Director Kenny Leon appeared on CBS This Morning June 5 in honor of the release of his new memoir, Take You Wherever You Go.
The title of his book comes from a saying his grandmother used to tell him: 鈥淪he said, 鈥楾ake you wherever you go,鈥� and I wear these shoes to remember her, because these shoes remind me to stay grounded and remember that you're just a country boy from Tallahassee, Florida who grew up in St. Petersburg.鈥� Leon was raised by his grandmother in his earliest years before moving to live with his mother and stepfather.But his grandmother鈥檚 wisdom stuck with him. 鈥淵ou've got a better chance at being yourself,鈥� Leon explains. 鈥淚've gotten to where I am now because I'm authentically Kenny Leon. I'm not like anyone else. When I work with Denzel [Washington] or Sam Jackson I think they like it because I'm my raw authentic self. They test you. They test your trust.鈥�
Leon credits much of his success to his lack of inertia. 鈥淚n life every seven to ten years you have to change jobs to do something else. You can't be a prisoner of what you're doing. So when I left that acting company it led me to go out to the world and become a director.鈥�
He also stresses the importance of diving into unknown territory. 鈥淲hen I did Hairspray Live after I did The Wiz Live!, Hairspray had 800 crew people,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e had never done a live musical like that. I didn't know what I was doing. But I had to step into it.鈥�
The director, who won a Tony for the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, also discussed his recent revival of Children of a Lesser God and Tony-nominated star Lauren Ridloff. Watch the full video interview above.
