I wish that I had the chance to see her, but I'm now friends with her family. Hot, cold. Adeleke signed an endorsement deal with the clothing company Jockey and had a role in Transformers: The Last Knight, which came out in 2017. He tells an overwhelming story about his father's attempts to invest in and modernize his home country, but that all came crashing down when his dad died when Remi was just a small child. I just can't. For years, even while I was in the Teams, and before the Teams, when I was in BUD/S, guys would ask me why I was there, because not too many African-Americans go to SEAL training, right? When I found that out, I was broken. I Googled her name and, when I Googled her name, I found out that she had died of a rare autoimmune disease in 2006, four years after I enlisted. How did you work your way through it? After his service as a Navy SEAL, Remi Adeleke had a role in Transformers: The Last Knight. However, their caveat was that I had to hire a ghostwriter. And they signed me as a writer. And then finding purpose. The other thing that she said to me was, she said, "Remi, you know what's gonna happen?" When I fired him, I told the publisher, and they freaked out. A long time ago, in a mortar platoon far, far away. This album is more about, "Hey, black people, we need to invest in property and stop investing in sneakers and jewelry." You're a gifted writer. And I tell them all the time, "I had a living example of it every single day of my life in my mom." For the next six months, he thought hard about what to do next. I'm confident in you because you're my son." I wanted to be a SEAL. Credit: He was told that Bay was looking for former Navy SEALs to play a small roles in his film and that it would take one day to shoot. And he said, "Let me call you back in five minutes." He enlisted in 2002 as a corpsman with a strong desire to become a Navy SEAL , a passion that remained strong even after his first attempt at BUD/s only to be dropped at the final phase, which he says was his “worst day in the military.” He asked if he could stay on as the editor, but I said, "No, I'm writing this." When I landed, we spoke on the phone and I went straight to his house from the airport. Remi holds a Before Remi Adeleke was a famous actor, he was a Navy SEAL. Originally, my mom was supposed to write with me, but I just started writing and it is what it is now. I know I'm going to get backlash. Now, there are kids who are crazy, who are going to end up being murderers. When that switch turned in my head that said, "I'm going to be a Navy SEAL," everything that I had seen my mom do, as far as depending on herself, I did. So I turned in the manuscript to HarperCollins that next Monday. I hate to fire myself, but you just need to write." Tiana also had her brother and mom and dad. I like the Drake song, "God's Plan." His dad was the firstborn son of a Yoruba chief who had nine wives. The next day, he called me back and he's said, "Remi, I can't believe you wrote this. His mother took Remi and his brother back to the Bronx, where she raised the two boys as a public school teacher. There were all kind of wild animals that I would hear running through the bushes as I was running, and I didn't like it. And if you're not here, I'm started." That's where I started out writing. That's for sure. This time around, he “flew through SEAL training” and out of the 270 people in his class of 2008, he was one of the 29 who graduated. In 1987, the corrupt Nigerian government stripped his father of the island, robbing him of his largest investment. He shared with me how she would drive around the Bronx when she was a recruiter and look for people she grew up with who were in trouble. What did your mom say to you after she read the book? Shor… After I got out, I would go on trips to go speak somewhere or to go do like some small little contract job somewhere. You have to do the work by yourself, because when things get rough, there's not going to be a personal trainer by your side saying, "Keep going, keep going." Users on Twitter posted an image of a man and woman wearing what was purported to be a proposal for the dress uniform. Remi Adeleke. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. I hate to jump around, but there's a story that's not in my book. “I was still stuck in my old ways, and I hated the training,” he says. But he hasn’t always had it easy. I … Being a SEAL, you're gone so much between training and deploying, and I just wanted to be home with my sons and raise them. He hadn't read the first half of the book. That's just the reality of it. Or even if it's a medium-sized offense or even if it's a second offense, we have to be willing to look at it in a case-by-case basis and see if we can do something to help change the trajectory of this person's life. At that point, I had a different name for Tiana because I had forgotten her name. When you get out, it seems as though that purpose disappears. At the end of the day, 99.99% of people on the face of this planet will never be a Navy SEAL. Ending his successful naval career in 2016, he was led to pursue a career in writing, speaking, and acting. Anyway, that's what inspired me. I was working with a nonprofit in Atlanta, and I needed to fly there because one of the kids was getting ready to get sentenced to either prison or jail. "If you just quit now and don't turn it in, all you have to do is pay us back $50,000." I wrote it right after I wrote the book, and I just handed it out to people in the industry just to see if I was onto something, and everybody felt it. Remi Adeleke was born in Western Africa, but following the death of his father, he, his mother, and brother relocated permanently to the Bronx in New York City. I didn't like it, but at some point there were going to be brighter days. Well, I guess no one can do what you were doing anymore because of how all the technology has changed. After years of making regrettable decisions, Remi joined the Navy in As I was writing the book, I spoke to a friend of mine from boot camp. So, going into inner-city schools, building relationships with kids who are in single-parent homes and helping them out. After that, they never trained with me again because I train really, really hard. And I would just tell 'em that I went from Africa, my dad was a millionaire, we moved to the Bronx and all the stuff I did in the Bronx. Remi Adeleke is known for his work on Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), 6 Underground (2019) and Invasion. You should have written this by yourself. Remi Adeleke, 36, was in SEAL Team 3 and, since serving, has used his experience to motivate others and consult, act, and write for films in Hollywood that depict the military. The changes being discussed among Army leadership include allowing some women to wear ponytails in uniform. On for this episode is author and former U.S Navy SEAL Remi Adelake. I can get up to the pool by running on the road, but it would take me a lot longer. I tried to fit it in, but it just didn't work. Since leaving the Navy in 2016, he has appeared in Michael Bay's movie "Transformers: The Last Knight" and participated in a high-profile Jockey underwear campaign. I was crying. So after my mom read the book, she said, "Remi, you know what's gonna happen? And I was like, "What? To have this dream and now have it go away was depressing. Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. The interesting thing is that every single guy who trained with me, they were kind of depending on me to push them. So for me, I wasn't going to depend on anybody. One of the reasons why the operational side of my book is as short as it is that I wanted to tell the charity story; I wanted to inspire people. Remi has a unique story growing up in Nigeria. What we don't do here is spoil the details of the incredible stories he tells in the book. “After failing at so much in my life, I knew I couldn’t fail at this,” says Adeleke, who would walk three miles every day to a pool and taught himself how to swim. They said, "Yeah, that's what we contracted you for this book." I know that this is a hard decision for me, but everything has just worked out for me. And I know where they're gonna end up; they're gonna just end up back in the streets selling drugs or doing something that they're not supposed to be doing." But if that doesn't happen, Zero Gravity is a production company. There was a trail which skirts Lake O'Neill that was shorter, but the thing was there were so many rattlesnakes. Did you use their names? How did you find a way to train yourself to get into BUD/S School? And if you haven't conditioned yourself to push yourself, you're not going make it. RELATED: Was Fred Rogers a Navy SEAL? She's pretty much the same as she's always been. ", I walked out backstage after the set, after the piece, and she pulled me aside, she cornered me. One of the amazing things to me about the book is how much you don't disguise. As a teen, he ran an amazing burner phone scam while working as a cellphone salesman. You don't need anybody to help you. Are you keeping up? She did a great thing by sneaking you into the Navy." We weren't being monitored by PR staff trying to keep him on a schedule, so we just talked for a while and probably could've kept going all day, but I'm not sure anyone wants a book-length conversation between the two of us. “And it didn’t start off well.”. The military won't take them, and these kids have so much potential. Coyote Ugly Turns 20: Where Is the Cast Now? Remi Adeleke is gifted. So I fought with my publisher for two weeks to change the word count and they finally budged and changed the word count to 130,000 words, no more than that. It was just a decision point. When Adeleke showed up, she took him to a judge in New York and a judge in New Jersey and advocated on his behalf. And I was just like [yells]. I read them, and they were horrible. I wrote the whole book, finished the whole book. That's crazy!". I figured that out in the first three lines that he didn't know the whole story. Remi Adeleke was born in Western Africa, but following the death of his father, he, his mother, and brother relocated permanently to the Bronx in New York City. I hired a ghostwriter. That weekend, my mom happened to be at my house. They could work in tandem. What's your story?" Discover Transformed as it's meant to be heard, narrated by Remi Adeleke. After years of making regrettable decisions, Remi joined the Navy in 2002 and later became a Navy SEAL. I said, "Well, my plane is getting ready to take off, so I'm not gonna be able to talk to him right now, but give him my number and when I land, I'll talk to him." It was depression. I don't know why your publisher made you hire me. He's a recruiter in Philadelphia now, and he called me up super emotional. She says to my mom, "How dare you call my husband up and ask him for money? She was like, "You know, pretty much like we didn't think that you could pull it off, but we were just blown away by what you wrote.". After years of making regrettable decisions, Remi joined the Navy in 2002 and later became a Navy SEAL. And I didn't want to pimp the Trident, so to speak. 's influence on you as a kid, how his poetry spoke to you. Introducing ... PEOPLE's Products Worth the Hype, Transformed: A Navy SEAL’s Unlikely Journey from the Throne of Africa, to the Streets of the Bronx, to Defying All Odds. One hundred percent. I wasn't going to depend on somebody to drive me to the pool. Adeleke told her no, but that he did have nice pants and a shirt. Every day you wake up, you know that purpose. When it was time to write my book, I was too scared to write the book. It really sets yours apart from most books on the subject. As I said that, a thought popped in my mind: Remi, your military record is in your cabinet. Why did you decide to write it? Just to see my kids light up and see my kids so happy that I was home, or even times when I was on the phone with them and they were upset that I was gone and they were crying, "Daddy, please come back home," that was just confirmation for me that I made the right decision. I'm a man that's trying to be a businessman like Jay-Z is a businessman, be a husband like Jay-Z is a husband. And she asked, "Where are you going?" La Mesa City helps with human trafficking because human trafficking is a huge thing in San Diego, as well as domestic violence. If you can find something that gives you purpose, you know that's a game changer. “Tiana asked him if he could give me a chance and expunge my record so I could enlist.”. Remi Adeleke, a former Navy SEAL, rates how real five naval warfare scenes actually are. I wrote this film and it's called "The Chameleon." He is a writer, actor, mentor, former Navy SEAL, and father of three. Just understanding that everything happens for a reason, and God has pretty much laid out my path for me. Another great thing in the book is how you write about the Notorious B.I.G. You need to really write a book. Next Select Service Army Marines Navy Air … Why not write a fiction film about a kid from the Bronx who has found his way into the CIA and he's a James Bond-type guy? It was hard, it was hard, it was hard. What was the motivation behind your decision to become a civilian again? I still have the email from the vice president. From being born into African royalty to losing everything and growing up on the mean streets of the Bronx, Remi Adeleke's story reads like a movie … Remi also served as the youth Pastor of his local Church from November 2010 to June 2013. He got into misdemeanors, and she came back off her deployment and connected him with one of her friends and got him in the Air Force. The funny thing is I called my lawyer and I said, "Listen, I need you to make some phone calls to find out if I'm clear to mention this, or if I'm gonna end up in federal prison." Your explanation of how burner phones worked is probably the best I've ever read. Do you still have that kind of intense relationship with hip hop or is that something that you've grown past? When I found working with inner-city kids and giving back in that way, when I found traveling and inspiring people's story, whether it's verbal or whether it's through [writing] or whether it's through acting, whether it's through writing a film, because I write films now as well. RELATED: Gary Sinise Helps Wounded Navy Seal Land Hawaii Five-0 Acting Gig: He’s Someone ‘I Admire Very Much’. When I was a kid, my mom, for punishment, would make us read The New York Times and make us pick articles and then write reports on the articles. And I said, "There's no way." They were horrible mainly because it wasn't me. I went to her memorial page and I just started Googling names I found there. That's a long and complicated title, but it barely scratches the service. I hope the Pentagon will read my story and, as my platform grows, I'm gonna advocate for more chances. Ending his successful naval career in 2016, he was led to pursue a career in writing, speaking, and acting. 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