American Masters

- [Interviewer] I'm trying to get you to.

- What?

- [Interviewer] Explain who you are.

- Well, that, I find that kind of a non-question.

- [Interviewer] I know.

- So I don't know what it means.

- [Interviewer] Well, how would you describe yourself?

- I wouldn't, I wouldn't.

- I started talking to Jerry about thinking of running for governor.

Now, Pat Brown, his father, he said, "Tom, you're destroying my son's career, "and you're destroying your career."

He said, "You'll never recover."

- He was so new.

He was so attractive as a candidate following what we all experienced with the Kennedys.

- The cabinet was half women, people of color, first gay judge.

It was for the people, by the people, and that was real.

- We have Bernie Sanders, we have Elizabeth Warren focusing on climate change, and that's something Jerry Brown was talking about in 1975.

- Ray called me and said, "Jerry wants you to run his campaign."

I said, "His campaign for what?"

He says, "Campaign for president."

I said, "You're kidding."

- Long shot?

Well, I wouldn't say that I've got it locked up yet.

(crowd laughs) - You would just show up, and there was 20,000 people in Maryland at a rally.

And celebrities who were flying on planes and being his spokespeople everywhere.

He was like, for real, a rockstar.

- I'm sitting in a holding room, but I could see it.

Oh God, Clinton is really getting angry.

I hope he doesn't hit him.

- I've come to the idea that you can have an idea, and you can be clear about it and certain about it and completely wrong.

- He went back into the practical arena for the second time and worked his way up, that made him this master craftsman.

- When Jerry was elected the second time, I said, "That is fantastic."

- Governors, you're governing for your time and maybe five years down the road, but he is decades down the road, decades down the road.

- [Interviewer] There was never a light touch with Jerry.

He was a disruptor from the beginning.

(solemn music)