On today’s episode of SNAPSHOTS, I am at the Alamo Drafthouse Bryant Street in DC because our next guest has a brand-new film coming out this Friday, May 1st, called One Spoon of Chocolate. An ex-military veteran convict leaves for a small town, where he finds love and more trouble than he can handle. And ladies and gentlemen, here with us to talk about this amazing thing we just saw moments ago, is director, producer, writer, and 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, the RZA!
Nice to meet you, Dean. Respect.
It’s great to meet you too. What was the inspiration for creating such a wonderful masterpiece we just witnessed just a few minutes ago?
The crazy thing is that the art of this one almost came unintentional. It’s almost like Van Gogh having to paint some shit because that’s what he do. I started the story like in 2011 but I got stuck. But then, on the back of a tour bus, me and my wife was riding across the country doing a New York State of Mind tour, which was the writers’ strike at the same time. And it just came out like water. Then, of course, once we had had the first draft, we felt we had something special. We went and got a team and said, Let’s bring this thing all the way home.
And to my knowledge and to my videographer, you really brought out!
Thank you, thank you.
Now we have the protagonist “Unique”, played by Shemik Moore, who you have for your second film. And he’s an ex-convict who served in the US Army. Tell us about making him the protagonist of this film in relation to the service of the military.
Well, at the end of the day, sadly, a lot of our military people get forgotten by our government, forgotten by their families, too. And, you know, there’s a scene in our film where he ends up in the place the forgotten veterans are sent. Now that’s better than jail, but it’s not the reward that belongs to someone who served our country. My wife’s father is a military veteran as well. I think some of his life and story inspired me as well, because he’s the closest military veteran that I know in this phase of my life, and my brother-in-law as well. In fact, I spoke to my brother-in-law, David, about certain things and certain psychologies of the military. He served in the Navy for a long time, and he shared some wisdom that helped me develop Blair Underwood’s character as well.
And did you have any family members who served in the military?
My family’s a different story.
This is your fourth film as a director and writer since the 2010s. Talk to us about your directing style and who some of your influences were in becoming a director.
Well, I was blessed to be introduced to a film directed by Jim Jarmusch first. Then I got a chance to spend time with John Wu. And then, of course, if I want to say I got my bachelor’s degree, I got that from Quentin Tarantino. So those three men have been very influential to my style. But of course, as a cinephile, I watch everyone from Howard Hawks to John Ford to (Roger) Corman. I’m just lost in the cinema. I think Clint Eastwood is a genius in front of and behind the camera.
As a filmmaker over the last decade-plus, I studied from those who taught me, then studied cinema itself, and I strive to use cinema as my tool to tell my story. I’m gonna do my best to make up original stories that I can be inspired by life, inspired by things I come across. But then how do I tell that story? And there’s a beautiful catalog of cinema, whether it’s Asian, whether it’s Indian cinema, which I’m a big fan of right now. They got something going on, too. I just love film, and you could see my passion. In my work, you can see that I’m the hip hop director, right? I’m getting jazz, blues, and rock samples and making my own story.
In fact, I can definitely tell by the tone of your voice and enthusiasm that you’re quite the cinephile.
My wife and I, she is sitting over there, we are doing three or four movies a week. We do them in like categories. So right now, we’re in James Bond. We went from Sean Connery, went through Roger Moore, and now we’re at Pierce Bronson. Goldeneye will be the next film that we watch when we get home.
I gotta ask, as a fellow James Bond fan, what is your favorite Bond film and your favorite Bond so far?
From Russia with Love. Oh, that joint caught me out there. I felt like I never really watched it, even though I have. I felt like I never watched it until about three weeks ago, when we sat there, and you too, though it was like, “Have I seen this one?” We didn’t see this. She didn’t see a lot of the Roger Moore ones, because she’s the Pierce Bronson. That’s her generation.
I’m the Roger Moore fan. That’s mine.
So, for Roger Moore, just never forget The Spy Who Loved Me. He’s been one of my favorites, Moonraker of course, very quirky, but still, look at you. You watch Clint Eastwood with eagles there, same movie, but told, we’re told in a different way, but we could go bond all day.
Yes, we could, but we’re talking about you at the moment. It’s very appropriate that you have One Spoon of Chocolate in Chocolate City, Washington, DC. Why was it important to have this film in our nation’s capital?
The funny thing we talked about was that even when we were in the editing room, we always felt like, “Yo, if you play the film in DC, or when it played in DC, you got to come here.” So, I’m here. We played it here at the Alamo Drafthouse. We’re gonna go over to Howard University next to show them some love. The movie is an action/thriller, but it does have a spoonful of political context you can’t deny, right? And so, what better place than DC to kind of bring that energy of this film? Chocolate City. I love this town, bro.
I gotta ask the ultimate question: how does it feel for the Wu-Tang Clan to finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of 2026, along with Sade and Luther Vandross?
You want to see my Kool-Aid smile. Every time somebody says, “This brings out the child in me,” it’s a special compliment. I’ve been telling everybody. I just feel it sounds so corny coming from the rest of but I just feel so giddy, you know? Like a child, like joy. What resonates with me is that I had my first house in Cleveland. I drove past the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hundreds of times, probably, but I didn’t phantom the idea of me being in that building, in some corner as one of the inductees, and it was like a dream. But it was like one of those dreams you don’t think will come true.
I’m thankful that the legacy of Wu-Tang, the years of our music, the years of our service to music, the years of our service to our fans, because it takes that. It ain’t just your hits and all that. It’s like you’re serving the music community, and touring with big rock acts. And it was my buddy, John Frusciante from the Chili Peppers, who said to me after listening to 36 Chambers. He said, “I think that you are one of the greatest creators of music in a generation.” He’s my buddy, so I just took that as a compliment, but now I kind of understand what he means. It’s like the wool touches so many different chambers.
RZA 2026 is definitely your year. Congratulations once again. Congratulations on this wonderful film.
One Spoon of Chocolate – IN THEATRES, May 1st!
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