Kendrick Sampson likes to stay busy
How are you doing?
What are you up to these days?
What are you busy with?
I’m all right.
I’ve had a challenging few days.
And, of course, doing my career stuff.
So you’re staying busy.
Yeah, I’ve been definitely staying busy.
Do you give yourself time off?
Do you give yourself allocated weekends, or are you a seven-day-a-week worker?
So we’re talking about hours, not days at a time, of a break?
No, hasn’t gotten to days yet.
I’m working on it.
What do you like to do on your time off usually?
Or your hours off?
I like to eat.
Rarely, I get to jump on the piano.
I [play] piano a lot.
But yeah, mostly it’s eat, play spades, dance.
I like to play music around my house, and I don’t go out and dance like that.
Definitely not in LA.
But I have a great time, even by myself, often dancing around this house.
That’s a really specific skill.
So that’s excellent.
I do enjoy me.
Are there any projects you’re working on that it’s possible for you to tell us about?
Anything that’s coming up?
Nothing I can tell you about yet.
Episode 2 [of “Insecure”] is coming up.
I just thought that was really powerful.
And I just commend you so much for writing it and for saying what you said.
Yeah, of course.
Do these cops actually keep us safe?
Well, what about internally?
We started [at] basically the end of 2018.
[That] was when we first got a small grant, our first grant.
And I’m really grateful to be able to say that.
And we also see a huge, huge rollback right now on everything we’ve achieved.
I think culturally we’ve sprung forward exponentially.
How do you shift between those roles that are seemingly contradictory?
And I mean that with the liberation movement at large, across the world really.
But as far as the seemingly contradictory roles, I don’t see them as contradictory.
I see them as complimentary.
There’s always going to be a lot of resistance.
I think our job is liberation.
So the career is always to complement that work.
The career is not your purpose.
Your passion is not your purpose necessarily.
You’re passionate about doing those things, but they’re tools for liberation, not the opposite.
That’s an excellent response.
It’s definitely on my mind.
So the first episode just premiered, which is exciting.
A whole lot of laughs, a lot of plot twists.
I don’t think they’re forced.
And I think it’s highlighted in here, but there’s a lot of laughs.
There’s a lot of laughs.
A lot of hilarious moments.
A lot of drama, as you know.
And then how do you feel about it being the final season?
How are you feeling about it?
I totally understand the responsibility to audiences that really invest in these stories and these characters.
And so I think if she’s pleased, I’m pleased.
Issa Rae and Kendrick Sampson are like ‘kids’ around each other
Yeah, absolutely.
And how have you found it working with Issa?
What’s that experience been like for you?
She’s great, she’s great.
I think we are children around each other.
So just like you are on the show, yeah?
Just like big-a** kids and can’t help it.
And that makes it really comfortable and pleasant.
She’s a pleasant person, just funny, and has a great smile, a great laugh.
And she’s a good boss, you know what I’m saying?
She gives people their due.
She makes sure that she lifts people up and gives people that aren’t normally given opportunities, opportunities.
So I don’t know what I could say outside of that.
I met her in the audition.
That was the first I had met her.
I’ve known Yvonne [Orji] for years, actually.
We went to church together.
Elle, I’ve known her from … she’s from Houston.
I grew up in Houston.
I’ve known her for forever.
So I knew a lot of people going in.
That made it good.
And then, they just happen to have common values that we all held.
So it was a good recipe.
Insecure is unlike any show Kendrick Sampson has worked on before
Yeah.
Good combination of people.
This is the Blackest show I’ve been on, which is wonderful.
The best thing; it’s the best.
I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of other Black creatives, but not like this show.
I know more Black women directors now than, I think, any other demographic.
And Black directors in general.
Yeah, it’s been a blessing.
It’s been different.
Yeah, for sure.
And what that difference has been like for you?
Yeah, I think it’s encapsulated in last year.
That it’s possible.
That is how I see it.
It’s just, there was something inherent …
I’m not saying every show with mostly Black creatives would take action the same way our project did.
I’m not saying that, necessarily, because we’re not a monolith.
We all have different reactions and s***.
Make it even better.
Are Kendrick Sampson and his character Nathan similar at all?
In what ways do you think you and Nathan are similar?
Or do you not think you’re similar at all?
We’re similar in that we both like barbecue.
We [are] both from Houston.
He [doesn’t] like guacamole.
I’m not down with that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It’s a texture thing.
It’s a texture thing.
I get it, but I don’t.
Because I got texture things too, but guacamole is guacamole.
How can you live there?"
But anyway, yeah.
We’re similar in a lot of ways and dissimilar in a lot of ways.
The way we handle conflict is very different.
I’m very much a head-on bang out of person.
I don’t avoid conflict, which is probably …
I’m too the other extreme.
So, I got to pull myself back and be, “Is this worth an argument?
Is this worth the fight?”
So we’re a bit different in that, but
I think I’m very much the same way.
When there’s something I want to confront, I just do it right then, right there.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on.
And I don’t know if that’s necessarily my best attribute.
Sometimes it’s good, yeah.
But I do know him.
I do have him in my family and my friends, and I do care a lot about him.
And I’m protective over him.
That must just be such an interesting dichotomy of wanting to support this character that you are representing.
Well, you know …
Yeah.
Life of an actor, I guess.
Kendrick Sampson believes this is a big misconception about him
Right, right.
S***, I don’t know.
A lot of people are always surprised when I say I play the piano.
So that’s one thing, I guess.
And then, I don’t know.
A lot of people think that I’m very serious.
And you wouldn’t say that about yourself?
You wouldn’t consider yourself serious?
Not even a little bit.
“Insecure” airs 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
