Original subtitles

If you know me, you know that I love to talk,

I love people.

But really it's that I love to listen

and hear people's stories

and learn about their experiences.

Which is why I am really excited

to meet actor, Daryl "Chill" Mitchell.

Well, here I am. Hello, Mississippi.

Hey, I like this little town, man.

I didn't know this

but he was part of the early days of hip-hop.

He was in the '90s hip-hop band Groove B Chill.

And then he became

a really successful actor and TV and film.

Started with House Party,

and then he was in The John Larroquette Show,

Veronica's Closet,

Galaxy Quest, 10 Things I Hate About You.

In a town like this, everybody speaks.

Hey, how are y'all doing?

See, they wave right back. I like that.

Huge star and then boom,

he's in an accident and he's paralyzed.

World changed forever.

But there are ways to zero time getting back to work.

He's going on to star and aired

in NCIS: New Orleans, Fear the Walking Dead,

and then finally Ben's Workshop.

Hey!

- Chill! - Hey, dude.

How you doing, man?

First time in a woodshop?

Well, yo, I took up woodshop in school, believe it or not.

We used to make, like, picture frames.

And then I used to make planks.

But more than anything, I love working with my hands, man.

- Okay. - And honestly, I...

haven't had the opportunity to work with my hands

- like I like to... - Yeah

...since I had the accident.

- You're gonna work today. - This is gonna be big, man.

This is gonna be good. So, I'm really excited that you're here.

Like, I've been a fan of yours for a long time.

Ed was one of my favorite TV shows.

I got back on TV four months out of the hospital.

So, people didn't catch up with the accident

because it wasn't really publicized

that I had an accident.

To this date, people are still going,

"Dude, you really didn't watch Ed?" I'm like...

"You've been living under a rock."

Yeah.

- Are these working clothes? - They are now.

- Yeah. - Yeah, it'll do.

All I need is a pencil,

apron and some goggles.

-'Cause I gotta look like I know what I'm doing. - You gotta look the part.

- Yeah, I gotta look the part. - All right, let's get to work.

Here is what I've got in mind.

When we talked, you said you wanted to build

something that would help...

- people who had had spinal injuries. - Right.

Erin's brother, he's a doctor, physical therapy,

but he work with spinal injuries.

- And Diane is a doctor of physical therapy. - Wow.

So, I went to them, I was like, "Okay.

What could we build?"

And they were like, "What if you build something to work with,

you know, strengthening your upper body?"

- Very important. -'Cause you're strong.

- Oh, yeah, man. - You gotta be.

Gotta be, 'cause you gotta be able to do things like this.

You know, they gotta be able

to get the pressure off the hips.

Right. Yeah.

- I mean, you do everything with your hands. - Everything.

So, what I wanted to build was an incline board.

It's essentially an exercise machine

- that goes on a table top, all right? - Yeah.

This is the base, so it sits on a table.

Then we're gonna build a tray using French dovetail joints.

Inside the tray will be a box

that we'll build using English dovetails

that will be our piece that slides.

We'll attach the handles

and have drawer slides underneath

- so it'll slide all the way from top to bottom. - Right.

You got a kickstand coming down

that'll have different notches.

- so you can adjust that angle. - Oh!

- So you'll be pushing almost straight up. - Straight up, yeah.

Or kinda down, kinda out.

That's very important, man.

We constantly push right here.

- Pushing down. - Pushing down,

- but we don't have a stretching up. - Mmhmm.

That shows that somebody put some effort.

It's meaningful, man.

You gotta boost your spirits. So, what am I gonna do?

- Oh, you're gonna do all of that. - Okay.

- You're doing it all. - Dude, I'm ready to go.

All right.

- I'm ready to go, man. - You ready?

Let's go pick some wood out.

Let's do it.

Hi, Chill!

- You hadn't shut up about the apron. - Exactly.

- That's what I needed, bro. - There you go.

- I told you, I need an apron... - There's your apron.

...and some glasses.

And I'm gonna let you pick your glasses.

Oh, oh, hold it, player, hold it.

These things right here, baby.

They are saying something to me, baby.

- Got glamour on. - A little sparkle.

- Gotta pop my apron, you know what I mean? - There you go.

All right, let's pick some wood.

So, here's some walnut.

- I like the way walnut does with maple. - Oh.

This right here.

See how that looks against there.

- So you see how you get all that contrast there? - Oh, cool, man.

I like that. It's time to show some unity here.

- This is showing some unity, baby. - There we go, there we go.

Some unity in a community.

I got something special for you.

- Talk to me. - Okay.

So we've looked at walnut and maple cherry.

What we got going on here, player?

Yo, what is this?

- You dyed that? - No.

Come on, stop playing, man.

This is really the true color of this wood?

This is the true color of this wood.

- What is this called? - This is purple heart.

When they cut the tree down...

- Ben, stop playing, man. You... - ...that's what it looks like.

You dyed this wood, bruh.

- No, I swear. - Wow, man.

- Isn't that pretty? - This is real pretty, bruh.

So, what I want here...

is for us to mix contrasting wood species.

- Energy, man. - Energy.

- Like hip-hop energy. - Energy. You working with me.

Lovely segue, that's the basis of hip-hop.

I don't know about any other genre of music

that brings so many people together than hip-hop.

Who is Groove B Chill?

Groove B Chill is my group.

Signed a record deal with Uptown Records.

These guys who was directing my videos,

the Hudlin brothers,

they was inking out a movie.

House Party. When they shot this movie for $2 million,

that we thought was, "Okay, we happened to be in a movie."

didn't know it was gonna be this...

- boom of a movie. - Huge. Yeah.

So, I figured if I do more movies,

I would sell more records.

Who knew. I went to LA for two weeks

to stay for 15 years.

Hey... Mm, I'll take it.

Let's gather up some wood.

Then move back over here, to our table.

To build the tray, we'll actually join up the panels.

What we're gonna do is, make us some big wide flat pieces.

We're gonna get that all glued up

and clamp them together so that they'll dry tight.

So, this is gonna be the bottom of our tray

that will actually raise up,

so that you can do the shoulder exercises.

And then this is the base, the piece that actually sits

- on the table. - Right.

In the late '90s, your career was,

- on a rocket ship. - Yes.

You did The Larroquette Show, Galaxy Quest...

Oh, man.

- 10 Things I Hate About You. - Yeah, yeah.

- Your own top of the world. - Oh, yeah.

Like, what do you... What's going through your mind? What's next?

I was hoping to have something developed personally for me.

- All right. - And right before I got to that point,

that's when tragedy stuck.

We was in South Carolina.

Hey, I am on vacation.

My nephew asked me to ride his motorcycle.

He had just got a trick down, all of those kind of stuff.

I go up the road one way, is good.

But when I come back the other way,

it's loose gravel.

The bike shot right from under me.

And that's when I went flipping and flipping and flipping and then boom.

I woke up three days later in the hospital.

So, I was in a coma for three days.

And they was hitting me with those shockers.

And I could feel it but I couldn't tell them.

That, yo, it's called being consciously unconscious.

I could feel them hitting me with that thing, man.

I'm like, "Yo, hold it."

And my brain is like, "I feel this." But I couldn't tell it.

But three days later, I wake up in the hospital

and the doctor come to me. He's like, "Hey, man,

there's a strong possibility you may never walk again."

So, what goes to your head?

"I gotta get out this bed, doc, with legs."

"So, did you hear what I said?" I said, "Yeah, I heard you.

But... I gotta get out of this bed."

He said, "I'mma come back tomorrow

'cause you maybe in shock right now."

I said, "Dude, you come back tomorrow, the day after and day after,

I'm gonna ask you the same question.

What's next 'cause I gotta get up to my feed my family."

He was like, "Well, you got rehabilitation,

you got this, we gotta do surgery,

we gotta stabilize your spine, we got this..."

I said, "All right, we gotta do what we gotta do."

And I said to myself, "I'm gonna fight."

And one of my inspirations

to get me to fight were my kids.

- Which is always the point. - Yeah.

But my little one...

he didn't know. He was only two.

Man, he was on the bed crawling all over me,

stepping on me in his boots and everything.

But when it was time to leave, he was like,

"Daddy, let's go." I heard him.

- I was like, "I gotta get up." - Yeah.

Got to get up now. And he's like, "Daddy, let's go."

It is amazing what kids do for you, right?

It makes us superhuman

because you're like something that

you probably couldn't have accomplished before.

You're gonna do it for your kids.

Right. At that point, I tell everybody,

in the face of adversity,

you have to make a decision right there.

What you gonna do?

You either gonna roll or fold.

And that's one of the things that made me say,

"Yo, I gotta push."

- You have people around you. - You got people around you, man.

- Let's let this dry. - All right.

And then we'll move on to the next thing.

Cool. Hell yeah, man.

Chill, this is our dovetailing machine.

- Okay. - So if you think about a dove,

- or a duck, or any kind of bird... - Right.

...the tail of it is fanned.

- Correct. - Now, if you think about

two pieces of wood,

and you got a piece of wood that's cut into this shape,

and then another piece that's the reverse of that.

When you slide that together...

- Right. - ...it can't pull that.

Oh, right, right, right, right.

Okay? So, that's what a dovetail is. It's kind of a--

- You see that on the drawer, on the dressing drawer. - Yes.

- See? See? - Yeah.

That's what we're gonna use to put our box together.

- All right. - Okay.

They call it ducktail.

- Dovetail. - Okay, DuckTales is a cartoon.

All fingers are clear?

And that's it.

See how that's fixed together?

Oh, I got you now. Oh, look at that, man,

So, on Ed...

were they looking for someone in a wheelchair?

Of course not. They knew that they were looking to

add another cast member, or somebody new in.

It was like, "You know what, you guys should see Chill.

'Cause he's ready to go back to work."

And they were just like, "Mm...

But I got in there and always thought of doing

was talking about all the funny things

that I was experiencing.

They just called me up and was like,

"Hey, dude, you got the part, man."

- That's cool. -'Cause that's my first job back.

And it was a test

because I didn't want nobody to see me as a liability.

So, even in my roughest moments,

I had to figure it all out.

One of the things I did,

I would make them send me my wardrobe the night before.

You show how ready.

I'm dressed when I show up to work.

'Cause I know what I gotta go through to get dressed.

Yeah. You know, you just adjust, man, you know what I mean?

Was there any awkwardness?

A lot of people...

they saw me as fragile.

And I told them, "I'm injured.

And it's a severe injury but it's an injury.

- Yeah. - And I'm alive."

You know, but I had the people around me long enough, man,

the wheelchair disappears.

It's nothing, you know what I mean?

It's like, "Oh, it's him."

You just learn that people know luck, man.

You know, it ain't the end of the world.

- Yeah. - Yeah, man.

- That's crazy. - Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's run this thing. That's it, baby.

All right. I know you wanna talk about this.

- Of course. You know I love the purple. - I want you to feel this.

Oh, Ben. Whoo.

- See? That's heavy. - Jeez Louise, man.

That's a... You said that's some heavy, thick, dense wood.

So, here's the thing about purpleheart,

it is very hard and it is very strong.

- Like you. - Thank you, brother.

All right? And it's beautiful.

Like your wife.

All right. But...

once it sits in the sunlight,

once it's been out for a while eventually it turns brown.

It will loose it's color.

We have to seal it really well

with a UV protector so that the sun takes longer to affect it.

We're gonna use this for the box,

- that will slide. - Right.

And the color is gonna inspire people.

With the purpleheart,

one edge of this slab is already squared up.

And so we will cut our section out

and it's gonna be the lid

of our exercise mechanism.

And then we'll take it over to the band saw

and we will cut a relief

so that it has a piece that sticks out.

And then that was actually going to fit into our box.

Oh, man. I love this wood, man.

Now that the base and tray are set,

we need to cut them down to size.

- All right. - Checked my skills?

- That's good, man. - Yeah, man.

- Bring that with you. - Oh, let's do it.

Hey, you know what, Ben, I think I can build a house.

You could build a house.

- Okay. - All right, all right.

So...

- what we did over here with that dovetail machine... - Yeah.

- ...that's English dovetails. - Right.

You can see them from the side.

- Okay. - This is a sliding dovetail

or a French dovetail

and I actually prefer it.

- This is our router table. - Right.

And you see this bit?

- Okay. - You see the shape of it?

- Yes. - It's shaped like this dovetail.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But it's gonna be spinning

- and as you slide that board through here... - Right. Cut into the groove?

- ...it's gonna cut that shape in a groove. All right? - Got it. Right.

So, then we'll do the opposite on our walls,

and they will slide into that.

- Right, right. Got you. - And then they are there.

- Okay? - Got you, got you.

- All right. So, what I'm gonna get you to do... - Uh-huh.

- ...you're gonna take this board... - Right.

...you gonna start out here,

- you gonna slide it under these fingers... - Uh-huh.

...all the way till your pass it.

But you don't keep your hand over here.

- Of course. - Okay.

- You gonna keep it tight against that fan. - Yup.

This is the only modifying

that we did in the entire shop.

You did all that for little ol' me?

Just for you. Because this...

router table is so tall,

and so we put it on this smaller table...

Oh, okay.

- ...to get it down lower. - Wow.

See, this is what I'm talking about, man.

All right, I'm gonna... cut the dust collector on.

You got it.

- Yeah. There you go! - Mmhmm.

Now you gonna cut it on.

For the tray, we're gonna do the French style sliding dovetails.

And that will allow our walls to slide in.

If we were just to take it

and glue them together and maybe put a tack in them,

it would hold for a long time,

but eventually, that joint will fail

if you just do a bud joint,

but having those sliding dovetails

and it locking together, it will last...

a lot longer than Daryl and I are gonna last.

Whoo!

- Chill's getting groovy. - Come on, baby.

- You make a good assistant. - I do what I can.

Yeah, it's my shop now. It's my shop for the day.

Career is launched...

- you had the accident, you jump right into Ed. - Right.

When Ed wrapped, did you get worried?

I did. Roles was coming up

that I knew that I wasn't able to do.

So, it got a little...

It got a little sketchy at one point.

But I have dealt with that kind of before because...

certain roles, they were written

and said, right?

So, I had to go in there and change their perception.

- Yeah. - So, you know now is like,

a whole another community of people.

It should be more diversity.

- Yeah. - You know what I mean?

So, it's good for the audience to see this.

Especially people with disabilities

because they can watch this and say,

- you know, "I can do this too." - Yeah.

They watch you own NCIS.

And they feel that connection, they see themselves.

Exactly. I mean, you know, just think about it.

I was in Fear the Walking Dead and in Apocalypse.

And my chair is...

dope. Got blades come out the back.

I got a serious chair, man.

- That's real cool. - This is cool.

- All right, I'm thirsty. You thirsty? - Yeah.

- I got us some coffee. Let's roll out here. - Oh, cool.

Cool, cool, cool.

- So, what are your hobbies? - I hunt, I fish.

But not only do I fish,

I learned how to bow fish.

- Hold up. - Yes.

I'm a New York City boy with a country twang.

- Okay, okay. - Geechee Gullah to the bone.

- Gullah to the bone? - Gullah to the bone.

I grew up on wild games, hunting, fishing.

See, my mom and dad, they grew up off...

You know, they grew up off the land.

At the age of ten, I knew how to skin a deer.

- Damn. - The whole deer.

My papa come home with deer skin.

Means like a survival.

Yeah, surviving, you know what I mean?

It's just the fact that that's what you did.

You were, uh, preparing for Fear the Walking Dead.

I was preparing for Fear the Walking Dead, baby.

How do you bow hunt?

It's interesting. I went out with these guys

from New Orleans. So, we went out there

and the bow, interesting enough, was kinda high.

- Okay. - So, leaning over,

it was kind of difficult at times,

to get over the bow to go at them.

- And then you learn-- - Hold up, you're bow fishing?

You're bow fishing but you gotta learn

that the fish, what...

What it looks like in the water,

you gotta angle it in a different way

'cause the fish is not right there.

- Okay. - So, you have to angle it.

So, the guy,

after seeing me, he rebuilt...

He built a new bow,

where he raised the platform and lowered the wall.

So, now it's made so that I could just roll right on the bow.

After seeing me in working, he made that.

So he said, "You know what, I'm gonna start working it out

so I can invite people on the boat with a wheelchair.

People modify so many different things.

You never wanna see that shot for saying no more.

No, I'm really not.

Okay, break time's over. Ready to finish this thing?

I do.

- Let's go do it. - Let's go do it.

We're down to the finishing steps now.

We need to cut our notches.

We're gonna add the kickstand.

We're gonna drill holes into the purpleheart

so that we can fit the dowels for handles.

The handles are gonna be really simple.

It's just gonna be walnut dowels.

These walnut dowels are left over from my niece's baby crib that Jessie built.

I'm gonna spray lacquer finish on this.

It's something that'll hold up for a long time

so that the hospital can clean it as they need to.

And it's just gonna be so fine.

All right, we got all our pieces here.

We fix and do the final... assembly.

Even unassembled, this thing is pretty.

- Isn't it? - It is. It's... With...

Without even being together, it's beautiful

Yeah, it is beautiful.

All right, how many seasons did NCIS run?

We did seven. I was supposed to do two episodes.

- Two episodes-- - Two episodes turned to 12.

Twelve turned into a regular.

And I went out there for two episodes,

stayed there for seven years.

And then, you know, we got Fear the Walking Dead,

so I was there for three seasons.

And not only that, I do my own stunts.

- Really? - I did an episode

where I had a airplane flew by...

- eight to ten feet over me. - Right.

But it was fun, man, it was fun.

'Cause I had to dive out the chair in a...

When I dived out the chair,

I had to crawl across a runway.

So, I had to pull myself, upper body strength, so...

gotta stay in shape too, man, to be able to work.

- Yeah-- - But, I mean, this, you know,

all this right here...

this is healthy.

All right, so do you think you've changed Hollywood's perception?

I'm here.

I'm here.

Okay, you talking about NBC.

I've worked with them.

CBS, I've worked with them.

AMC, I've worked with them.

And I'm here now, on HGTV.

So, you tell me. I'm here.

And I'm not... I'm not acting, I'm working.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - You understand?

- Yeah. - I'm... Well, I'm here.

So, that says a lot about... the change.

The thing with me is I just don't like

- the "limited to wheelchair people." - Yeah.

'Cause I've worked with some of them.

Some of them are great actors and actresses.

They're not disabled

but they just never been given the opportunity.

Do you understand? I've worked 15 years,

able body and 15 years disable.

So, 30 years in the business, you know what I mean?

So, I'm getting opportunities because people know.

So, it's my responsibility to show up and show out.

- Yeah. - It's not just what I do

in front of the camera.

That's gonna create opportunities for other people,

but it's what I do behind the... Behind the camera.

You know, showing up on time, showing... Being a...

An asset and not a liability.

- It is a lot, you know what I mean? - It is a lot.

Well, I carried away.

All right, crowning achievement.

- Look at that. How do you like that? - I love it.

- That's it, man. - I love it, man.

What's next for Chill Mitchell?

Oh, for me?

Yeah, I mean, you're gonna open a woodshop obviously.

Of course I gotta make a, you know, woodshop

on my backyard but...

I did what I had to do,

now I can do what I wanna do which is music.

So, now I'm back in the game, baby.

I got a new single I just did.

- No way! - Yes, I did, brother.

So, just like in the early '90s,

you started acting to promote your rapping.

- And now you're using your acting-- - Acting.

To promote my rapping.

That's what I'm doing.

- I got a new single. - You got a new song.

Yeah, man. I'mma play it for you in the truck.

Oh, sweet. I wanna hear some ramming.

By the time we get around the curve, you'll be singing the hook.

- All right. - I guarantee it!

You play too much, dawg.

♪ Chilly Chill, chilly Chill ♪

♪ Fire ♪

- ♪ Hey, Chill ♪ - ♪ What? ♪

♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ What'd you say? ♪ - ♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ Hey, Chill ♪ - ♪ What? ♪

♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ What'd you say? ♪ - ♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ Hey, Chill ♪ - ♪ What? ♪

♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ What'd you say? ♪ - ♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ Hey, Chill ♪ - ♪ What? ♪

♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ What'd you say? ♪ - ♪ Don't bump the table ♪

- ♪ Fire ♪ - ♪ Chill ♪

What's up?

- Well, hello there! - What's going on?

Y'all, this is Daryl "Chill" Mitchell.

Nice to meet you.

So, who are our patients today?

- I am Brianna. - Hi, Brianna.

- What are you working on? - ACL surgery, recovery.

- And you are, ma'am? - I am Doris Roberts.

- Hi, Miss Doris. How are you? - I'm good.

And I've rotator cuff repair.

- Oh, okay. - Hey, this thing that we built

- will help with that. - Cool.

- Oh, yeah. We got something for that. - Okay.

He and I have been working on something

for the therapy department.

Daryl worked real hard on this.

I want y'all to be real proud of him.

Oh, wow. It's beautiful.

Thank you, thank you.

It helps for reaching.

But what if you wanna do some strength training?

You get something here.

Come on, what do you think?

- I love it. - You love it?

I think it's very versatile.

We can use it in the clinic, we can use it in the home.

And it's very attractive-looking, so we love it.

- It gives the energy, right? - Yeah.

With the color of the woods.

I love coming back here because...

I've learnt that even in peak tier, it starts here.

Then it's here.

Then it's here and here and here and everywhere else

but it starts in your mind.

You gotta be ready to go. At all times.

You know what I mean? And that's... That's the main thing.

I'm proud of you.

Proud of you guys.

It really, really does my heart good to see this.

Chill's mission is to help people.

People who are injured and they're trying to get back to normal life.

Um, people with disabilities.

We are fulfilling his mission here.

I've made a lot of things that are beautiful

that people will get a lot of use out of.

But I have never gotten to build something like this

that is helping people get back to living their lives.

And that's... That's special.