The
“The Birth of a Nation” Interview
with
Kam Williams
The
Birth of Nate's Nation!
Actor/humanitarian-turned-writer/director
Nate Parker first received critical attention for his starring role
in The Great Debaters opposite Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker.
Nate received an honorary Doctorate from Wiley College, the school
featured in the fact-based story.
More recently, Nate starred
in Beyond The Lights opposite Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Minnie Driver, and
Danny Glover. He also appeared in the action thriller Non-Stop
opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.
In 2012, he was a
member of the ensemble cast of Red Tails which included Terrence
Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The film chronicled the story of the
Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military aviators in the
U.S. Army Air Corps who went on to become some of the finest pilots
in World War II.
Nate also starred opposite Alicia Keys in
The Secret Life Of Bees, which featured an all-star cast of Queen
Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning and Paul Bettany.
Additionally, he has been seen in Pride alongside Terrence Howard and
in Dirty opposite Cuba Gooding Jr.,
On the stage, Nate
appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman, Annette Bening, Rosario Dawson and
James Cromwell in American Voices at the Broad Street Theater. Here,
he talks about making his writing and directorial debut with The
Birth of a Nation, a reverential biopic in which he stars, too, as
slave revolt leader Nat Turner (1800-1831).
Kam
Williams: Hey,
Nate, how you been? .
Nate
Parker:
Kam!
Great to speak to you again, friend!
KW:
Congratulations on The Birth of a Nation's winning both the Grand
Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
NP:
Thank
you, brother. What a blessing! Right? Never in a million years would
I even have dreamt of that. I just made a movie I hoped would touch
people, but I can't even describe what it felt like to receive those
accolades.
KW:
How
long had this project been percolating before you went into
production?
NP:
Ooh,
years. I'm in my 8th year of the project now. At the starting point,
I'd done a couple of films, and I thought to myself it isn't often,
as black men, that we get an opportunity in Hollywood to play a
leading role with a strong character. And when one does come up,
there are so many people competing for it, plus the narrative isn't
usually controlled by us. So, I asked myself, if I could tell any
story, which would it be? And Nat Turner being my hero from a social
justice standpoint, he became the focus of my desires when it came to
making a film. I just wanted to create a hero that added to the
narrative of America who didn't look like the usual patriots.
KW:
William
Styron won a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for "The Confession of Nat
Turner" Did you rely on that best-selling novel while writing
your script?
NP:
I never
looked at it once. I had read enough of it when I was younger to have
my stomach turn by an author who completely denigrated the life and
motivations of one of our greatest heroes. But I don't blame him,
because it's a work of fiction.
KW:
Have
you met Anikah McLaren, one of the executives at Fox Searchlight
working on The Birth of a Nation?
NP:
I know
her very well. I love her! She's a wonderful human being.
KW:
I've
known her family for years. Her younger brother and my son were good friends
growing up and I've also been long-time friends with her mother and
stepfather, Arnold Rampersad, who used to teach here at Princeton.
NP:
You
know some good people, man. That's a good circle of friends. That
says a lot about you.
KW:IThanks. In an
earlier interview, you told me that you felt that you were blessed by
God at the beginning of your career. Given how spiritual Nat Turner
was and how he had a vision from God which inspired him, I wonder
whether you see any similarities between him and yourself?
NP:
I
believe that Nat Turner, at his core, was striving to be more
Christlike which dictated his thoughts and actions. I wouldn't say
I'm trying to be like Nat, but I'm definitely striving, as he was, to
get closer to my faith and to be more Christlike in the context of my
own imperfections as a human being. I believe that Nat Turner is a
role model that all of us could identify with and aspire to emulate
in a positive way, because he used all of his influence to address a
systemic crisis. And he did so with his faith and he did so
sacrificing on behalf of people he'd never meet, like you and me.
KW:
Even
though I asked you in our first interview many years ago about the
1999 rape accusation when you were a college student, I would be
remiss in not raising it again, since it has resurfaced and ignited a
firestorm of controversy recently. What do you have to say about the
incident?
NP:
I'll
say this. I'm 36 years-old, and my life has been a series of
obstacles, a series of educating moments. As I said before, I'm
trying to come as close to my faith as possible, and I see this
journey as just that, a journey. I set out to make this film because
I felt like it was written in my heart. And any obstacle that has
come before or will come after I will have to deal with accordingly,
with my faith. My hope is that people will see this film for what it
is, and I also hope they will be able to see a bit of my heart and of
what I'm striving to do with this film
KW:
The
last time we spoke was a couple of years ago when you were in
Ferguson, Missouri in connection with the Mike Brown case. At that
time, you spoke of "revolution" and described yourself as
an "actor-vist" dedicated to eradicating the dehumanization
and criminalization of black youth. I was concerned that, as an
emerging star I had described as possibly the next Denzel, you might
be tarnishing your image by being so visibly political.
NP:
I
originally sought to make this film really to create solutions to the
systemic crisis we were dealing with then. But here we are, 8 years
later, dealing with the same crisis. I heard someone say, if the next
50 years are like the last 50 years, then people of color might not
exist except as assimilated people and as inmates in the
prison-industrial complex. I believe that the more we recognize that
we're in crisis, the more we will realize that there is a need for
revolution. Because of our historical baggage, most people
automatically assume that revolution means black people rising up
against whites. But that's not what I'm saying. If Dr. Martin Luther
King was right in saying "Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere," then anyone who is on the side of the
oppressed needs to stand up, regardless of what they look like or
where they come from. And they should do so employing their skills
and their strengths, taking advantage of their occupations. Nat
Turner only had broom handles and axes, and didn't even have the
right to assemble. Today, we have journalism, technology and social
media, yet we fall silent when it comes to dealing with injustice.
When I speak of "revolution," I talk about it within the
context of humanity. Our country started with a rebellion. What would
our identity be without that rebellion? Who would we be as Americans,
if we didn't even know that we fought against British rule? If
history is an indicator, we know that subjugation will lead to
revolution anyway. We just don't know what that revolution will look
like. Am I an advocate of violence? No. I'm an advocate of freedom
and liberation and, whatever that means, I'm willing to stand for it.
KW:
Why did
you call your film The Birth of a Nation, the same title as the D.W.
Griffith classic released almost exactly a century ago?
NP:
That
was very intentional. I had my title before I had my script. I
deliberately want to tether the present to 1915 in order to create
context as to why we are where we are. Griffith, in my opinion, may
have been one of the most powerful people around in the sense that he
inspired all of America to embrace white supremacy as a form of
self-preservation. As a son of the Confederacy, he asked America to
turn its back on any thought of solidarity with people of color with
the hope that whites would be able to maintain their privilege
forever. And that idea of white supremacy wasn't limited to the Ku
Klux Klan and toothless hillbillies, but it made its way all the way
to the White House, where President Woodrow Wilson had connections to
the Klan through D.W. Griffith. So, I use that film designed to
disenfranchise and terrorize us as a starting point with the hope
that, by reclaiming and re-purposing it, we could right a massive
wrong, since we're still dealing with the fallout of the terror that
it inspired.
KW:
I
really liked this film better than 12 Years a Slave. Can you put a
finger on why that's the case?
NP:
I think
it was a desperate love for one's brothers and sisters. In this film,
they're not trying to escape to the North for a better life that they
once enjoyed. Instead, they're trying to reconcile the life they're
stuck in with what they see as God's purpose for their lives as
reflected in the scriptures. And Nat interpreted the Bible as saying
that God was on the side of the oppressed, as He was with Israel.
.
KW:
How
hard was it directing for the first time?
NP:
It was
very difficult. It wasn't my original intention to direct and produce
the film. But no producers raised their hand saying "Here's the
money!" and no director stepped forward saying, "I want to
tell this story." People saw this movie as a threat. And I was
even warned by many people in Hollywood that there would be grave
consequences for making it. But you can't let fear control your
actions, when you feel the Lord calling you to do something. So, I
decided to just go for it. And despite raising only a third of the
money needed, we were somehow able to achieve the impossible.
KW:
It's
interesting that the film is now being released at the height of the
Black Lives Matter Movement.
NP:
I think
it's a testament to God's plan that it's coming out now. Imagine, if
it had been released 8 years ago, 5 years ago, or even 3 years ago, I
doubt that it would have had the same impact that it's having now in
terms of creating an enlightened moment at a time of a desperate need
for change.
KW:
One
thing that surprised me when the closing credits rolled was to see
that Gabrielle Union and some other stars I hadn't recognized were in
the movie.
NP:
I told
all the women in the project that we were going to do this natural,
with no makeup. That's a scary thing, especially when so much of what
we do is controlled by image. But people really bought into it, and
we were able to achieve an authenticity that most projects are unable
to match.
KW:
What's
up next for Nate Parker?
NP:
I have
a couple projects I'm considering, but I'm being careful to make sure
it's something I'm passionate about.
KW:
Was
there a meaningful spiritual component to your childhood?
NP:
Yes and no. I was exposed to Christianity early on, but I didn't
really understand the magnitude of God's power and the role of
prophecy in my life. It wasn't until going through college that I
began to appreciate this thing called faith and to explore whether
there was something in it for me. So much of my life has changed
since then, and my desperation for a connection to the Lord continues
to deepen with every breath I take.
KW:
Finally,
what’s in your wallet?
NP:
No
money, just my insurance card and credit cards. I used to carry
around some pictures of my kids, but I keep putting my wallet in the
washing machine. [Laughs]
KW:
Thanks
again, Nate, and I hope to speak to you again during Oscar season.
NP:
Oh,
Lord willing, Kam. Thank you, brother.
To see a trailer for The Birth of
a Nation, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i18z1EQCoyg
