M@: Obviously, as a young man you were creative and talented, but might not have had the opportunities that you do now, to work with such talented people. What’s it like now to be successful and have your pick of who you want to work with?

Jerry Bruckheimer: I wish I had my pick! A lot of people I pick I can't get to do it. It's about being a good salesman, trying to sell your material to get people to do it. I wish I could, there are a lot of artists I would love to work with.

Fellow interviewer: This movie showcases a lot of talented young black actors. Why in Hollywood do black men play stereotyped roles—especially in sports?  There are not many options for a young black actor.

JB: I'm gonna disagree with you're there. I made Bad Boys, I made Beverly Hills Cop. Beverly Hills Cop was written for a white actor. Bad Boys was written for white actors—wasn't written for African-Americans. I just pick the best actors. I didn't see the color. And when you look at Will Smith's career, he just had a relationship with a white girl onscreen in Hitch. People don't see him of color. They just see him as a really good actor. I see him the same way, I see Eddie Murphy as a really good actor, I see Will Smith, I see Martin Lawrence. I cast these people because they're really talented. It's not about the white or black. I think I'm making my third movie with Denzel Washington.

Fellow interviewer: There are some spiritual overtones in the movie. The gospel scene… the music was just really heartwarming. I was just wondering about the spirituality of the movie. What was behind that decision?

L-R: Jerry Bruckheimer, former Kentucky player Pat Riley, and actor John Voit as Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp

JB: You know, it's just what emotionally moves me. The scene had to have a heartbeat to it, and it also has to tell the audience how to, to lead you along in what the filmmaker's trying to say to you, what the actors are trying to say to you. That kind of music, the gospel music, kind of gave a voice of the soul to the characters.

M@: Teenagers struggle with identity. What would you go back and tell the young Jerry Bruckheimer?

JB: I was somebody who struggled with education, because when you can't read well people think you're stupid. Whenever I had to read out loud, I was stumbling around, so I wasn't considered a bright kid. Don't let that hold you back, there's always something, and if you want it bad enough you'll get it.

What you have to do is be honest about what you're good at, and I've always been good at organizing things…I organized a baseball team when I was like ten, a hockey team when I was eleven or twelve. So I could always put things together, make them kind of work. I enjoyed getting the satisfaction of standing back and watching something work, which is what I do now. I was there [at the theater] last night, watching the movie and watching you all enjoy it. I still get more satisfaction from that than from doing anything else, makes you feel good.

Kids today when they're searching for something and they get beat up by their parents and beat up by their teachers. You can't have all that negativity around you. You have to learn from it, try to improve, and keep it away from you. It's like [Coach] Haskins, he said, "I don't wanna hear can't or won't." That's what it's about. Don't let all the negative things you hear tear you down.

Find out what you're really good at and what you wanna do, what isn't work for you… I'd love to be Tom Cruise, I'd love to be a great actor, but I'm not good at those things, so I've found something that I'm good at, that I enjoy doing, and it's not work.

M@: It seems that you've known this your whole life. That you have had that confidence your whole life to bring you to the point where you are now.

JB: No, no, the best artists are insecure. They're always looking for a better way. The ones that are real cocky and confident, they're insecure and they're not telling you, and they won't accept things. That's just the way it is. I work with directors and writers who think that their stuff is God's gift to humanity, chances are it isn't. They think it is but it isn't. The best directors, the best writers are always looking for a better way, they're always looking for somebody to give them a better idea; they don't care where the idea comes from. They couldn't care less, that's the difference.