Hey, everyone listening to the podcast. This is Ari Melbur. And one thing I've seen in your comments and your

ratings sometimes is references to liking the special extras we do, and this is one of them, a special

interview that I just did sitting down with the acclaimed producer and director Lee Daniels.

He's behind the butler, precious, empire on TV. And this is part of something we've mentioned to you guys a few times, but it's new because it's season two of Mavericks with Ari Melburgh, where we get deeper, longer, in-depth interviews with artists, musicians, cultural icons. The depth we think is a good fit for podcasts. Now, what you're about to hear is Daniels going through a lot of different stuff. He opened up very emotionally about his dealings with things that I think a lot of us can relate to, adversity,

being told you don't belong or aren't good enough, battling addiction. He even goes into depth about

the night that Hallie Berry won her famous historic Oscar for Monsters Ball. He wasn't in the room.

He explains why. I'll let you hear it directly from him. And this, as I mentioned, is part of Mavericks. We have a new season now. So in the coming weeks, right here on the podcast or excerpts on the show sometimes, you'll be able to see Annie Lennox, Swiss beats, music executives, Leor Cohn, and Kevin Lyles. If you want to go back, you can see past versions of Mavericks with Chris Red from S&L, Transparent

Creator Jill Soloway, and actress Chloe Grace Moretz.

So Lee Daniels is coming up on this podcast, but the other ones you can always find at

MSNBC.com slash Mavericks.

As always, if you do give us a rating, we appreciate it, five stars or whatever

you think we deserve. And please feel free to leave a comment. You can tell from me mentioning

that you guys like the exclusives that I do read and we read the comments, good, bad, or in

between. Now, without further ado, my special exclusive interview with Lee Daniels.

Hello and welcome to Mavericks with Ari Melbert today. I'm thrilled

to be joined by the one and only Lee Daniels, director, executive producer, precious, the

Butler, Empire, and obviously a whole lot more. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you very much,

Ari. You're not afraid of the things that people spend a lot of time running from,

whether it's in a theater or in life, pain, abuse, racism,

and you are showing people things they might not want to think about.

There is humor in dark, and that there is light in dark.

It is my job to find the light and the darkness and then to show it to you guys on screen.

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