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[0:00] Tonya Pinkins: This is Tonya Pinkins. I'm walking in Amador Park in Panama City. You're listening to the birds and the cars. And also you're listening to You Can't SAY THAT on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:27] Tonya Pinkins: And understand me. We are three years. No, two years into the global pandemic. And I have to say, it's been very good to me. I've been very creative. And not having to participate as fully in civilization has allowed me to decolonize my mind. And also to see how all of us, all of us on the planet, have colonized minds. So I wanted to share an excerpt of my book, Red Pill UNMASKED, which is available as Kindle, as paperback, and as an audiobook. And tell you about how decolonizing my mind has allowed me to live a better life. And that doesn't mean I don't have pain or feel hard things, but it allows me to be clear about what's mine and what's not mine. So enjoy this excerpt of Red Pill UNMASKED and watch the movie. It's available on most platforms. And play the game and find out if you could survive in a red pill world. I'm Tonya Pinkins, and you're listening to You Can't SAY THAT.

[2:08] Tonya Pinkins: Chapter 1. Finish Something. A wonderfully creative friend of mine, Alexis Kelly, attended CalArts. Alexis told me that the then dean of the school, some young Wonderkind, told her at the admissions meeting that he and his genius friends got together once a month to come up with the next million dollar idea. He told her he had a box full of them. He asked her if she wanted to see them. She was very confused by this and just sat there silently. After which he said, Anyone can come up with a million dollar idea. It's more important to finish one idea. Finish one idea.

[3:23] Tonya Pinkins: One, his opponent Hillary Clinton had failed to beat a black man, Barack Obama. So there was no way she was going to beat a white man. Two. Women are more hated in America than even blacks or Native Americans. Three. He was telling the same story that Bernie Sanders had been telling. Of course, 45 had some extra ugliness mixed in. When Bernie dropped out, his followers would flow to 45. When I expressed this to the liberals I knew in New York, they would wrinkle their noses like I'd brought in some bad fish. They would roll their eyes and walk away, shake their heads and wag their fingers with that, and I thought you were smart, disappointed glare. They treated me with contempt. Their contempt terrified me.

[5:11] Tonya Pinkins: How did it happen? It happened because of America's deeply entrenched racism, cognitive dissonance, arrogant ignorance, and performative activism. I stopped going to the meetings because I realized that most of us liberals are pathetic and hopeless. Why? Too much wishful thinking and a refusal to stare at and speak to bald face reality. And as Byron Katie says, you can argue with reality and you will lose, but only 100% of the time. As the 2020 election rolled around, it just got worse. I knew there was no point in saying what I thought to anyone because no one had gotten any wiser. I knew how this was going to turn out, but it wasn't until I was sitting with my friend Kim Sykes at her country house that the idea for RED PILL was born. It was a Sunday in July 2019. This was the second weekend in a row where there had been two mass shootings at outdoor events.

[6:59] Tonya Pinkins: No, you're wrong. What if these shooters have a leader who has a vision for a thousand year reign? Yeah, I was thinking of Hitler. Kim dismissed my idea's foolishness, but it stuck with me. I began ruminating about telling a story of how I believed the 2020 election and its aftermath would turn out. A story that people would tell me was far fetched. So what? Australian sculptor Aegon Veyner said the only appropriate response to abuse is creativity. Gaslighting, even born of ignorance and stupidity, is abuse. So I wrote the script for RED PILL.

[7:50] Tonya Pinkins: They really sparked my imagination. Between these two books, I began to conjure images that would become the film. The idea of cutting to images sent me to the memories of attending Bob McKee's story structure in the late 1980s. I'd done the Robert McKee weekend with my second husband. McKee is a master storyteller, and his teaching is what he preaches. McKee believes that all great stories are built on an image system. Republicans and Democrats have two image systems embedded in them.

[8:45] Tonya Pinkins: When you mean no. How come you say you will? How come you say you will when you will know?

[9:03] Tonya Pinkins: Thanks for listening to You Can't SAY THAT, the show where you can. I'm Tonya Pinkins, and You Can't SAY THAT is part of the Broadway Podcast Network, produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales, with music by Cat Dail. If you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast highly wherever you stream. Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Tonya Pinkins. And to learn more, visit BPN. Stay safe. This is Tonya Pinkins.