. So

that's the franchise, the three of them investigating some heinous crimes.

serial killings, high profile. And so each book is a

different case.

Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier that many of your books are based

on your favorite movies. Tell me why this, how can

I put it, this crime thriller lane became the lane

that you wanted to write in or did it call

you to it?

Speaker 2: Well, back in the 90s, when I was doing ER,

some producers came to me and asked me to produce

and star in a TV movie called Mind Prey, which

is a very famous series by an author by the

name of John Sanford, who's one of the big, big

thriller writers. And in doing the movie and obviously having

read the book, I just became intrigued with it. I

was like, you know, it's very propulsive, it's edge of

your seat, it's high stakes. These are all the things

that I'm attracted to as a storyteller. So when I

decided to start, you know, to try to write a novel,

I leaned in this direction because of those things. I

write for people like me. I have somewhat of a

short attention span. So, you know, a lot of times

people will say, such and such a book is great

once you make it past the first hundred pages. And

I'm like, well, why do you have to wait for

a hundred pages for a book to be interesting? So

my book, you know, my books come out like, normally

within the first 10 pages, some big stuff jumps off

in my books because I want to get the adrenaline flowing.

So So that's how I came to this. And so,

like I said, if you think of the series as

sort of an extension of Seven, because a lot of

the villains are just as interesting as the protagonists. And

so of the four books, you have four different villains,

you know, and each one is very interesting. And a

lot of times they're killing in it. trying to preach

a sermon while they're killing, you know, very similar to

the seventh. So, uh, so yeah, so I, I compare

it to that.

Speaker 1: He mentioned redemption. When we come forward, I want to

talk about redemption with Eric LaSalle. The book is called

laws of Solomon. It is the fourth, uh, in this

crime thriller series, uh, the martyr maker series, uh, also know, uh, that, uh,

he is, uh, uh, into the fifth one and just

about done. Uh, and my sense is, uh, given who

he is as an actor, director, producer, writer, uh, that

this is the kind of stuff that series are made of.

Speaker 2: Hint, hint.

Speaker 1: More with Eric LaSalle when we come forward on Tavis Smiley.

Eric LaSalle, award-winning actor, director, producer, author. His latest is

out now. It's called Laws of Solomon, yet another propulsive

crime thriller. The fourth installment of his acclaimed Martyr Maker series. Eric,

how does a hitman find redemption?

Speaker 2: Well, you know, I mean, the great thing about writing

a novel is you get to go back, not only

just into the character's mind and how they are thinking, but,

you know, historically you get to go back and see.

So the book examines his childhood and all the things

that shaped him into being the person that we see.

The trick with the book, is, as an author, the

challenge is making people fall in love with and care

for a man who's done some pretty horrible things. He

has done some really, really bad things. But there is

still a piece of humanity in him. And I think

when you, and again, I'm not condoning murderers or anything

like that. I'm simply saying our job as artists is

to show the dimensions and the dimensionality of people. And

I think that that is this this book does a

really good job of it. So you end up rooting

like people when they're reading it, like I'm rooting for

this guy to find redemption. So that's to me, that's

the you know, that's the cool thing about getting you engaged. Um,

he's a, he's a hell of a character. He's, he's

actually my, my, my favorite character that I've ever created. Um,

like he's, you know, for people old, you know, for

people that, uh, a little more old school and remember

the Godfather, the Luca Brasi character in the Godfather. Oh yeah. Right.

And this is a, I always wanted to do a

black version of Luca Brasi. So you think about Luca

Brasi having to save a kid, like that's an interesting,

so that's, that's how I, that's how I came up

with that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: How do you process writing books? You get to book

number four and you have one of Walter Mosley stature,

no less. Praise your book as beautiful and heartbreaking.

Speaker 2: Well, you know, I just I consider myself a student

of the game. You know, whenever I'm trying to move

to a pivot to another form of storytelling, And so,

you know, when I got into writing, I just, you know,

you went, go back to the basics. You, you do

the homework, you read good writers, you read, read good authors.

And of course, you know, for us, Walter Mosley is

for this community and for the writing community, um, beyond race. Um,

he's one of the, he's one of the top dogs, man.

So to have him, um, praising the book, we were

able to do a really cool, um, in conversation with.

So he interviewed me. I interviewed him for a book.

He interviewed me for my book. And it's just, it's

great to get that that support from people, um, that, that, that,

that have come out. Um, and, and, and it, it

feels good. I mean, you know what it does to

have is it, it, it, it validates on a level,

you know what I mean? Cause you, when you, when you,

I mean, look, man, I've been, been doing this author

thing for the last 14 years. And it's a slow process.

And every time you think you're breaking through the setback,

I've had to self-publish before I could find a public.

And look, all authors go through it. So I'm not

whining about it. It is what it is. But there

are moments along the way that you do start feeling

more validated. And so having the praise of someone like

him S.A. Cosby, Rachel Housel Hall, Dennis Lehane, you know,

Kelly Garrett. These guys, these people have all come out

and praised the book. It just, you know, yeah, man,

it makes you feel, it ain't gonna lie, it makes

you feel really good.

Speaker 1: Speaking of validation, I've told this story before very quickly,

interviewing Burt Reynolds one day. I've been blessed to talk

to pretty much everybody in my career, including Eric LaSalle

a few times. Talking to Burt Reynolds one day, he

was making a point about this movie he was in.

He said, I mentioned a review. He said, I don't

read reviews.

Speaker 2: I don't read reviews. I said, you don't read reviews,

Burt Reynolds? He says, no.

Speaker 1: He said, let me tell you why I don't. He said,

years ago, I was just early in my career. I

was at a restaurant one night having dinner. And I

looked over and there in the corner sat Marlon Brando.

And I about lost it. This is Marlon Brando. He said,

I walked up to Marlon Brando, introduced myself. And he says,

I know who you are. I've seen some of your stuff.

He said, you're a good actor. You're going to be

a great actor. Stick with it. You're going to be

a great actor. He said, when Marlon Brando told me

I was a good actor, he said, That's all I

need to hear. I don't need to hear nobody else's

review ever again in my life. I stopped reading reviews 35,

40 years ago because Marlon Brando told me I was

a good actor. You're listening to Eric LaSalle talking about

validation for Walter Mosley.

Speaker 2: I'm Tammy Smiley.

Speaker 1: You are indeed for another three minutes with our friend

and brother, award-winning actor, director, producer, author, Eric LaSalle. His

latest book is out. It's the crime thriller. It's a

good one. Laws of Solomon, the fourth installment in this

acclaimed Martyr Maker series. Again, just a couple minutes left here.

So I know, Eric, because somebody told me that you're

into book five and that you're almost done. And as

I suggested earlier, for a guy who does what you do,

it seems like a pretty easy pivot from five books

to a series. Am I on to something here?

Speaker 2: You're on to something. So I literally just... sent the

fifth book off to my publisher today. Wow. Wow. Congratulations.

Speaker 1: Congrats.

Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. I mean, we still got work.

There'll be some edits, et cetera. But the whole point

was to, after having five books, then start really looking

at um, shopping it as a series because that represents

five seasons because we have five different cases. Uh, and

so that's a, you know, I wanted to have that complete. So, uh,

so now, so yeah, so now we're there. So, uh, yeah, that's, that's,

that's always been the goal, bro. You know, because you know,

it is, it's, it's owning IP. It's, uh, it's empowerment,

which is what we need, particularly, you know, right now

with what's going on in the industry of, you know,

instead of just waiting for, you know, trying, trying to create. So,

Like I said, I've been working on it for 14 years,

and now after book five, we're ready to try to

take it to the next level. So that's definitely the goal. So, yes,

you are definitely on to something.

Speaker 1: I told Eric the last time I saw him face-to-face,

I love many things about him, but one of the

things is he is intentional. His brother knows what he's doing.

He's written these five books. They have done well. Each

book has outsold the prior. He's found an audience for

his characters, and now after five books, he starts shopping

it for a series. You got five seasons already in

the can, essentially, intellectually in the can, and now you

just do the work. And he ain't afraid to do

the work, and he's done it rather well on the stage,

on the big screen, on the small screen, now in

written form. We love us some Eric LaSalle. Eric, congratulations

again on Laws of Solomon. We look forward to the

fifth and look forward to the series somewhere down the road.

Thank you, as always, for the opportunity to talk to you,

my friend.

Speaker 2: Thanks, Tavis. Always a pleasure, my brother. Have a great day, okay?

Same to you.

Speaker 1: Just like that, three hours are gone. Tomorrow is Friday,

so tomorrow is the best of Tavis Smiley on these

stations across America. Thanks for listening all week to the

live program. Check out the best of tomorrow. Some great

stuff you might have missed this week. Happy 100th birthday

to Chuck Berry. And as always, keep the faith.