From Bridgeport To The Big Screen: Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson's Journey In Acting (Motivational Speech)

In this episode, Reginald D interviews actor, actor, producer, director and stunt actor, Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson. 

Alphonso shares insights about his upbringing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and his journey to success in the entertainment industry. The conversation delves into Alphonso's experiences in Atlanta, his accomplishments in various films and commercials, and his perspective on taking life one step at a time.
Tune in to hear about Alphonso's inspiring story and his reflections on his career.

Alphonso's IMDB and social media:

imdb.me/AQenAten

Instagram: @aqenaten

Twitter (X): @aqenaten

Threads: @aqenaten

Facebook: Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson

Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson

. You may have seen him in Gerard Butler's film, Last Scene Alive, Black Lightning, The Have and Has Nots, and the award-winning film, I Wish I Never Met You, all in a commercial with Tom Brady. Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson is an actor, producer, director, stunt actor, and writer from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the show, Ponzo.

What's good, family?

Everything's good, man. Finally, finally, we got you on the show, man. It's been a while. I've been trying a long time.

Yeah, brother. I'm here, brother. It's a pleasure, man. I know we've been talking about it for a minute, so I'm just glad I had the opportunity to jump on, you know what I mean? Yes, sir. Congratulations, too, on everything, brother. Congratulations, for real.

Thank you, man. Thank you. Back at you, man. All the success you've been having, man, you've been rolling.

Man, I'm just trying to get done what needs to be done, brother. You know, take it one step at a time, one day at a time.

That's it. So Alphonso, you did tell us about growing up in Bridgeport. How was that like?

Yeah, growing up in Bridgeport, man, it was kind of crazy. Moving down here to Atlanta, you know, every time I tell people I'm from Connecticut, they're like, it's black people in Connecticut? I'm like, oh, it's right next to New York, right next to Boston, Massachusetts. Like, do y'all look at a map? You know what I'm saying? Where I grew up in Bridgeport, it was The Hood, Michael Jai White. A lot of people know him. He's an actor, does a lot of action stuff. Dope brother. He actually was a substitute teacher. We graduated from the same high school. And before I seen him, my role models was like the drug dealers, the gangsters, the basketball players, football players, the rappers. Those was my role models. But for him to be a substitute teacher and come to class one day, and this was before he had gotten into Spawn. So he was telling us, he was like, you know, just be on the lookout. I'm doing some things in the acting world. And I had never, like, met an actor before. It never even crossed my mind. But I know growing up, I used to love watching, like, action films with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, King, Denzel Washington, brothers like that. So it was one of those things when you watch a movie, you'll get lost in the character. But I never really thought about that. But that day in the classroom, hearing him say that, it just put a little seed in my head. And that seed eventually, sooner or later, blossomed into who I am now.

That's awesome. That's what I think is very important. When you see young men growing up in tough environments and don't have a lot going on and things like that, you've got all these avenues that you can take. But then if you just listen, and it could be that one person, that one seed, like you said, that could resonate with you and take you on to your journey.

Right. And sometimes it's just being able to listen to somebody who you feel like you got something that you can connect with or some relatable experience. So, you know, with Michael Jai White, he was a brother from Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was in pretty good shape. So that right there, I'm like, OK, I was an athlete. I was playing basketball at the time. So just looking at his build, looking at who he was, OK, we got a couple of things in common.

So, Alphonso, let's talk about your middle name.

Yeah. So A'Qen-Aten  is a pharaoh. He was Amenhotep IV. He's from the 18th dynasty, which was one of the most well-known dynasties in Kemet history, because I don't like to say Egypt sometimes, because Egypt is a name given to Kemet, but Kemet was the name before they named it Egypt. but A'Qen-Aten  or Amenhotep, he was the husband of Nefertiti and the father of Tutankhamun. Everybody knows who Nefertiti is and Tutankhamun. They've heard of them before, but not many people have heard of who A'Qen-Aten was. A'Qen-Aten  was a revolutionary. As the pharaoh, he was the one who said, we're going to scrap everything that y'all thought y'all learned before I became pharaoh. Before that was pantheon of gods. They had to worship multiple gods. It was polytheism. he was the first pharaoh in human history to say, we're going to scrap that and we're going to go with monotheism. And our monotheism is we're going to honor the sun. Not many people take reference to the sun, but you look at your calendars, you look at your clocks and your seasons, everything is governed by the sun, but not many people take account of that. And it's just ironic that When you start to look at some of these passages in the Bible, which is a book that's been revised over numerous generations, it's funny that there's a word that's equivalent to the sun, but it's the S-O-N instead of the S-U-N. Sunrises.

Right. I like that.

A lot of people don't do the research, man. You know, a lot of people, they just take things for face value. But if people really did the research, another powerful thing about A'Qen-Aten  is he was a poet. And so we know that A'Qen-Aten  existed. There's statues of him, there's his works, there's his family, his lineage. So we know he existed. So there's relics of who he was when he was here. And there was a poem that he wrote called Ode to the Sun. This was thousands of years before the Old Testament was even thought about. And the Ode to the Sun, if you look at it, that is where Psalms 104 came from. It was plagiarized from his poetry. But see, like I said, not a lot of people know that because not a lot of people are willing to do the research. They just take things for face value. Like a lot of things from the Bible are remixed from a lot of different sources, a lot of ancient texts, like the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, the emerald clay tablets, the Sumerian clay tablets, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian Book of the Dead or Kemetic Book of the Dead. So many different references that this ancient information comes from. and none of it is to be taken literally. It's actually esoteric knowledge that tries to tell you about the power that you have within yourself. That's why it's so dangerous. Danger is you understanding who you are. Once you understand that, then all bets are off because then you can't be controlled.

Exactly. Yeah. Once a person knows who they are and their purpose in life, nobody can derail it, man. I've seen it so many times. And once you look at everything, look in the mirror, you know what you got to go do. You know, your assignment. Yes, sir. You know, doing your research and understanding and things like that is very important when you live the journey that you're on, because you could be going down a road and trying to do something to live a dream or trying to go to something that you're assigned to do. But. Living a lot going through it because you didn't understand it fully as you went through your journey So yeah, I really appreciate you for that.

But yeah, brother, that's the mission man, you know once upon a time They told people that we know if you look in some of the ancient literature to tell you that God was on the mountaintop and There's some literature that says God is in the clouds Then there's other literature that tells you God is omnipresent out of space all over the place When do they tell you that God is in the mirror? You know what I mean? Once you really understand that and you tap into that, you understand it's not to be taken like as you are God yourself and that's it. We are all a collection of God. See, God is a relatively new word. It's a Jermaic word. So when you look at, you know, the etymology of the word, you'll see it's not that old. So what were they calling God before that word was invented? You know what I mean? Back in ancient Kemet, what we call God, their representation for it was nature, man, woman, and spirit. It wasn't just one being. It was everything inside of you, outside of you. That is how you tap into it. Respecting the environment, respecting the planet, respecting your neighbor, your brother, your sister, your enemy. So I think there's a lot of reworking that we need to do with our minds, man. We need to renew our mind. So there are some things in there that if you tap into it and you really start to like cut through the fat, then you get to the truth. Because the truth is in everything. You can find the truth in a lot, but you just got to know how to ship your antenna and how to decipher it.

That's it. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you're a different breed. I don't know. I might be. I'm going to tell you why. What's up? You have a certain level. People always say, you know, I got a passion for people. You hear people say that all the time, but I noticed you have a certain level of passion for people and things like that. Where does that come from?

I think it's part of the mission. Understanding that, see, here's the biggest trick where they get you, where they can control you. They can control you by making you think this is it. When you think this is it, then you live by those guidelines and you become selfish with life. But when you start to see that there's way more to it than that, like I said one day, me and your cousin, my wife Darlene, we were at our good friend Dallas Austin's house. And I said, it's crazy how a lot of people believe in God, but they don't believe that they can be like God. Like you can live on and on. Like this body is a vessel. It's like, if you look at the word identity, right? So everybody has your IDs for certain things, your driver's license, your work badge, that's your ID, right? But then look at the other part of that identity word, entity. So your ID is just an ID for your entity. So who you think you are, that's who you are for this time, it's just part of your wardrobe. You can be another ID later, but you'll always be the same entity. And that entity is the same thing that connects all of us. It's points of awareness. That's what we all are. So let's say you go into Best Buy. And you say, I want a TV, and you're looking, and you got all these different sizes, all these different makes and models, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, you got LG, you got 60-inch, 50-inch, but all in all, it's just TVs until you plug it into the wall and you get that juice, that energy, that spark. That spark is what we are. We are really that spark just controlling these bodies. These bodies are just tools to navigate around this planet. Your senses, taste, touch, hear, smell, feelings, those are tools that you use to manipulate this world that we're in, to learn this world. Your emotions are energy and motion. All of these things are things that are reverent to these bodies. But we are more than those bodies. And once you really start to break that down and try to, because I can't tell you, this is not something that you should take from my word, It's in everybody else's journey. When you start to do the journey, you start to open up your own door. Because we all have a door to our own sovereignty. You know what I mean? It's a journey for everybody. And it's almost like, if I look at my body, right, I believe, or I've been told that I'm Alphonso. But if I look amongst my body, I have toes, I have fingers. Some parts of my body would never interact with other parts of my body. Like the undercarriage of my big toe would never touch the back of my neck, but it's still me. And then when you start to break down all the millions of cells, millions and trillions of cells that it takes to make an individual, just one individual, these cells are just like us on this planet. You know, you got white blood cells, red blood cells, you got your atoms, You got your DNA, you got dendrites, tetrahedrons, all these different things that, like I said, aren't in relation with each other, but they all make up one thing, and that's you. And that's what we are. We are all multiple pieces of the same picture. But when we start to realize that and understand that, then that's why I feel like I have a duty to service other people, because they really are me when I break it down.

I like that. I like that a lot. So you talked about, you know, going on a journey and being on a journey. So let's talk about your journey into acting. How did that come about?

Well, when I was in Connecticut, I started doing a little bit of modeling. I mean, these weren't things that I ever really pursued, but you know, once I started getting into it, it's almost like there was a path laid for me because I remember my boy in the class or as the substitute teacher, And when he left the class, it was just like, OK, boom, he was dope. That was dope. That's a dope experience. OK, next. I didn't think that was something that would be obtainable for me. So as the years passed, I moved from Bridgeport to New Haven. And when I moved to New Haven, there was a young lady who was like, I think you should consider doing some modeling. And I have some clothing line. I would love for you to get on the stage and do some runway stuff with me. So I did it a couple of times. She was like, you know, you're really good in front of the camera. You should really consider doing more. So I said, yeah, OK, let me check this thing out. So I started going up to New York, and I started getting in some films up in New York, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, all over the boroughs. And then when I moved to Atlanta, and I met my hairdresser, and she was like, I have a photo shoot, and I would love for you to be one of the models in a photo shoot. And then I go to the photo shoot, and the guy, the photographer, he's like, man, you a natural, brother. You really need to start thinking about doing some acting. I told him I did a little bit in Connecticut. I didn't really think about doing it in Atlanta, but I was like, maybe I should pursue it. And that's what started my journey, just started applying for things, looking out for things. And the very first booking that I got was a film called The Promise. It was part of the 11-11-11 project, which was Studio 11 Films. Sharon Thomas, rest in peace, she had this concept where she would have 11 different directors, 11 different producers, 11 different writers. Everybody would be doing a different thing on each of the 11-minute films, because they were all 11-minute films. And they would all be part of one project. And then she also had 11 mentors. And Lisa Rae was the mentor for ours. So I booked the role as the lead, who was the good guy. So, you know, we have months of preparation. And then a week before we were going to shoot, we had to kind of do like a mock simulation of what we were going to shoot and send it to LisaRae so she could approve it. So she was looking at it, she was like, OK, everything's OK, but the bad guy, I don't know if I believe him as a bad guy. I think he's more of a good guy. She said, the good guy is a really good, good guy, but let's see him as a bad guy. And And when I flipped on that bad guy role, there was a young lady whose son was playing the son of the good guy, actually the stepson of the good guy, but the real son of the bad guy. But so at first, she was like, no, you were so good as the good guy, as my son's stepfather. But then when she saw me as the bad guy, she was like, okay, yeah, I'm feeling that. Like, she was like, you got a lot of reign. I believed you in either role. So once Lisa Rae saw that, and after we did a scene where she directed, she came up to me, she was like, You did that. You killed that. So to get that type of reception from somebody, you know, Lisa Rae, Players Club, all of that good stuff, you know, she's dope. So just to get that from a seasoned vet, I was like, oh, yeah, it might be something to this. And that was kind of like the driving force behind me just not giving up with this acting thing. You know, you can do thousands of auditions and never hear anything back. Sometimes you're bookings, maybe a year in between. It could be. And you'll never hear nothing. So you don't know if you're improving. You don't know how far up you've got. If the producers were like, OK, let's take it from the casting director and let's break it down and narrow it down to these three people or these four or five people. So it's been a tough road. But if you're not a quitter, which I'm not, then that's how you receive the fruits of your labor.

Exactly. And think about it. You took the opportunity from Connecticut started lifting the modeling and all that kind of stuff. You took all the opportunity that was coming your way and was like, Hey, I'll try it. I'll give it a shot. And it's kind of this open this doors for you as you were doing. And see, I think it's very important that people got to understand, man, you cannot shy away from opportunities. You know, opportunity that one opportunity could very well be the ones don't take you to the next level.

Yeah. You might quit right before your breakthrough.

Exactly. Exactly. You worked on a variety of projects, and you have a number of roles you've done. How do you approach a new role when you're acting?

When I look at the script, I have to see if I feel like there's a way that I can actually do justice to this character. I have to be able to create my own backstory based off of who I believe that this character is. The beauty of it is, you know, I know a lot of people from back home. So one of the things that I do is sometimes my characters are some of my friends, some of the people I grew up around, family members. That's how I'm able to tap into some of these characters. I'm like, hey, maybe this might be out of my scope, but I know somebody who really would like this. And I just dig into that file cabinet in the back of my brain. And I'm like, what are some of their mannerisms that they used to do? And I try to approach the situation how I think they would approach it. But that's how I attack some of these characters and most of them are bad guys that they make me play But that doesn't mean I know a lot of bad people, you know, so guru one thing that he said, which was very interesting He said the ultimate goal for everybody is to be happy But the difference between you and a criminal is that the criminal is willing to break the law to be happy He's willing to break the law for his happiness if it means steal if it means kill It just means he's willing to go further than you in order to be happy And I was like, so what is good and bad sometimes? Who knows? You know what I mean? At the end of the day, I just know for me personally, I'm not about stepping on anybody's toes. Happiness is what you want to attain and what you make it out to be for yourself. And a lot of my happiness comes from external things like giving to my kids or, you know, hanging, chilling with my wife, seeing people around me do good, seeing them reach their potential. And if I can have anything to do with it, then I'm more than happy to contribute.

That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. So will you take it on a roll? Yes, sir. And then I guess it's kind of me thinking about it because I'm like a one way kind of guy. I don't think I can act worth nothing, but you got to have a certain I feel like a certain method you use. If you want to be this bad guy, you want to be the superhero or whatever case may be. How do you prepare for that being more than one different character?

I guess I'm trying to say, well, it's easy for me because I just look at it like how we move about life and everyday life. We are multiple characters in life. Like I'm a husband to my wife. I'm a father to my kids. I'm a son to my parents. I'm a coworker to my coworkers, a cousin to my cousin, a friend to my friends. You know, I was a teammate to my teammate. So I'm a different person to all of these people. So that's how I'm able to kind of flip the page a little bit, too. Because who are you to the people? Like, sometimes it is your circle that you become or that you acquiesce yourself to. Who do they believe you are? And then sometimes you become who they believe that you are. You know, hanging around, growing up around guys who used to deal with a lot of girls. That was because we knew they were pretty boys and they dealt with a lot of girls. They continuously wanted to make sure we knew that that's what they do. You know what I'm saying? The dudes who were basketball players, they making sure that you know that this is what they do. You know, I'm walking around with a basketball dribbling all day. One, because I probably love it, but two, because y'all love me because I do it and I do it good. You know what I'm saying? So I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. So sometimes it's tapping into those little nuances and those little things that help me bring characters to life. Sometimes they say it's in the detail and that's where it's at. It's in the detail. Sometimes the little things that help you bring things to life.

I never thought about it that way, but that makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. So tell me what's one of the most rewarding moments in your acting career.

There's a couple. One was doing Last Seen Alive. Doing Last Seen Alive. Of course, this is a production with Gerard Butler. So Gerard Butler had stunt doubles. He had body doubles. He had his own stunt coordinator that travels with him. I mean, brother ain't no joke. So there was a scene where I had to be shot by him. And I guess not a lot of actors do their own stunts. So they were coming up to me, kind of coerced me in what I needed to do, kind of like, well, you know, this is how just you got to try to sell it. When he shoots you, you're going to have to try to fall this way. And in the back of my mind, I'm like, bro, I got you. And on the first take, when they shot me, the way that I fell, like they started clapping. And it was, you know, this is Gerard Butler. He came up to me. The director came up to me. He was like, we got to do it a couple more times because we got to get different angles, but continue doing it just like that. And the stunt coordinator, his personal stunt coordinator came up to me. He's like, you train, huh? And I was like, I do a little something. So I can tell. So so for me, that was probably a very rewarding moment because I did start doing a little bit of choreography training like months prior to that. And at that point, I didn't know I would be doing a film with Gerard Butler. But sometimes you just don't know. You don't know what you don't know until you know.

Right. And it's kind of crazy when you get there and you're doing this one scene and it's part of whatever, and then you nail it the first time and people be like, man, it's like, I didn't expect that. And all while you had to come to this, like, man, I got this. So your recent performance, I Wish I Never Met You, it received widespread acclaim. Can you tell us about the experience of working on that project?

Yeah, that was another project that was pretty challenging because I had associate produced on a film before, but this was the first one where I was like hands on with the associate producing. I was doing a lot of things behind the scenes. So one thing, shout out to Zane. She's Christina Roberts. She's actually the writer and producer of I Wish I Never Met You. When she was thinking about the character, and she told me that she had an inkling in her mind where the character would be an ex-Marine who was in a wheelchair. And she said, do you think this is something that you would be able to pull over? And I'm like, if I said I could do it, I'm going to do it. So I started doing my homework on it. I was making sure, like, when I was on set, I was making sure my legs wasn't moving, I was in a wheelchair. Prior to, I went around to a couple of hospitals, tried to talk to some vets, talked to some people who were kind of like in wheelchairs and things like that, just trying to understand their everyday process on life, because I wanted to apply that to the character, because that's something I had obviously no experience of for myself, but I can't really say that I know many people. that had experienced that. So sometimes that's where you got to do your homework and your research too, in order to bring a character to life. If you don't know anybody who is going through what the character is going through, you might have to find somebody yourself. That's amazing. Yeah. So along with that, it was a balance between performing on camera and then after action or cut, going back to behind the scenes and say, okay, what needs to be done? Okay, we got to fix this. I got to move this around, get these people ready, help this person with their lines. I was like kind of like a jack of all trades on that one, trying to do everything. Yeah. And it was one of those things that it showed you, you know, put the weight on your shoulders. And if you can carry it, then you're looking at yourself like, okay, that's something that I can do from far away. It looked daunting. It looked like it was going to be a daunting task. But once you get through it, it's like, I was able to do that. So it doesn't stop there. There's directing and producing, and I feel like that's part of my mission as an actor. It's not about the acclaim. It's not about being famous and getting a whole bunch of money. You got to understand, this is a medium that has been used to change the narrative on the way we see things. Once upon a time, there was the word of mouth. Then it went to hieroglyphics and things on stone. Then they were able to put things on paper and books. And then fast forward all the way to early 18th century, then you had radios. You know, you can hear what they want you to hear. Then you visualize it in your mind. Once you hear it, you hear these frequencies. But then once they invented that TV, that television, that big screen, now they can actually implant what they want you to think. They can give you these visions straight to your mind through what you see through this eye gate right here. So I'm like, if they can use that to program us in so many different facets, why can't we use it to unprogram ourselves? So that's part of the mission as get in front of the camera so I can get behind the camera, learn it. Being in front of the camera has taught me a lot about what goes on behind the camera, especially being on some big, big project. All I do is pay attention and become a sponge.

Yeah. And one thing I'm a backup on something that really stood out for me, and I think this is part of being great. and the way you do things is that you had a role as a veteran in a wheelchair. And you went, because you're not in a wheelchair in real life, so you went and visit veterans, went to the hospital, and you talk to people who have been in wheelchairs just to get a feel of how that life is to help you be better at that role, be the best at that role that you're going to play.

Right. Well, and the crazy thing is, you know, after a couple of premieres, we did a premiere in Atlanta. Then there was another premiere in D.C. or Maryland. And in both of those premieres, people came up to me who were ex vets, who had PTSD. And they were like, were you? Did you, sir? Like, how do you know? Like, you tapped into the emotion of just exactly how I feel. And that's why I say I try to do the homework, because even, you know, he had to use a colonoscopy bag. So there's a scene where I'm actually talking to my brother, and I'm cleaning myself with a colonoscopy bag. And I wanted to make sure I got that right, because there are people who really live like that. So that's what I'm saying. So some people were approaching me like, how do you know? You had it down to a science. That is exactly how it is. And to take on a role like that, I don't want to do anybody any disservice. So shout out to all our ex-veterans. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to anybody handicapped in a wheelchair and shout out to anybody that has to go through having colonoscopy bags and all of that. You know, all I was trying to do was be an artist, but this is everyday life for them.

Yeah. And the thing that's important is that people They want to be out in the front, and they want to show their talents and all that kind of stuff, but they don't want to do the homework and the things behind the scenes to make it great when you step out there in the forefront. And that separates the good from the greats, man. At the end of the day, I don't want to be just good.

I got to be great. Got to be great, brother.

That's it. That's it. So Alfonso, can you tell us about any upcoming projects that you may have that you can share with us?

Yes. If anybody here watches Tubi, I'm on a couple of different projects on Tubi, like Hood Riches 1 and Hood Riches 2. It's getting a lot of critical acclaim. A lot of people are really enjoying it. And I will be in the process of shooting Hood Riches 3, probably in the next couple of months. I'm also doing some of my own projects. Can't really talk too much about them right now. But if you look on my page on Instagram or my page on Facebook, you'll see one of my latest posts. is a little project that I did with Dallas Austin. I have a project coming up called Black Vinyl that I'm a part of, and my character is an ex-con, but he's also a battle rapper. That may tap into a little bit of what I used to do back in the day. I used to freestyle a lot, used to rap when I was a little jit, is what they call it. I had to tap back into it, probably say up to the past, up to probably like 2000 and maybe 14. I was doing some poetry out here too, spoken word poet, but then you know I started getting tired of the circuit a little bit and just started focusing more on acting, but I've always been a writer, so that's where the hip-hop stuff comes into play. So that's a character that I'll be working on too, and then there's some work coming down the pipeline potentially with me doing some music.

All right. So finally, Alfonso, what advice would you give to somebody who is an aspiring actor or individual that wants to get into acting as a part of their dream?

I would say first, wish your why. Find your why. That should be the foundation of why you're doing what you're doing. You know, some people are doing it, like I said, because they want to be famous. Some people are doing it because they want to be popular. Some people are doing it because they believe that you can make a lot of money doing it. But once you start doing it, you know, when I tell you and people who are full time actors can tell you better not to tell you because I have a full time job. So I kind of I'm balancing between being a part time actor and a full time employee. And then I also own my own production company at this point. So I'm juggling a lot of different things. But the people who are just depending on roles to be paid, It's almost like they're probably making less than minimum wage because you have to think about all of the time that they're putting into memorizing lines, all the auditions that they do. And some of them might book two joints a year, you know what I'm saying? And that might even be reoccurring roles. It may be a day role. So it's good when you've got a buzz, you know, when you've got a buzz, when you start picking up momentum, then you start to get that constant, you know, that clicking that's like, okay, you're getting booked left and right. But that's not 20% of the actors. It's probably like 10, 15%. So, like I said, you got to know your why, because if you're thinking that you want to do it for a reason that's not going to serve you, then you're going to quit. You're going to quit. You're going to look at yourself completely differently. You're going to say, I'm not good enough. People don't like me. There's going to be so many different things running through your head. But it's just maybe it's just not your time. I had to realize certain roles, they just aren't for me, no matter what. So and I'm at peace with that. I'm one of the bigger actors. So sometimes it's like this guy is way too big to share the screen with our lead. And then, you know, of course, there's films that are time pieces, where it seems like Hollywood doesn't want people to know that there were locks before Jamaica or Bob Marley. Like anything before the 70s, if you have locks in your hair, to them, they feel like you didn't exist and nobody else had them. So, you know, so don't get me started on that right there. But yeah, I say, once you can find out your why, then it could fuel you in a different direction. And hey, you may have to juggle, you may have to do some other things while you're acting too, but you won't start to look at acting as a burden because it almost becomes a passion and a love for it.

That makes a lot of sense, man. So Alfonso, how can people follow your journey on social media?

Yeah, for anybody that wants to follow me on social media, they can find me on Instagram at Akhenaten, that's A-Q-E-N-A-T-E-N. And on facebook alfonso akhenaten jackson, that's alphonso akhenaten Jackson on twitter or x akhenaten On youtube akhenaten.

I mean you find me and those are spelled the same way aqn18 There you have alfonso akhenaten jackson Brother, I appreciate you stop by and hang out with me for a minute, man

I appreciate you for having me, brother. You know, I know some of the things that I speak about are pretty controversial. So I want to thank you for trusting me with your platform and being brave enough to say, hey, I want to hear what you have to say and other people should hear what you have to say, too. And thanks for you saw we were supposed to get on at one o'clock and like ten forty five. I'm hitting you up. I'm like, OK, let me try to make sure I got everything together. And it seemed like we had everything together. And then all of a sudden now the sound is messing up. the mic keeps chipping in and out. But I guess it's because we got something to say. 

SP