Bernie Mac
![Bernie Mac](/assets/img/authors/bernie-mac.jpg)
Bernie Mac
Bernard Jeffrey "Bernie" McCulloughbetter known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American stand-up comedian, actor and voice artist. Born and raised on Chicago's south side, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley in The Original Kings of Comedy...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth5 October 1957
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I was a street performer for two years.
You don't see me in Los Angeles a lot. I go back home. Because I can't play the game. I can't - my tolerance - I know I'm getting old; I'll be 50 this year. And you know how I know I'm getting old? 'Cause my tolerance level is low.
I was born October 5, 1957, on the South Side of Chicago, in the Woodlawn area, a neighborhood that hasn't changed much in forty-five years. Our house was on 66th and Blackstone, but the city tore it down when the rats took over.
I'm not a star, I hate that word, and I'm an entertainer. Stars fall, you know, I'm an entertainer. I want to be known as an entertainer.
All you do as a performer is keep doing it. If you keep doing it, then it depends on why you're doing it. If you're doing something for superficial, monumental reasons and if you're doing it for female attention, or if you're doing it for money, it's like being upset. Only way you can get upset is when you expecting something. If you don't get this award or don't get that award, that because you expect something.
I want people to say at the end of my day, you know, like I used to say about Sidney Poitier and James Cagney and Joan Crawford and Red Skelton and those guys and Bill Cosby. They did quality and substance. You always remember them.
America...Do not touch my TV, my DVD, my stereo, my dual-deck VCR. Do not touch my old school, my new school, my slow jams, my party jams, my happy rap, and you better not touch...My James Brown.
I came from a place where there wasn't a lot of joy.
I love my daughter, but there's a certain feeling, a certain emotion when you got a granddaughter, you know?
I can act. I've been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don't nobody owe you nothing. You've go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don't go from M to Z.
I hate to let people down. I was like that in sports and I was like that in comedy. I was like that at work. When I worked General Motors and stuff like that, when I say something, I mean it.
I hate to compare anything, especially while I'm promoting. I feel that's another disrespect, but 'Ocean's 13' is the best movie I've ever done in my life. No question.
You have to meet all of the challenges, big and small. Because how you start is how you finish.
Jerry Weintraub, the producer, might be a pain in the ass, but he really knows how to treat his actors.