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Fashion Editor CHRIS SANDFORD
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Kansas also holds an adjunct professor position at his alma mater the University of Southern California in the School of Cinematic Arts.
we’re going to go into [range] from immigration, to religious persecution, to class, to gender, to race, to sexual orientation, to perils of what it is to be a cop.”
“The idea of S.W.A.T. started from the idea of a character I’ve had in my head since I was a kid, basically since I was in middle school or high school. This idea of understanding multiple worlds that may be opposed to each other,” Thomas said. “A 12 year old neighbor of mine was a kid who got shot in the head by police officer. It was controversial. He was a victim of police violence. It was tragic and infuriating. On the other hand there’s another guy from the same neighborhood literally on the same block who was a police officer. He was cool. He was very generous. He was a guy who used to give people rides to school. He was a guy that if you needed money for clothes or shoes he would chip in. He would teach people how to ride bikes, how to drive, that kind of thing. He was always a really good example of a police officer.”
Thomas mentioned that the show itself is a symbol of the new generation and progress. “This is not a situation where we’re tossing in or sprinkling in diversity because it’s called for that. In this case everyone has a back story… a storyline that is organic to who they are and we’re going to explore each of them in their own way in our show,” Thomas said.
Thomas believes the diversity on S.W.A.T. is something traditional prime time television has never seen. But he doesn’t just credit himself. He gives props to everyone behind the scenes from different backgrounds who add their own unique flavor to the melting pot. “You have Justin Lin, a highly successful Asian American action director who directed our pilot. You have Shemar Moore an African American and Caucasian actor as our lead. You have an African American male as an executive producer that combination if I had to bet money probably has never happened in the history of network television,” Thomas said. “When you look at our cast and when you look at our story lines we’re presenting [something] that is not just ethnically diverse, but also diverse in the worlds we’re going to go into. The issues
Shemar Moore says when he got the initial script he knew he struck gold. “I think the entire script was 55 pages long. I got to page 14 I think, which is the end of what they call the ‘teaser’ the opening segment of the show. I had to stop myself and take a pause. It was that good,” Moore said. “Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson is from South LA. He’s from the hood but he doesn’t call it the hood. The outside calls it the hood. He calls it home. Shemar Moore is from East Oakland but I’m half black my mother is from Boston. My father and his family are originally from Birmingham, Alabama but moved to the West and found the hood. But we call it home. My mom wanted to help inner-city Black kids,” Moore said. “There are sides to “Hondo” that got nothing to do with me. This is an ex-marine, a physical specimen. His skillset is crazy. But I took that as a challenge. So, I started training. I started learning. I started asking questions.” Moore said he trained with LAPD, S.W.A.T, San Diego PD SWAT, and Seal Team 6, just so he could learn the physical requirements and be believable in the role. “I’m fight training. I’m lifting. I gained 10 to 12 pounds for the role. Not just to be cute for the baby girls, but to do right by the men and women
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who do this [job]. Because by rule they workout an hour per day because they have to have the stamina and the physical ability to carry the weapons; deal with the weapons and go out there and fight crime,” Moore said. “You can’t fake what they do, so I spend a lot of time with them.” Moore admits one of the hardest challenges about this leading role is the schedule. “I’m very proud to be number one on the call sheet, but man there are no days off [and] there are very few breaks. But I’m not complaining at all because I see the bigger picture. I am proud to be the lead of the show that I care about. S.W.A.T. is going to amount to something that is bigger than me, bigger than Aaron, bigger than CBS because it is going to resonate with people. It’s going to touch people and you can’t touch that. To be a part of something that’s going to the playing field, change consciousness, bridge the gap of social issues, make people think, inspire people, this thing is going to explode and change the way people think and look at television and look at each other.” “Hollywood, fame, and success is cool. But all of that could be gone like that *snap of fingers*. I want to do something that matters. And to be remembered and for you to matter it has to be bigger than yourself.” Although there are distinct differences between both Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson and Shemar Moore ultimately they share the same journey. It’s to leave a legacy driven by “purpose” to spark change that goes far beyond what you see on a TV screen. S.W.A.T. premieres November 2nd on CBS.
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I N M I D T O W N M A N H A T T A N , just a few blocks from Penn Station, is an office space that’s flipping the way we think about work on its head. Walk through its doors on any given day, and you might find a group of tech experts writing code, a CEO preparing for an upcoming presentation, or a marketing team planning a product launch. And while all those people may be working in the same room— at the same table, even—it’s entirely possible that none of them work for the same company. What they do have in common is that they are members of Alley, a carefully curated community of entrepreneurs and businesses that is redefining co-working and collaboration.
Alley is the brainchild of Jason Saltzman, a savvy millennial businessman who is the founder of several startups, a mentor for TechStars, and the US State Department’s “Special Advisor to Entrepreneurship and Technology.” Alley came to be after Saltzman found himself in New York City at a time when co-working spaces like We Work were gaining popularity in the city’s downtown core. A natural collaborator himself, Saltzman was immediately
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intrigued by the concept and the shift it represented. People were no longer operating their businesses in isolation, carefully guarding ideas in fear that they’d be stolen. Co-working spaces were a physical manifestation of the way businesses were making space for both competition and collaboration to co-exist. “People weren’t building in a vacuum anymore. They were sharing experiences,” Saltzman notes. “I knew I wanted to get involved with collaborating with individuals and sharing my experiences to help benefit other people.” With co-working spaces already cropping up all over New York City, Saltzman spotted an opportunity to create a space that would cater to entrepreneurs from New York’s suburbs. Like any businessman, Saltzman started his venture with his sights set on bottom lines. His initial business plan, though inspired by his passion for collaboration, was underscored by the intention that drives most real estate ventures: use the space in whichever way would make the most money per square foot. But that quickly changed when Saltzman began to see the potential for Alley to revolutionize co-working.
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“It became really apparent rather quickly that the business was not about square feet. It was about people and how to create value and foster the growth of meaningful relationships in their lives. We’ve humanised real estate.” Alley’s five locations in New York, Cambridge, and Washington D.C. have all the things you’d expect from an office space, including inviting interior design, private and shared workspaces, and conference rooms. But it is the community, collaboration, and care at the center of Alley’s approach that truly makes it a standout. From the range of services available through Alley and their partners—including legal office hours, marketing and digital services, insurance advice, hiring assistance, and cool perks like yoga classes—to opportunities for collaboration and feedback, Saltzman has made Alley so much more than a place to work. “If you’re looking for office space, we’re not that space. If you’re looking for a community and a really tight-knit group of like-minded people that you can collaborate with and tap into, that’s what we do here,” Saltzman explains. Saltzman has been very careful to protect that vision, both with Alley’s staff and their membership. He’s hired managers who understand the importance of including businesses that can both add value to and gain benefits from the Alley community, and he’s trusted those managers to practice a careful vetting
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place, it’s the most boring conversation ever.”
WE REALLY FEEL THAT WE’RE GREAT AT BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN STARTUPS AND MASSIVE ORGANIZATIONS. J A S O N S A LT Z M A N
process to make sure interested member applicants are a good fit for the space. While definitions of “value” in the business world often lean heavily on dollar figures, Saltzman has chosen a different measuring stick, focusing instead on the value of diversity. Alley’s members include well-established legacy companies, as well as early-stage entrepreneurs and startups across a wide range of industries. This mix is very intentional. Saltzman explains why very simply: “One thing I know for sure, when you put a bunch of people in a room together that are from the same background that are working on the same shit from the same
Through Alley’s diverse membership, Saltzman hopes to facilitate the exact opposite of boring conversations: meaningful and powerful partnerships, like the one the he’s had with Verizon for the past year and a half. Together with Verizon, Saltzman and Alley have been able to open locations in Cambridge and Washington, launch a mentorship program for underrepresented youth, and host multiple successful events for both companies. “We really feel that we’re great at bridging the gap between startups and massive organizations,” says Saltzman. And with additional partnerships with companies like Anheuser Busch, Spotify, PayPal, NASA, and American Express, Saltzman has the power to link smaller companies and young entrepreneurs to big organisations so that resources, ideas, and strategies can be exchanged in ways those businesses might have never imagined. For Saltzman, that makes all the challenges that come with running a business like Alley worthwhile. “We’re building Alley into a solid infrastructural organisation that creates revenue and provides an experience for each and every one of our members,” Saltzman says proudly. “And as long as the world wants to build things, and they want to connect with each other, Alley will be there to help do those things.”
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