Mahershala Ali & John David Washington - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

[Music] mr. John David Washington yo oh man honor to sit down with an honest man yeah so tell me how how did how the black Klansmen come your way black Klansmen I got a text message from Spike Lee now we don't have each other I don't have his number yeah and you know we our families know each other but I never kiss to be there and I you know but I never had any sahat or establish any kind of cell phone communication with him until that point so this year I get a text saying spike call me oh my god this is probably a prank or something but I'm definitely gonna investigate I'm a child see I call him like hello like despite like what up spike I got this book this story back first black African the first african-american detective in Colorado Springs infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan I'm like what this is I'm thinking maybe this is Dave Chappelle spike I'm gonna do it you know yeah he said Jordan Peele gave it to him i'ma send you the book I was like cool I read the book I was blown away I was blown away that this piece of rich American history is it fell through the cracks it's not a well-known story I called him back and say oh this is crazy this is incredible he's like you love it I love it bet see you this summer Wow yeah how would you describe your process working together like what's he like as a director and you know how did he impact your performance I felt the most freedom I've ever had as maybe even as going back to my athletic days as an athlete or an artist ever had this legend that trusted me with this material this very important material this this piece of history that needs to be toned though that needs to be shown displayed correctly he trusted me with this so we we rehearsed we discussed about two and a half weeks he wouldn't even let me even prior to the table read he wouldn't let me I try to get in touch with Ron star were at the river I start with and he would like not let me talk to him he didn't give me the number until the table read and you know he had his reasons and I'm glad he did it that was so you kind of had a moment to really develop your own thoughts and think about them separate from from the the real gentleman I think that's I think that was that's what I discovered I found myself I can't go to I mean there's this stuff on the Internet these days YouTube information but then I went I went deeper I well what about me in the 60s or 70s I rid myself of all hip-hop R&B EDM you know and The Cranberries as well and I went you know I was I was my healthy diet steady diet of war of slide family stone you know Led Zeppelin this is for three months you know I will go to bed to Soul Train every night you know watch Super Fly weekly Wow and I saw what I was doing to my spirit what I was doing to my psyche how about was talking maybe even how I was posturing yeah and and that was all prior to talking to Ron you know so I never experienced anything like that then the kind of preparation that spike that spike introduced me to you know but it's a real little real transformation and before you try to ask for you I just want to say you know how much I appreciate your work because I think it's one thing for people to be exposed to you through black clansmen which is phenomenal work thank you but I think for me we'll put you in perspective it's just like just where you're at in your career in this moment right now where you could go with seeing monsters and mint and being able to see those two characters off of each other within I think I saw them weeks apart and for me I was like that's the that's the end zone when I look at that part that's the supporting performance of the year from me you know sincerely and so to see those two projects off of each other and then that that put you as a talent in context for me in a different way where I'm really sincerely truly excited to see what happens to your career and how it unfolds you know thank you so I really wish you the best on your journey how do you propose to make this investigation well I've established contact and created some familiarity with the Klansmen over the phone I'll continue in that role but only another officer surprise surprise a white officer to play me when they meet face to face that's my point exactly tell me how you found found green book Oh green book came it came a few months a few months after you know we finished the Oscar with moonlight and you know I was reading I I was avoiding reading things I was like don't send me nothing unless it's like really good because I don't have time to just read there just to read you know so we could be an agreement that it's not a project for me I'm like send me something that you feel like good about and so the ones that were coming my way I would go through them and then green book came and it just really really just the characters really popped off the page I thought the there there's a chemistry in the writing that was there I thought the story was was important and in the way in which the ark the journey that the characters it was amazing to me it was a fairly brothers affair yeah yeah he had Peter Farrell yeah but I think will stood out to me most was this opportunity to step in the shoes of Don Shurley this this man who who so many stories that haven't been told and you can't tell everybody he's not gonna get a movie you know but what I thought was amazing about Don Shurley was that was an archetype of person that I'd never seen before he on on screen you know when you know there's firsts for so many different characters or archetypes but him I hadn't seen him somebody who was usually when we go back pre 1975 nor pre specially pre-civil rights that we are so clearly in this place of oppression right and that exists in the film but I think he is the most empowered you could be in that time where this is a guy who is the boss in that car absolutely and has always even though they they've gone below the mason-dixon line there's this sense that besides a couple of situations to me there was this there was a sense that I as dark surely could eject anytime I want I didn't have to be there I didn't need the money I didn't have to have that experience when you say yeah I'm sorry when you say eject like emotion you know just from the genève like I don't he doesn't have to finish the tour oh yeah he didn't even have to go on the track he wasn't usually it's like I need this guy to do this thing for me so that I could have my freedom or so that I could have this that and other when we go pre Civil Rights this guy what what his life was like up north in New York City the fact that he could tour he could do the Nina Simone go to Europe make his money had his career he could stay up north you know but him going down into the South was a choice and it wasn't it wasn't about him finishing because because he needed that money or whatnot it was something that he chose to do he wanted to put himself on the front lines in his own unique way and allow people to be exposed to the type of man the type of black man that he was in order to sort of pierce the consciousness so that they couldn't just think of us as sharecroppers only yeah you know and and it's it's subtle work meaning like his his tasks it's very subtle work but but it's the work that he felt that he was most suited to do and that was just putting him putting himself in that situation so I felt like and then all the complexities of the character what was going on within him his own battle with is not even a battle with a sexuality but its quietness about that that's what it felt like in the performance to that isolation it didn't become a thing like he wasn't holding the audience's hand about it you didn't play the lair right you Laird Lee played it thank ya and did you not what you said did you find that just on the the words on the pages that no once you start a resurgent is that when you I mean your process of getting in once you see it on the page where wise men told me if it ain't on the page me on the stage what you saw it on the page and then you start coming into everything you just said now you know what's funny that is true as that is I think my experience in this business if you look at viola for instance my Lola Davis who is just extraordinary yeah but that is somebody who is who has been like until what eight years ago ten years ago maybe and it's been a quick ten years since she's really been on a certain platform in the space that she deserves I feel like the experience specifically speaking of actors of color not to just go all into that too too long but you are kind of tasked with turning water into wine uh-huh and so instead of getting like you know I got you you know then you just get it okay here's a few more grapes but you're not necessarily getting a fuller thing so you always look at something your nature at least mine and how I've kind of fought to just get to this place I've always felt like I had to try to elevate something even if it didn't need to be like I always felt like I had to burn something else that is not even on the page to bring to it because I was only gonna be in it for three scenes anyway yeah right and so um so with this what I understood that it existed in him in a broad space like this is a film that a lot of people could be attracted to right and so sometimes those get dubbed commercial mm-hmm and so what I wanted to do with this character that existed in in a broader space was make sure that he had the complexity the necessary complexity for him to resonate his being truthful to you know and so so yes that was that was that was there on the page I think the bones of that were there on the page but upon seeing him speak and I've got this little documentary called um Little Bohemia where he's in he lived on top of Carnegie Hall along with 69 other artists really yeah and Shelley did dr. shirlee did when I lived there for like 50 years Wow so there was like 70 artists lofts on top of Carnegie Hall and they were closing it and basically kicking all those people out and so he peers in that a couple of times and when I saw him this one thing gave me a huge clue into him and we made sure to put it in the script he's in the 70s though and in doing this and in speaking in the documentary but he's speaking to the documentarian and he says well I couldn't I couldn't do the husband act and the concert pianist that's yeah you said it in the car yeah yeah right yeah and so and what and we used that as a head-fake to sort of show the audience and spoilers and getting stuff away but it was basically him in the 70s if he's not he hasn't openly come out you know he didn't he didn't say why he really got divorced in that in that way in his 70s you know so I'm like he's private you know everything for him is is very private and very contained and that's not your business and this is how I'm gonna you know and so it gave me a huge I must say I mean when that see when that scene when the reveal happens yeah you are handcuffed yes anka I didn't see that coming you know to me and and then like seeing like hearing you talk about it how you talking about layered and like privatized it it was it was it was a brilliant choice thankfully dear Dolores de AR this is an animal as I'm writing this letter I'm eating potato chips and I'm starting to get thirsty and you know this is pathetic right so if us like just as an audience and looking at your work if page one of your story as an actor for us is is ballers right we first see you in that what was what was happening where were you at before that like but with with just what space were you and where were you at just as a person like looking at this work I know you came out of sports and whatnot but just kind of shared with us you know where you were at before before your career begins to like you know you start you know hit the track start running I was I guess I was in spiritual transit I was I was I was excited about the unknown but deeply terrified of it as well hmm I find there was a moment I told my Achilles I was 29 years old I tore it you know a 29 year old running back that really doesn't have a resume has no film it's not you know it's that you're not gonna get hired really so I basically knew it was over football wise but here here comes these feelings of I don't know birthright if you always wanted to be an actor and I'm like this is the space this is sort of the opportunity while I'm in this insurmountable amount of pain and pop impact you communicated that to your parents that's because they're both active yeah yeah like the Raven I don't think so when you go when you go to them and I'm curious as to like every we all know your father you know personally my mom my idol but what impact will impact has your mom had on your work maybe more of an impact differ definitely different than my father I'm here I'm thinking about Green Book my mother is a classically trained pianist talking you know taught lessons at 11 years old in rural North Carolina dark-skinned women you know who was worldly early from a small town you know and seeing her be able to play the numbers that you character that you were playing in the film she can do that without even reading the notes well I thought I thought it was like it was like magic to me I mean seeing my father do Shakespeare in the Park knowing he didn't talk like that at the house and spit these words so clearly you know this poetry I fell in love din not that it was just something I've never I remember what I felt you know watching these movies watching glory you know watching my mother play I just felt like like I was connected to him in such a way I was able to tap into a percentage of my brain that usually he can't tap into and that was sort of the vessel to be or the the portal to that to that feeling it is through this artistry so you know my mom said this too before just because you're an artist doesn't mean you have to paint does it mean you have to act a direct you know you can do it in everyday life great key grip foodie you know they mean a sculptor but so I found myself as an athlete really masquerading as an athlete but I was an artist then I just got into character and but I was you know so I never told them I told my mother once I got the opportunity to audition she actually took me to my first audition I was in crutches and buuut on pain pills so I was very relaxed you know say I left it all in the room Sheila Jaffe god bless her casting that casting agent she believed in me first after my first audition she said uh so you should retire from football and and then 10 auditions later I got that there now and then I went to HB studio so we shot the pilot in 2014 with the great Peter bird and then then I went to New York and I found HP studios Rochelle Oliver was another mentor of mine Stephen Henderson who directed me and a play called the Dutchman okay and oh yeah you know maybe Brian Mayer Barack exactly and that sort of that's when the bug really hit yeah so actually it wasn't even the pilot that I got to shoot with the rock and the bells and whistles and all that it was getting into that gym that needs to be yo gym and working on the game discovering what I can do yeah and again Spike Lee on another level you taught me that there's other ways to convey truth it's not one way to do it there's multiple ways there's an abstract way of you know it's like organized chaos you know what I mean and I really it just it changed everything or the whole perspective of the approach to the craft so um I gotta ask you man like I never actually got to congratulate you on your academy award man thing but congratulations and and what that represent how did you basic question how did you feel man like before even like okay no actually there's some ones on for the audience to for actors out there the campaigning yeah right before and then it happens and then after can you take us through that emotionally you know I at that time I was just I just felt so grateful for for people wanting to have a conversation with me about my work it's one thing to be in a project and you're kind of on the wave of that project if people are are you know applauding it or watching it whatever cuz I've been on a couple of things that that resonated like house of cards or whatever but no one's really trying to have a conversation with me about it right or knowing like the work that you put in for someone to be like that's great or that sucks like they don't you know and that's fair like nobody knows that but just to have commerce after conversation about the the themes in the film or or how you make scenes come alive or just the chemistry between actors the the the deeper motivations under under choices and like where characters come from and what resonates with you about that character and like all those things that that was having I started acting in 1993 you know and so and started working professionally in 2000 I never had to got an opportunity to talk about the work you know and how I approached it which is fine but so that was when you say talk about just assume to a certain audience in the way and even talk about it in terms of press so much of our experience you know what I found is so there's only so much bandwidth in an interview right only so much space mmm 40% of my interview is usually around things of like diversity or color you know and we're in a real time where that's a real conversation and that has a real place so as as a black actor coming into that who for me is I don't want to but I would do this for free like it really is something I'm passionate about so when you you kind of get to the questions about the work or the process like so far down the line that you never you'd almost don't get to exhaust it and in some way in doing in terms of like a press conversation right or just having a conversation with the audience or public and so moonlight was the first time that we had these Q&A anyway see people responding to everyone in the film is black so we talked color and race but really got to get down into that work into the process and to how he thought about the air there's an approach that so then you get to the audience gets to respect their approach the approach of how an artist who happens to be black he also takes a script and metabolizes it and transforms right because we spend so much of our time talking about color that the transformation process of actors of color doesn't get recognized not in a deeper way you know and when actors who are white are never asked us right so all they get they got all this runway to talk about the work like what does it feel like whatever is what it is but so for me that was the first time you're like oh wow wanna know how that was amazing in men and then winning and and all that whether I had won or nothing and all that weight cuz I'm good I guess let me just say cuz what it represents man when you see mr. Washington hold the trophy and when you see you Cuban hold the trophy it's you know there's people there's people that look like us in Kansas the people that look like us in middle text instead of like saying oh wait I can do it yes I could do even if it ain't acting right I can I can run the plant right I can run I can be an agent I can you know mean it just what it represents yeah or not I mean so so you know I know it's funny I had this there's a makeup artist I work with I remember I was on Tremaine I was doing like a couple of scenes here and there you know and I was in a place at least where I was just really hungry to do more you know and more fulfilling work you know and I remember she says to me your name's Debbie young and she said to me she said my her Sheila you ask God to guide you to your excellence and and I've been praying that like almost every you know it always pops up for me and I felt like that moment right there was and I think for so many people whatever your whatever your path is whatever your passion is that like we all just want to be guided to our excellence you know that that that place within us and people label it different things you know there's people who are atheist as people who are agnostic or whatever Muslim do whatever but I think for me it was I just want to be fulfilled I want to be holistically but I want to be guided to my excellence and so I think in that moment I felt like it was a prayer that got answered you know and holding Stan now that I have ever prayed for a trophy in my life okay but but Norma's symbolized an answered prayer yes and that you are on this path to like you keep working nice okay now keep working right and this is a symbol of that prayer that's been answered now you keep working towards your excellence and what that means for people who that resonates with who may look like me or feel like me or my work resonate with like oh yeah I got all my folks back in Hayward California and Oakland the Bay Area I know that that's a thing for them like Oh Hirsch they search right yeah man ya know that that's great that that means it means a lot yeah yeah to me so how was that salty have you ever considered becoming a food critic not really why should money in it I'm just saying you have a marvelous play with words when describing food let me ask you so in in Spike is interesting man because one you know he's on the least my Mount Rushmore for sure Matt my love and and was so amazing about him is that the the multi-faceted thing the multi-pronged director writer actor always appearing in things he really is a genre like in a real way and so you know like if somebody were to do you know a Woody Allen movie you know what that is in a certain way hmm Scorsese Spike Lee is his own genre you know and he has this little quirky space that he lives in how was that stepping into that and did you understand that how when did it when did it click cuz you got it you nailed it you working with Adam driver some other terrific actors what was that like and what was it like existing in a Spike Lee's space you know I've been been saying it before I think Spike Lee is a master cinematic tone he under I think he really understands how to display real life finding the you know humor and tragedy and finding the post darkest harshest moments kind of funny you know I mean so I mean that was that ever did it ever feel like borderline inappropriate to you did you ever feel like oh did he do that mhm never never and I couldn't do this role for anybody else right right now because I know I know he's in his fourth decade yeah you know what I'm saying and and his mountain like you said he's on my Mountain Rushmore as well knowing this is right up his alley I didn't feel we like Adam and I we weren't playing for jokes you know and again I was talking about the feeling of an artist such a freeing feeling with him directing me it was so liberating because there were like no notes there wasn't any line readings it wasn't it can you can it be funnier can you be you know they say bigger but that means blacker I think a lot of times the translation none of that it was each strip stuff down but he and he understands momentum too when you do all the preparation you know you study yeah you go to bed with it you wake up with it or some don't but he understands in this moment right now something changed and we're set up and we're going something changed so we're gonna go with what's what that change is because it might be more sure you know Stephen Henderson told me don't get it right get it true yeah so that kind of takes the pressure off of nailing the target trying to be accurate in my performance yeah you know make it make it more was that because I think that takes away from the soul and I think he's all about that he has his way of you know the sort of abstract ability to convey a truth that she didn't even realize was there until maybe the second take and sometimes it's only the second take that you'll get then we're moving on he has such a pace about his work everybody seems to be on board again Finland he loves sports it felt like a team concept everybody wanted to service the film that was all foreign to me man and that and it's in its completion you know as far as from catering to to hair and makeup you know what I mean that was so I'm almost spoiled in a way yeah because I work like that all the time where there's no ego right yeah we that can happen what like and look what happens when there's no egos we were just here for the film here for the story I just find it I found us it was tremendous man and important let me ask the voice and speech choice mmm where when'd you lock in on that and like why was was what's the real gentleman's name or on star wars yes so it was is that did that you met with him ago oh I'm going in that direction with it I was so I was at work really well thank you man oh yeah I I was you know I like cuz he wouldn't cry wouldn't give me his number or email or nothing so I was going off of some interviews I saw online and then when I got to finally talk to him but spike he kept telling me Ronna star with his not the Bible Rostow is not the Bible so what was happy it just worked out organically I was totally locked into the voice okay and then I sort of like a week before we started shooting I was like I just let it go I'm not gonna I was like obsessing with it and just stopped mmm I said f it mmm I'm listen to what spike saying listen to what God is saying mmm go with it trust that it's in there so it was there was some specifics like the the inflection on the white thing what actually I got to be out of - my mom's here - she says like that - sometimes so I have fun with that part but but yeah it was I just wanted to be true to to the guy you know this is it and he didn't and I can I get a little scream screaming sometimes when you when we talk about code-switching and like you know I went to a private school but I also grew up in North Carolina got a lot of time that I was able to go to Europe and Italy you know every summer so what am I supposed to sound like right you know I mean you know I'm saying I got all these experiences and thinking about the character to it with with dr. he kind of said the same thing in the in the you know in the rain seem like I'm like I'm not black enough I'm not man and where you fit yeah where do you fit and in that other layer of the sexuality - like that and all of that's there why are you acting like you ain't got skin in the game brother rookie that's my [ __ ] business it's our business I'm going to get you your membership card so you can go to the cross-burning and get in deeper with these guys and I would ask you the same question about your speech cuz I mean Juan yes I said why yes why had a different swag different everything posture everything was different I mean are those choices on the day or do you kind of get what he was wrong was really conscious I started sort of meditating on so I get to a place and I usually walk I walk it for a little while yes okay when I get and I was literally like hi kid like just like being a space get there and and I was thinking about Miami and right he and his brothers being out on the street what that'd do to your body and I just letting things go and relax a bit and so he kind of lumbers he's wearing some some some you know high-top like some dunks or whatever and the way yeah they run laced and so you're gonna drag your feet a little bitty lumbers you know and then with dr. Lee I thought of him as a dancer you know and so you see a dancer on the subway or on the street you go that's a dancer I said that's a ballerina or that and so I thought of him as being being like a fencer you know so everything being like really precise and then for instance with true detective this guy is a broadsword so it's just cool mm-hmm you know and so how all that informs speech you know thinking about some time my speech at least with Don Shurley I felt like as soon as I got more articulate and I brought it up it like it made me hold I would grab my whole body in a different place as well and so thinking about the dancer thinking about and being very conscious and precise on the keys so that means he would be that way with his language right hadn't also seeing him speak it all made sense to me so I was just trying to keep all those balls in the air you know and so I did hire someone and I worked with uh I worked with a woman by the name of Denise woods uh voice and speech coach and I know and yeah and so I I do think about all those things and what I love about acting is that I absolutely get on my wife's nerves because I'm real picky but I don't mean to be you know I really don't but like I'm like oh that thing goes there actually you know I and so acting is like the perfect place for my nature you know to like pick at things and find its place or just to be free and let it go and allow those ideas to to juggle those things that it like I feel exhausted by the time I'm done working yeah and I kind of need to exhaust my mind in that way because it's the only place that makes them that place makes the most sense for me just in my my existence in hard just like approach I feel you I mean like I honestly feel it's therapy for me you know I was action packed with issues growing up you know and this sort of again football served as this sort of source of independence yeah you know to me but I realize I can put all that stuff all the stuff I learned what I was feeling into these characters yeah you know I mean I I mean there's a there's a hierarchy I put I'll give it a guy at first but uh but then I'm able to he's get you know I put one of my prayers always has just used me god I'm a vessel just talk to me I'm not I'm just here to service this whatever is and my goodness is so much fun to it it's fun to be able to to work out you know Ricky Jarrett's you know action-packed issue history or father stuff or whatever just to throw it in is just being these clothes and something about Miami - I love Miami by the way yeah I love filming there the people the food the culture all that yeah so that was fun let me ask because you brought it up and of course I brought it up I'm just curious this is a conversation I've never had with another actor what what what place does like you know I know your grandfather was it was a preacher correct yeah my grandmother was a preacher my mom's ordained minister what place does does like your your religious spiritual consciousness what how does that inform your work in terms of life perhaps boundaries or or just the energy behind accomplishing beginning middle in like finishing a day finishing a shoot finishing a job like how does it how does it impact impact your acting it's a good question another good question if you're aware of it if you're not aware you might not be at the place where you like sit there and like I've necessarily thought of it like that because it could just I know it it can also just be something that is just you've always known sort of affects your everyday but I'm just curious do you do you feel like you're you're sort of spiritual consciousness in some ways dictates that you draw lines for yourself it's it's such a and I'm stumped still yeah I don't have a definitive answer for that I'm still sort of in I'm sort of buffering right now with yeah I mean it definitely I mean it directly impacts basically everything I do you know especially this arts and crafts you know what I mean that being said I want to think about boundaries I feel like that's putting you know I'm bounding him as wearing bound and guy like that so it should if he's lit possibilities are limitless so should be the explored of freedoms of creativity okay so so you know it's what okay and this is a better way I think what I meant by that is is there character that just because you're conscious in a certain space was there somewhere you could read and be like I I can't really justify playing that person you know even if it's not about playing the good guy and the bad guy but like I can't do the math on how this person is the way they are and so therefore it just feels like you know unnecessary or there's something is being exploited there or it feels egregious or like something I'm out of that this would have you ever read anything where you said I just considering who I am this is not this doesn't work for me I have but I've also read some characters that are so so sighs it was so absurd yeah and in so many ways but I'm thinking about the whole for all point of this what are we saying though and if it's services the message again going going the film's watching films as a kid I experimented to cry wanted to laugh I want to enjoy myself also wanted to be sometimes an entertainment entertaining way taught a lesson so if this is an opportunity for those kids in Texas or the kid in Maine that looks like us overall our overarching theme with the film this is why you shouldn't make these decisions I'll service that and I'll be again but that's like it's bigger than me yeah you know I'm saying all services so I'll be the buffoon or this observed observed fellow if it means you'll get was why he did the stuff at what happens to right so so then again that kind of breaks the chains of what I won't do right and all that because it's about who I get to work with and that's why I'm in my life right now anyway like just being a true detect I mean coming into a franchise like that that's the kind of opportunity I wanted to ask you this too though after winning right and what I was saying before like how important it is to the community of our actors and just overall does that change your taste does that are you more selective now are you are you less selective now like how does that inform you moving forward well I after I won I was still just as hungry though yeah cuz uh what I mean is by that is moonlight I am in it for 30 minutes 25 minutes you know Green book is is the most present I've ever been in the store hmm so I'm 44 been working I won't say president like just banality okay I like having a character that really has dimension and you're not your backstory is in the movie yes it's like okay what's my backstory and then like you're in there for to sing yeah um so I just want to make that no thank you thank you thank you thank you so for me going into like finishing this Oscar season of a couple years ago I was like do I finally get to get a lead shot mm-hmm you know like and so so you are human grateful there's a difference between gratitude and fulfillment okay grateful for the work but not fulfilled by right just I went home like one of the works no more I went tired when I went home I know yeah and so so Green Book and true detective happened within days of each other in terms of book in them and I shot him I finished screen booking a week later started true the tagline and so when he talks about like where I was at like after the Oscar I was approached for originally true detective was was it was written different mm-hmm and so the lead was white mm-hmm and the the other cop was black and the beat and if you once you see the show you'll see that there's there's a it's different from the other seasons and that like the lead character wing you know it really is he's at the point of the arrow eight okay no yeah and and so I came after came out of all that and I'm going and I read I read the scripts I was blown away I got to read the first four and and I could have played that that second the secondly that supporting character but in my mind I was like I've done this my entire career though I've never done that and I'm forty at that time 43 years old you know and if it don't happen now it really may not happen so my grandfather was a state police officer and these are two state police officers so I went on my phone I'm hitting up some cousins and whatnot and they send me some pictures of my grandfather in a state police officer mm-hm so I text them the NIC NIC pizzolatto him the showrunner and I was like see we existed in this space in the sixties and the seventies you know state police officers this is an Arkansas and just this is like yeah my grandfather's from Kentucky and I was like you know I think your story would be served I think the story would improve in this case if this lead character is black taking the looking at a this crime working to be solved in 1980 like what is that in 1980 in Fayetteville Arkansas and this lead detective is black and and it's a black guy and a white guy you're asking someone questions and he's the lead detective if you're white then they may not look at me when I ask them when I ask them a question they're like addressing him but I'm the lead cop so like this I'm like this is how you can law on your side this is how you can address those things that don't we not to beat him over the head with the race element but let's write it encouraging him to like think of it from the standpoint of how it's experienced racism is not experienced as like the n-word all the time right it's more like oh you wouldn't even look me in the eye or like I said thank you he just brushed me off like you know that insulin normalizing behavior yeah and so once I came back to him and I was like I'm gonna play that part and he thought about it a couple of days got back to me and he was like yo let's do this like I'm down he went back we wrote his whole thing and and like he brought you know I would who do you who else do you like I was like yellow Carmen is dope got Carmen ejogo and if you guys you know Steven came on in man and you know we put it together but um that's what I wanted to do I wanted to I want to finally I want the finally like like get into you know and finally get to get to carry down [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 467,809

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, BlacKkKlansman, John David Washington, Mahershala Ali, Green Book, HBO, True Detective

Id: l54w-CtUgx0

Length: 41min 14sec (2474 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 27 2018