Mikey Alfred Makes L.A. Feel Small

My parents are dynamic. When I would say I want to make movies, I want to make a company, they knew exactly what I was talking about. Sometimes the dilemma comes when your parents are confused or they’re like, “How do you make that a real job, how do you make that a real career?” They knew exactly. They grew up around all the people that are icons today. My mom has been Robert Evans’ assistant for 25 years. Because they knew it so well, that was why they didn’t want me to do it. Because the entertainment [business] is really skeevy, they would always tell me, “You can’t trust people, it’s not stable.” There’s like ten percent at the top and everyone else doesn’t live the best life. But I knew what I wanted and I know what felt right to me. And college didn’t feel right to me.

Life is all about chasing truth. And when it comes to instincts, what you’re doing is saying, is this true to me? Is this true to my end goal? But the only way to know if it is, is to know yourself. And since I’ve been a young kid I’ve always known myself. I know where I stand. I know what type of role I play in other people’s lives. And that self awareness is what helps me make decisions in my career.

With art, it’s all about the immediate. How do you immediately feel? And that’s what you translate into the screenplay or into the short film, or feature film. Because that is the truest emotion. Don’t think about it too much because then you’re intellectualizing it. But then when it comes to business it’s all about the three-day rule. Meaning, am I going to care about this in three days? Is this going to matter to me in three days? If it’s not, don’t do it. And that rule also translates into the thirty-year rule where every choice you make with the business—where to move it, what type of collaborations to do—is this going to help me be here in thirty years? I try my best not to chase anything that’s a white hot flame. Meaning, if it’s really popping right now but next year no one’s going to care about it. It’s better to do less with people who are going to be here forever than to do more with people who are not going to be here in six months.

That’s something my friend Andrew Kimble talks about a lot. It’s about ethics in your business. He talks about how when you build a business off of what’s ethical as opposed to what’s legal, you’ll be around forever. I think that can translate into creativity too where if you make projects just because you can, they’re not going to do well.

One time I played bocce ball with a really dope executive and he explained to me how he looks at the movie business the same way he looks at bocce ball. It’s not about who has the biggest muscle, it’s not about who has the best ideas even. It’s just about precision. Who can do the right thing at the right time.

Through Jonah [Hill] I was able to gain access to people in such a special way. He really helped me get to the level I’m at right now. What I’ve realized is that a lot of the “gatekeepers” are either really open to me and want to collaborate, and the other half are really scared and insecure, which then causes them to be scared of me. The idea that a 23-year-old Black kid can build a business, be distributed on a wide level, do shoes with Converse, do a film with Jonah Hill, do this TV show with HBO—that can be really off-putting to them. They haven’t seen someone like me before.

I have great parents. And I have great aunts and uncles. I grew up in a cul-de-sac in North Hollywood and everyone in that cul-de-sac was a part of raising me. My foundation is so strong, how could I not know who I am? I try to look at my life and my career and say, how am I gonna be deeply rooted? That’s why whenever I go into a corporate space, I try to be really good friends with people’s assistants. I try to be really good friends with the people who check you in. Because that just extends your roots. It makes you stronger. When you’re only friends with the people at the top, when the wind blows, you’re gonna blow with them.

My parents knowing a lot of cultural icons and being in those circles, to me, comes from them chasing the truth, and being honest with people. For me in my life, my relationship with Tyler [the Creator] is so strong because we can be real with each other. That’s how I’ve been able to make great connections and be connected at such a high level.

They do come in conflict. People always say don’t do business with your friends, but what I believe is don’t do business with bad friends.

Right, talking about Mid90s I was able to include Na-kel, and Ryder, and Sunny, and most of the people in the movie are people I had relationships with. It’s really important for me because it’s like what Jay-Z said, what’s the point of the mansion when there’s no one to fill it? That’s what Jonah, and Tyler, and Frank Ocean, and Spike Jonze, and all the people that have mentored me have done. They gave me tools. They gave me the language.

In high school, freshman year, I went to a private Jesuit school in L.A. called Loyola. You have to wear a polo and you have to tuck your shirt in—every day except Friday. And I remember some of the other kids dreaded it and they would wear these shirts that were too small to tuck in, or just do anything to try to fight it. And I remember I liked it. I liked the look of having the shirt tucked in. I liked being proper. I liked having to get dressed. I like to really make myself presentable.

You know my dad always tells this great story that I love so much I’m gonna put it in a movie one day. He grew up in South Central. To him what it meant to be rich was to wear these Stacy Adams black dress shoes, to wear a handful of gold, to have a chain. My father also went to Loyola. And on his first day of school for the first time ever, he met kids who were rich. And their parents had hundreds of millions of dollars. There were kids at Loyola whose parents were real captains of industry. And they wore Sperry Topsiders, and dirty white Vans. And my dad switched. And he always told himself that when he has a kid, his kid is never gonna have a Stacy Adams phase. They’re gonna know you wear Sperrys. It’s something that my mom and dad instilled in me—what it means to be Black and dress preppy.

Most people in the world, they need to do it and then learn that it’s wrong, and then change their behavior. I don’t think that I’m special in any way from other people, but for me personally, I don’t need to do it and make the mistake. If you tell me don’t do it, I just don’t do it. I listen to other people.

I believe in fate. I’ll take this back to something else Robert Evans told me. When people go to college they study, and when the test comes they get a good grade and then they move on. It’s the same thing in life. You have to study and do your homework, and know what you’re talking about so when the test comes, you can pass it. Meaning, know about movies, know about writers, know about how something should unfold. So when you meet that Jonah Hill or you meet that Ryan Coogler, you pass the test. People worry so much about the connections. Okay, I’ll introduce you to Barack Obama, but if you don’t know what you’re talking about it’s not gonna matter. The connection is gonna be irrelevant. When you get into that room, when you get into that space, if you haven’t been doing your homework, it’s gonna show.

Right now, on my bed stand, I have the Variety top thousand executives of 2018. I try to know who everyone is. And I try to know where they sit and why they do what they do. Then I also study the old execs. I study the Warner Brothers, the MGM guys, Charlie Bluhdorn at Paramount. On an artistic vibe, I study movies. In my living room I have a bookshelf filled with DVD cases. If you look on my Amazon, I’ve bought over a thousand movies. And I really take it seriously. I have a red notebook with the name of the movie and everything I felt inspired about, and everything I responded to. When I’m working on my own stuff I crack that notebook open and look through it. I study film and I study music. I go on YouTube for hours and hours and just listen to mad music.

That’s a great question, and I tell people this all the time. When you’re from Idaho or Ohio or Arkansas, in the entertainment business that makes you more interesting. Because now you have a different perspective. The idea is always to move to L.A. or move to New York and chase the dream. But what I think is smarter is to really focus where you are and be a big fish in a small pond. So make your films, make it incredible, and have everyone in your town know who you are and know that you’re the tightest one. And that is a magnet.

I think a lot about the N.W.A. Compton’s finest. Everyone in Compton knew who they were. And when everyone in your town knows who you are, that’s how it spreads. When you think about Odd Future...Fairfax. Everybody who hung out on Fairfax knew who Odd Future was. Then when people would come to Fairfax, they would find out who Odd Future was. If some famous person—Kendrick Lamar—is touring and he goes to a city in Minnesota, because they do, and he says, “Who’s the dopest person in Minnesota?” And someone says it’s this guy or it’s that girl, and Kendrick says, “Ok I’m gonna check that out.” And then they blow up. I just believe it’s about being the most known and respected in your home town. Everybody knew who Illegal Civ was in North Hollywood five years before anyone knew what it was, anywhere else.

Skating taught me to be okay with giving something effort. It taught me real patience.

I want to see skateboarding be more comfortable with corporate success. People often associate things like success with selling your soul. And that’s not true. You can be completely yourself, and still achieve high levels of success.

The meaning of life is to think positive, work hard, be as nice as possible, and spend time with the people who love you. Chase those who chase you.