The Accutron Show

The power of an imaginary friend with Jay Ellis.

Episode Summary

To conclude this season of The Accutron Show, our hosts David Graver and Indrani talk to actor, writer and philanthropist Jay Ellis. Together they talk about Jay's book called "Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? ", a testament to the importance of invention, trusting oneself, and making space for creativity. Jay has also starred in the HBO hit series "Insecure" and in the blockbuster movie "Top Gun: Maverick". Join us for one last time for this season and use your imagination until we return to you.

Episode Notes

To conclude this season of The Accutron Show, our hosts David Graver and Indrani talk to actor, writer and philanthropist Jay Ellis. Together they talk about Jay's book called "Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? ", a testament to the importance of invention, trusting oneself, and making space for creativity;It is a memoir of a kid who confided in his imaginary sidekick to navigate parallel pop culture universes (like watching Fresh Prince alongside John Hughes movies or listening to Ja Rule and Dave Matthews) to a lifetime of birthday disappointment (being a Christmas-season Capricorn will do that to you) and hoop dreams gone bad. Jay has also starred in the HBO hit series "Insecure" and in the blockbuster movie "Top Gun: Maverick". Join us for one last time for this season and use your imagination until we return to you.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

7:00 I grew up in the 80s and 90s, I moved around quite a bit. I went to 12 schools in 13 years. So I had an imaginary friend, his name was Mikey and he was a mix of Dwayne Wayne from "A Different World" and Fresh Prince from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". 

21:17 The movie industry is an industry of "runs''. People go on runs; sometimes they last for years, some times are also gone for years. One thing I always try to remember is that it's all a journey. 

26:00 To be able to work on a documentary about Sue Bird was one of the most incredible projects I worked on in my life. We received so many "no's" for this project but we made it and it was great, especially to see it screened at Sundance.