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This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Thierry Gross.
Today we wrap up our series classic films and movie icons with writer and director Spike Lee and with actor Samuel L.
Jackson, whos appeared in several Spike Lee films, including do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Mo Better Blues, and School Days.
Well start with Spike Lee.
His first feature was the now classic 1986 film Shes Gotta have it, which earned him a place as a central figure in independent cinema and in black cinema.
30 some years later, he adapted the film into an expanded ten part series of the same name, which is still available on Netflix.
That was the occasion of my most recent interview with Spike Lee, which we recorded in 2017.
The central character in she's Gotta have it is Nola Darling, a young artist who loves sex but isn't interested in a committed relationship.
She's seeing three men, each a different type, but each wants her to himself.
In the 1986 original, Spike Lee played one of Nola Darling's boyfriends, the b boy Mars Blackman, who's deep into hip hop culture.
I asked Mike Lee to describe the character.
Well, Mars Blackman is the original b boy, the original sneaker head.
He wears a chain around his neck that says Mars.
He was wearing the fresh air jordans.
We call them fobs, fresh out the box.
I mean, Mars is just crazy.
I got the, it's funny.
I asked my grandmother, I didn't have a name for this character.