Tracy Morgan On How ‘The Last O.G.’ Is “A Show About Crack With Commercials,” The Power Of Second Chances, And His Foreskin

When you interview Tracy Morgan, especially when he’s on fire like he was when I spoke to him earlier this month, you need to just buckle up, forget about your questions, and go along for the ride. What’s edited out of the transcript below is my saying “Yeah” a lot, or starting a question that was interrupted because he hadn’t finished his last thought. But when Tracy gets going, no topic is off-limits.

He was promoting the second season of his TBS comedy The Last O.G., where he plays Tray Barker, a convicted drug dealer who gets released after 15 years in prison to find that not only has the Brooklyn he loved become a gentrified hipster haven, but his girlfriend Shay (Tiffany Haddish) is now married to a white food writer named Josh (Ryan Gaul). He also finds out he has twin teenage kids, Amira (Taylor Mosby) and Shazad (Dante Hoagland). During the second season, Tray takes a huge chance and parlays his prison cooking skills into a food truck business, supported by Josh and Shay.

During our call, we talked about why The Last O.G. is an unexpectedly heartwarming show, the unique (for TV) friendship Tray has with Shay and Josh, and if we might see his first season nemesis Wavy (Malik Yoba) if there’s a third season. Oh, and we talk about his foreskin, or lack thereof. Read on and you’ll find out what that means.

DECIDER: What do you think had changed in the vibe of the show from Season 1 to Season 2?

TRACY MORGAN: Well, now you’re on the inside, now you’re on the inside. First season you’re on the outside, it’s like The Godfather, first Godfather, you’re on the outside, you learn about the gangster stuff. Second Godfather you’re on the inside, you see Clemenzo’s wiping the tomato sauce off, now you’re in the family, you’re in the family, you learn about the family. You remember? The first Godfather is the gangster stuff, Vito Corleone. The second you learn about how it all started, when Michael was a baby, how he became the Godfather, you learn about the family. Now you’re on the inside.

Was the intention all along to make it more of an ensemble in the second season?

Yeah, well that comes from 30 Rock, that’s my 30 Rock training. With an ensemble, so I’m taking bits and pieces from everything, The Honeymooners, 30 Rock, Stayin’ Alive, just all my training.

What do you think the 30 Rock training brought you?

The ensemble, all these different characters. You learned about — Tina Fey had all these different characters, and they blended, and they worked, their world, we want these characters to be shown in detail.

What do you think the message you want people who are watching season 2 to get from Tray’s journey?

Well, we always say in the show, “Second chance is a beautiful thing.” The message is you can’t throw, like prison reform, you can’t just throw somebody away ’cause they incarcerated. We all make mistakes. Forgiveness, love and forgiveness, it’s a dark premise, but we color in a dark place. Shay has to let [Tray] back into [his] kids’ life. Y’know, you learn that first season. That’s the message I’m trying to convey. Live and let go.

With that, when we first see Tray get out, he wants to get back together with Shay, but at some point he-

I’m guilty of all of that, hey, I’m guilty of it, I’m guilty of condemning, I’m guilty.

Condemning who?

Me and my wife were just arguing about that, me condemning one of her friends.

Okay, why?

Nothing. ‘Cause one time I didn’t like the girl, didn’t, I just let it go, she’s telling me, can’t mourn stuff, ’cause you want to condemn people. Condemnation is bad.

You feel like that’s a lesson you have to keep learning?

Yeah, maybe people go and condemn Tray Barker ’cause he went to prison. He’s out, he served his time, can’t condemn him. Can’t keep referring to him as convict ’cause he isn’t.

Like you said, people can change, and people can change in positive ways.

Absolutely. Blame, condemnation, criticism, and complaint. The four Debbie horsemen. That’s a short relationship, Shay had to get past it. Or [Tray] would’ve gone and get [his] kids’ life, Shay had to get past it. You’ve seen all of season 2, for the first time his son (Shazad, played by Dante Hoagland) said, “I love you.” That’s the last episode, he said, “I love you,” for the first time. Pay attention to that!

That’s great, I say, “I love you,” to my kid all the time, because at one point I wanted, whenever she says it back to me-

You wanna know what’s the most harmful thing to say to a child? You wanna know what’s the most harmful thing? Calling them stupid, calling them stupid, you’re not supposed to do that.

I don’t like using that word in my house at all, so-

Me and my wife say a lot of things, and we argue like any other relationship, but we never use the word “stupid.”

That’s just not the right thing, it’s not the great word.

It ain’t the right thing to do, so this is, you ask me a question about what this show is about, it’s about that, that’s part of it.

A lot of people want a hit. I don’t want a hit, I want history. 30 Rock, the Honeymooners, Lucille Ball, that’s history. I’m trying to do the same thing with The Last O.G., I want people to remember me. When I’m long gone dead I want my kids to see this on Nick at Nite. There’s nothing on TV like The Last O.G. ’cause Tracy Morgan has always been known for thinking outside the box. For my personality, and my imagination, that box is too small for me to live in. The Last O.G. is outside the box, it’s way outside the box!

[Laughs] Well, one of, one of the things I like about your show-

You know that, that’s why you’re laughing about it. Because it’s outside the box, baby, there’s nothing on TV like it. We selling crack, this the most honest show about crack… with commercials! It’s a show about crack, with commercials!

I do love how earnest the show is, and how warm-hearted it is–

And it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you could be from Bangladesh, you get it, it’s the truth, everybody can relate and deal with the truth, ’cause listen, this is about gentrification, man. This is really going on in Brooklyn, all around the world. What you gonna put them to the, I’m, listen, I’m all for “save the neighborhood,” and making it more productive, but where you gonna put them displaced people?

You’ve seen the season finale, you saw Do The Right Thing! It don’t matter what color you was, you felt a certain way when they choked out Radio Raheem! But it’s not just in Brooklyn, it’s going on all around the world. Things are changing.

But Tray seems to going with it, Was the intention that all along Tray is gonna try to adapt as well as he can to the new version of Brooklyn that’s different than what he left in the early 2000s?

Listen, Tray Barker understood why the dinosaurs ain’t here no more. They didn’t evolve quick enough. He’s just evolving. You have to, ’cause when you go to prison, time stops. I say that. When you go to prison time stops, I said that the last episode. You gotta catch it, time stops, it literally does. But he got Bobby, he got Bobby with him, so he don’t gotta feel like he’s playing catch-up, he feels that way, but Bobby’s right there to help him along.

That was ingenious, having Allen Maldonado play both Bobby and his older brother Clyde, to kind of make it that continuous thing.

Well, you know we got that from, I got that from Al Pacino, where you see him play three different Latinos distinctively, Scarface, Carlito’s Way, and another one, he plays, you could tell who’s Columbian, who was Cuban, and I’d say Allen Maldonado did an incredible job, ’cause Bobby is different, Bobby is, he’s kind, but Clyde was a cold-blooded motherfucker. [Tray] was his cousin, and he sent me away for 15 joints, just ’cause he was, everybody knew him as lazy, it was Clyde, we ain’t even visit that yet, we gonna visit that season 3, what happened to Clyde, how he got it, who the fuck killed him, We have so many storylines to visit, everybody in the halfway house.

I was gonna say, Tray’s been in that halfway house for quite a long time, is he still gonna be there in season 3?

Well, if you watched every episode, you’ll see, you’ll see, everybody moves on, man. I might take over the halfway house, who knows.

One of the stories that I think was really good was the story of Josh (Ryan Gaul), because he was such a kind of a caricature in the first couple episodes, as the nerdy white guy. But then you guys gave him a really good backstory. Was that something you guys always had, to begin with, or developed as the first season went on?

Well, that would be a question for Jordan Peele. That was Jordan Peele, to make [Shay’s] husband white and all of that. That came from Jordan Peele. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The way he did that was brilliant. We’re not going to act like there’s not biracial kids. He’s biracial. My wife is biracial. So the biracial population is growing. That’s reality so, yeah. It was awesome. When it’s like that, it’s not the spouse’s business to worry about what color God made your wife. Or your husband. It’s just your business to love them.

You’ve got to understand, Josh was there and thank God that Josh was there because when [Tray] got incarcerated he was there to step in. My kids were raised to accept it.

I like the fact that the two of you guys, that Josh and Tray get along and it’s not “Oh, Tray’s going to try to get Shay back”.

Well, that was Shay’s place to do that. That was Shay’s place to do that, because we didn’t, we bumped heads in the beginning. But you need to realize and understand that those are my kids. They’re biologically mine. They’re yours too, you raised them so, we gotta get along.

Do you think it’s rare to see that kind of maturity on a TV show where it’s not like there’s a rivalry or, that everybody is trying-

Didn’t I just tell you with think out the box over here at The O.G? Didn’t I just say that? But we outside the box!

It does work because you guys get into a nice comfortable rhythm.

Damn right. As Shaft says, you damn right.

You and Tiffany have worked together probably and you’ve probably known Tiffany for years. What do think-

No I haven’t, actually. I haven’t. I met Tiffany the first table read of The Last O.G.

What did you see? Because what I love about her as an actress and comedian is that she can just kind of change her mode and manner and mood in a finger snap. It could just go from pleasant to, she furrows her brow and she’s pissed. What did you see from her during that table read? What did you see that you were surprised about?

Well, she had all the qualities of being … to have kids with a Tracy Morgan from the ghetto and to evolve into what she became and have a white husband. She had the ability to play both sides. She experienced the ghettos and the suburbs. And she was able to stay her but know exactly what room she was in. She knew what room she was in. Everybody don’t know how to switch up and know what room they in.

I thank God that I have (my co-stars) working beside me. I thank God that I have them working beside me to help me get The O.G. up off the ground for me and Jordan Peele. So, that’s what I like to focus on. Just being thankful that I was blessed with a great … just like Tina Fey. Blessed with an awesome cast. Blessed! And for the second season, blessed. Being thankful for it. Being thankful for it.

By the way, are we going to see Wavy (Malik Yoba) again in the third season?

Well, first of all, we’re still praying that we get picked up for a third season. We don’t want to jump the gun. We don’t want to do that. That’s not what we do at The O.G. We just want to work hard and hope everybody enjoys the second season enough to warrant a third season. Then we will begin to focus on the characters and the storylines. Hopefully, God wishing, hopefully you will see Wavy again. Because Wavy is a big part of season 1 so, of course he’s gotta come back around, because there’s back stories to everything. There’s back stories to everything. It’s just interesting. You’ve seen season 1. You’ve seen season 2. That would go back to season 1. You gotta cover those stories.

You’ve seen all of season 2. You’re about to meet my mother (played by Anna Maria Horsford). That was hard for me to do those scenes.

Why was that?

That was very hard. My mom is my mom. You know, a mother’s disappointment is way worse than a mother’s anger. To this day I’ll never forget my mother’s face when she found my crack stash. I’ll never forget it. It’ll stay with me forever.

Was that reflected in that scene where she kicked young Tray out of the house? Is it kind of similar?

That was it. That was it. I wasn’t even there on the set that day.

Too hard to take?

Didn’t want to relive it, man. My mom, man. Broke her heart, man.

How much of Tray is you?

Well, Jordan Peele, that is a question for Jordan Peele. I’m on the inside so, that’s Jordan Peele. You would have to ask Jordan. He knows. He’s one of my boys, he knows me. Yeah, I spoke to him. Me and him kicked it like that.

Are you surprised when people like Tina Fey and Jordan Peele get your voice and your style and what you like to do on a show?

No, I’m not surprised because I give them access to me. I do me; not everybody, a lot of people change. Like we were just talking about, a lot of people know how to change. I just stay me. I stay me. Nobody knows me better than my wife though. My wife … everybody knows Tracy Morgan, my wife knows Tray. She knows me inside out. Only my wife on this planet knows if I’m circumcised or not.

I’m glad that she’s the only one, Tracy.

She’s knows that! She’s the only one that knows that! Only she knows if she’s gotta get that skin back, that foreskin. My wife is the only one to know if I carry a foreskin!

What does she think of Tray the character?

You gotta ask her that. [To his wife] Mooby? They wanna know how you feel about foreskin and if I have any or not. [Laughing in the background] Got no comment? She has no comment.

That’s good.

My wife is embarrassed, she says no comment. She’s not going to discuss my foreskin.

I would hope not. I would hope not.

She says she ain’t going to discuss that. Only two people know if I got foreskin, her and Michelle Obama, goddammit!

How has your approach to your life and career changed since the 2014 accident where a tractor trailer hit your tour bus on the New Jersey Turnpike?

Of course, my approach to life, yeah, I won’t take it for granted. I mean, I don’t dwell on the accident anymore. I’m still the same. I still approach it the same. I just got close to God but, I was always close to God. It didn’t take no Walmart truck. My dad introduced me to him and I’ve been the same really as I was before. I just take it a little bit more serious. You know, I almost lost my family; my wife and my daughter was on tour with me every show, except for that one. So, yeah there’s trauma. It’s like, yeah, I’m going to be different. Of course, I got hit by a truck! I got hit by a truck!

You don’t think people came back from Vietnam different? Of course they did. My father didn’t go to Vietnam a junkie, he came back that way! My father wasn’t using no heroin at 17, he came back that way. I was scared to death, man. I almost died! Of course I’m going to change, and I would like to say I hope it was for the better.

Do you think this show would have been possible before?

No. No.

Why not?

If I wouldn’t have gotten hit by that truck I wouldn’t be able to make the impact on the world that I’m making right now. It’s a positive, right. Because I was able to get a second chance, that’s where we get it from. Second chance is a beautiful thing, man.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.