Inauguration 2013: Interview with actor Giancarlo Esposito [VIDEO]

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TRANSCRIPT:

Matt De Vlieger (UPI): Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?

Giancarlo Esposito (GE): Yeah, sure.

UPI: What are your feelings about today (the Inauguration) and what are you hoping to get out of being here?

GE: I came out with the Creative Coalition to champion arts and education in the school system and first amendment rights. This day is very special to me, to have this man to be repeating in doing a second term in office. He is someone who I believe is bright, intelligent, spiritual, and ready to lead us. So, it's always a moving day for me when we elect a new president and even better still for someone who has such leadership qualities.

UPI: Do you have any dialogue with the president and his staff around funding for the arts?

GE: We do. Also, the Creative Coalition... we engage people every year on Arts Advocacy Day, we come down, we try to convince people that we need more money for education than we do for guns. So, I'm hoping that in this term President Obama will strengthen his healthcare initiative as well as really, really, start to deal with the issue of gun control.

UPI: Can you speak to the significance of today, this being Martin Luther King Day?

GE: It's a very special day. Martin Luther King was my idol and I feel like he was the one who began this march to today, in his struggle for nonviolence and freedom and I feel like he was in service. I feel like President Obama has been in service and we need to respect and love that.

UPI: Anything else you want to share?

GE: Just, I want to share that, if we all come together on the same page in the light of what our future should be, we could be in peace and the world could be very, very different. If we think about the I and the me, we're not going anywhere. But, if we think about the we and the us, we'll move forward in harmony.

UPI: Thank you very much.

GE: My pleasure.