The Weinstein Company’s latest film “Lee Daniel’s The Butler,” hit theaters this weekend and The Source Magazine had the opportunity to speak with three of the film’s stars David Oyelowo, Yaya Alafia, and Jesse Williams, where they discussed playing these important characters.
In the film, Oyelowo, who plays Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey’s son Louis Gaines, gives an incredible and complicated performance. His character breaks the law in order to fight for racial equality participating in sit-ins, freedom rides and protests with his girlfriend (Yaya Alafia). Alafia is another actress to watch in the coming months. Louis clashes with his father, who is a humble butler, over whether this is the correct method of creating change.
http://youtu.be/I1fAvtUlXBU
Your characters goes through such an interesting progression through Civil Rights. Can you speak about that journey that you take?
David: That was one of the privileges of the journey we get to take on this movie – is that effectively through our characters you see the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. When we first meet we’re kids in college just knowing that there is an injustice in this country that needs to be addressed and I think even at the beginning we are not aware where this is even going to take us. And when through research I spoke to people who had engaged in the civil rights movement and they all said we didn’t know we were changing the world, we were just kids who were reacting to what was going on and I think that was what was great for us to illustrate that fact in a movie
Yaya: I was so excited to read this script and go on the audition for the first time I was like “I have to-do this role.” I just felt so connected to it partly because I have parents who were very active in the civil rights movement, so I didn’t have to look to far to do my research, but it’s such an important part in our country’s history and I just felt privileged to portray a piece of it.
David, you have some important scenes with both Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey who play your parents can you speak about that?
David: You know what’s funny about that, is that they felt incredible at the time and there were literally times where we were doing scenes. There’s a dinner table scene that we were all engaged in and I remember the day we were shooting that going “This was great! Did this feel great to you? I think this feels great.” One of the things that was great about it is I don’t think I’ve seen to much of that, just a black family at a table, and it was political, it was familial, there’s food, talking about movies, all that stuff that you don’t really get to see and like you say you have those brilliant actors you have the privilege to be at the table with.
You guys are such a great couple on screen can you tell us about the bonding process and how you made this couple work?
Yaya: David made it easy just from the beginning even from my callback audition – our chemistry test we have. He was casted first so he read all these different actress and it such a relief to walk into the room and be “oh yeah we’re connected” it didn’t take any effort, it was all there.
David what was great for me was that Carol Yaya’s character had to be in essence had to be the stronger one she needed to take the reigns and drag wide eyed boy through – away from his family, away from his dad’s sensibility into a new world and she has the strength to do that. I didn’t feel like I had to bring myself down or make myself be more sheepish. She had the ability and I just had to just follow and she was good at dragging me.
Being from the UK were any of these issues were surprising to you or was this something you researched and studied?
David it was all a surprise to me in a sense that this not my culture, I was born in the UK, but my parents are from Nigeria, I lived in Nigeria for a time, so American history is not a part of my life in the same way it would be if I were born here but one of the great things about that is that I didn’t take anything for granted, I had to do all my research, I had to speak people probably more than someone who was born here would and that gave me a very layered sense of what it must be like.
Finally, can you reflect on working with Director Lee Daniels?
Yaya: He was a joy to work with and definitely pushed us beyond our limits by pushing us to do less. A lot of time directors try to get a performance out of you and he was all about stripping away, which is really liberating cause then you get to the truth and that’s what he’s all about.
David: This is the second film I’ve done with Lee. I did the “Paperboy” with him before this a very different kind of movie but the common theme with him is his pursuit of the truth and like Yaya says and he demands that of every single element of the film whether it’s the script or the actors or the costume designer whatever it is he’s looking to get to the essence of the truth and that’s just amazing thing to be around.
Actor Jesse Williams plays Civil Rights Activist Reverend James Lawson in the film.
http://youtu.be/I1fAvtUlXBU?t=5m42s
Congratulations on the film. How did you get involved?
Jesse: I got involved with the film through Lee. I guess I’ve known Lee a little bit just kind of socially through mutual friends in New York and L.A. We had met on a previous project and he just bought it up to me at randomly. We were at a breakfast or something and he said, this something I should read and I should find a way to squeeze yourself into it.
Your character has some interesting philosophies on the Civil Rights Movement.
Jesse: I play Reverend James Lawson, who is a phenomenal man still with us. I had the privilege to spend some time with him in Los Angeles – one of the few guys who actually really did walk with Dr. King and more than walk, spent a lot time with him and educated him on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Satyagraha, and the peace movement and he was a professor at Oberlin and came down to Tennessee and worked with training people for the sit-ins. Kind of had a lot of workshops not only at Fisk University, but around the area really training people on the real value of love and the strategy. There is a real cunning long term strategy with these sit-ins, it wasn’t just sitting in at some counter, it was really a long term strategy to get exposure on a national scale and that worked.
Were there any moments that Reverend Lawson shared about Dr. King?
Jesse: He shared a few stories. What stood out the most was…the way he was recruited that fact that Dr. King found him and reached out for him and he received a phone call saying Dr. Martin Luther King wants meet you wants to bring you down to work together and that was just a life changer for him and I’ll never forget it.
There were some heart wrenching scenes that you, Yaya and David go through protesting, freedom riding and getting attacked during a sit in. Can you speak about working with David and Yaya?
Jesse: It was really an outstanding experience those guys are obviously incredibly talented, but really wonderful people and David and I have become friends, we both live in los Angeles so we spend a lot of time together, but it was great, it was an intense project we shot a lot of stuff and I essentially put them through their paces I’m working a working a workshop to essentially beat the hell out of them and scare the hell out of them to get to get prepared for what they may be facing in the real world so it was an intense couple days of shooting
I read that on your fathers side you might have some southern roots was this story personal to you in anyway?
Jesse: Sure. I’ve studied these movements my entire life. It is very significant chapter in our history. It’s American history. I think too often it’s catalogued in some kind of black history, but that’s childish, it’s American history. My fathers family is from Georgia deep south and they’ve been through quite a bit, so has everybody whose from there that has some years on them, so this one of many films, hopefully, that can shine some light on what’s actually happened and how we’ve come to be here today.
Is the story about the butler something you had first heard about from Lee Daniels and the script or did you hear about it before?
Jesse: I actually read an article on Eugene Allen and some of his experiences. I think it was around the time of Obama’s inauguration, but had no idea they were going to make it into a film and when Lee brought it up, it rang a bell and then I read it and got really excited. Danny Strong, the writer, a great guy I met him because he played my patient on “Grey’s Anatomy” actually before he had written “Game Change,” so we had a relationship of sorts.
