(audience cheering)
- This is my sixth glass, and you know why.
- [Announcer] We're going to start with 63
and then I'll go back to 248.
Just give me a second to get a mic to them.
- Hey Spike. - How are you doing?
- [Tanja] I'm great, how are you doing?
- What is your name?
- [Tanja] My name is Tanja Stedam, I'm from The Root.
- The Root, alright.
- [Tanja] So first of all, congratulations.
- Thank you very much. - I want to say
the Academy did the right thing by giving you this award.
- Thank you very much. - So I actually recently
interviewed Ron Stallworth and he said that he couldn't
imagine anyone else helming this film,
and so I want to ask what would you say to Ron
now that you have this award for writing for this film?
- Well first of all, he led that life, he infiltrated
the Klan, he talked to David Duke on the phone.
He was David Duke's bodyguard.
And he lived to write a book to tell about it.
Next.
(audience laughing)
- [Announcer] We're going to go to 248 and then over to 180.
- Right here, Spike. - All the way in the back.
- Hey. - How you doing?
- Great, congratulations. - Thank you.
- So you've mentioned Do the Right Thing in your speech
and with your accessories today, so does this make up
for Do the Right Thing not winning the Oscar
for you right now?
- I'm snakebit, I mean, every time somebody's driving
somebody, I lose.
(audience laughing)
But they changed the seating arrangement.
- We're going to go over to 180 and over here to 95.
- But in '89, I didn't get nominated, so this one we did.
- Alright, over here. - For Best Picture.
- You want to stand up, 180, so he can see you?
- Sure. - Yes.
- Over here, hi. - Yes, how you doing?
- Good, how are you? - Good.
- I just wanted to ask you, we saw a little bit
of a reaction to the Green Book win.
Can you give us your thoughts on that Best Picture win?
- Let me take another sip.
Next question.
(audience laughs)
Oh wait a minute, what reaction did you see?
What did I do?
No, I thought I was court side at the Garden,
the ref made a bad call.
Court side. - 95.
- The world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden,
Knicks coming back next year.
- 95 and then 146. - Spike, right here.
Right here, sir. - What's up?
- How's it going? - Good.
- [Jonathan] Jonathan Landrum, Associated Press.
- AP. - AP.
- Alright.
(laughing)
- [Jonathan] You've been a critic of the Academy
for some years.
How do you feel about the progression of black filmmakers
after this year?
- Here's the thing.
Without April Green, April Reign, excuse me,
without April Reign, hashtag Oscars So White
and the former president of the Academy Award Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs,
I wouldn't be here tonight.
They opened up the Academy to make the Academy
look more like America, it's more diverse, so that's why
three black women, if I counted correctly, won Oscars.
That would not have happened without Oscars So White
and Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
Facts, like my brother Jay-Z says, facts.
- [Announcer] We're going to go to 146
and then over here to 18. - Hey, congrats.
Spike, over here to your left.
Stephanie Frederick, how are ya?
- Hey, how you doing? - Congrats.
- Thank you.
- [Stephanie] That reaction we saw of you
and Samuel L. Jackson, walk us through that
just a little bit, talk about that moment for me.
- Well first of all, Samuel and I,
Samuel L. Jackson and I went to the same college,
we went to Morehouse College, so I've known Sam
from way way way back, he was in my school school days.
So we were very close, our families, and for him,
my brother Samuel Jackson to open up the envelope
and say my name, it was a great thing
and did I jump up on him? - You did.
Yes you did.
- Let me take another sip.
No, it was all love, that was a genuine reaction.
And my co-writers all, look, it's not just me,
there are people in front of the camera and behind
the camera and I was just, here's the thing though,
I had two speeches.
Now I'm going to call this, I'm keeping it 100,
that means I'm keeping it real for those who don't live
in Brooklyn, New York, 100.
Had two speeches, one with the list of the people
I was going to thank, and the other one's what you heard
me say, so I said to myself, Soph,
your black ass not be up here again.
So let me go with this speech and not get to thank,
read the one with the thanks, so I apologize for the people
I didn't get a chance to think,
I didn't get a chance to thank.
- [Announcer] We're going to go over to 18,
and then back to 250. - Yes.
- Right here, Spike. - Yes.
- [Reporter] So a lot of us have been with you
since Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, yay, feels good today.
- From back in the day! - Back in the day.
But I have a different kind of question.
You mentioned David Duke, the whole thing,
you think he's watched the movie, and if he has,
or if he hasn't, what's your message to him?
- David Duke told Ron Stallworth he saw the film.
- [Reporter] What do you have to say to him?
- [Announcer] We're going to go back to 250 and then to 55.
(laughing)
- Thank you!
- [Lapacazo] Back here, Lapacazo Sandoval, New York
Amsterdam News. - Amsterdam News, yes!
Historic. - And I'm in this room
because of Cheryl Boone Isaacs, FYI.
So I was interviewing Robbie Reed and she helped me
compose this question.
She told me that she was part of your A-Team
and she told me, it was a really beautiful interview,
what it was like in the early days, and so the question is,
Spike, what keeps you motivated after all this work?
- Well I'm one of the blessed people in the world
who gets to make a living doing what they love.
It's simple.
Most people go to their grave having worked a job
they hated.
That's it.
- [Announcer] We're going to go to 55
and then we're going to wrap it up with 23.
- Yes. - Yes, hi Spike.
- How you doing? - First of all,
I'm born and raised in Minnesota, I love your Prince outfit
tonight. - It's a homage.
- Your homage, yes. - It's a homage.
- [Reporter] Obviously a lot said about Do the Right Thing
in '89.
How have you changed, do you think, as a filmmaker?
If you made that film today, how might it be different
or if you made BlacKkKlansman in '89?
- I do not answer hypothetical questions.
The film was made when it was made.
But the thing is, the film, I wrote that in '88.
In '88, I was talking about gentrification.
'88, I was talking about global warming
and that stuff, June 30th, this year, will be the 30th
anniversary of Do the Right Thing and all the stuff
we talked in that film is still relevant today.
- [Announcer] And we're going to wrap it up with 23.
- Right back here, Spike, Tonya Hard.
- How you doing? - I told you you were going to
win that one, didn't I?
- Yes you did, you called it. - I called it, thank you.
Congratulations, though. - Thank you very much.
- So deserved, so how has this film changed society?
Because a lot of people did not realize
that the Klan was still around, they didn't know
when this film came out, they sort of know now
after last week and the week before,
but how has this changed society?
- Well that's a hard question for me to answer
but I do know that the coda of this film
where we saw home-grown red-white-and-blue terrorism,
Heather Heyer, her murder was an American terrorist act.
When that car drove down that crowded street
in Charleston, Virginia, and the president
of the United States did not refute, did not denounce
the Klan, the alt right, and neo-Nazis, and this film,
whether we won Best Picture or not, this film will stand
the test of time being on the right side of history.
Thank you.