Award-Winning Actor Richard Dreyfuss Tells WCBS About His New Show & His 50 Years On Screen

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- In this installment of WCBS Conversation, Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss tells anchor Michael Wallace about his latest role on the new show "Shots Fired."

The show, which airs Wednesdays on FOX, focuses on the fallout in a North Carolina town after two racially charged police shootings.

"We have the worst race problem on Earth, and we have to somehow get white people and black people talking to one another and knowing one another," Dreyfuss says. "When we give our kids the talk about learning how to drive, black people in the country – in this show, and they'll talk about – give another talk. And that talk is not given to white kids, because they don't have to know it. Black kids do."

So what attracted the "Jaws" and "Close Encounters" star to a television show?

"(Creator Reggie Rock Bythewood) said, 'I want to do a show without heroes or villains, so you get to understand people.' That I wanted in on," he says.

He also calls this a creative time for television, admitting he's addicted to HBO's "Game Of Thrones."

Looking back on his 50-year career, Wallance challenges Dreyfuss to choose a favorite film.

"You know if I was glib about it, I would name two or three films. But the fact is there are only two movies I've ever made that I didn't like, and I won't ever tell you which ones they are," he says. "I loved every film I did, and I felt that every film I did represented me -- my ethics, my politics, in one way or another."

Lastly, he laments that "nobody in this country understands anymore the stories on the front pages of any newspaper in the country."

"The military, the financial system, the Middle East -- we have no understanding," he says "We know only the headline. We go to dinner parties and shout the headlines at one another, but we don't know anything."

Find more WCBS Conversations with local leaders, celebrities and more by clicking here.