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information visit dignity memorial.com. This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.

Today we wrap up our series classic Films and movie icons with writer and director

Spike Lee and with actor Samuel L. Jackson who's appeared in several

Spike Lee films including Do the Right Thing Jungle Jungle Fever, Mo Better Blues, and School Days.

We'll start with Spike Lee.

His first feature was the now classic 1986 film She's Gotta Have It, which earned him a place as a central figure in independent

cinema and in black cinema. 30 some years later, he adapted the film into an expanded

ten-part series of the same name, which is still available on Netflix.

That was the occasion of my most recent interview with Spike Lee, which we recorded in 2017.

The central character, and she's got to have it it is Nola Darling, a young artist who loves sex but isn't interested in a committed relationship.

She's seeing three men, each a different type, but each wants her to himself.

In the 1986 original,

Spike Lee played one of Nola Darling's boyfriends,

the B-boyboy Mars Blackman, who's deep into hip-hop culture.

I asked Mike Lee to describe the character.

Well, Mars Blackman is the original lead boy,

the original sneakerhead.

He wears a chain around his neck that says Mars he was he was wearing the fresh air Jordans we call

him FOBs fresh out the box. I mean Mars is just crazy. I got the

...