There's never been a black cop in this city.
We think you might be the man
to open things up around here.
Spike Lee's latest film is about
a black cop who infiltrated
the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.
The KKK is planning an attack.
How do you propose to make this investigation?
We'll establish contact over the phone.
Based on a true story, BlacKkKlansmen draws
clear parallels with racial tensions
in modern day America:
Donald Trump in the White House,
the rise of white supremacy
and a spike in racist attacks.
What can a film about a black man
going undercover with white terrorists tell us
about contemporary America and beyond?
When the Ron Stallworth story comes to you,
what's your first response when you see it?
I thought of the Dave Chappelle skit.
We're looking for Clayton Bigsby.
Look no further, fella, you've found me.
Er ... Clayton Bigsby the author?
What, you don't think I can write them books?
Just 'cause I'm blind, don't mean I'm dumb.
Jordan Peele said: "No, no. That's not it. This is true."
Dave Chappelle's skit is a blind man
who doesn't know he's black
and is in the klan. That's right, isn't it?
Klan member.
So you just think: "Well, that's just a joke."
I did initially when Jordan Peele told me the premise.
Six words, it was. Black man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan.
That's high concept.
I really hate those black rats
and anyone else really that doesn't have
pure, white, Aryan blood running through their veins.
I'm happy to be talking to a true, white American.
God bless white America.
Pre-production is just finishing
when Charlottesville happens.
We were in pre-production.
You were in pre-production. What does that
make you think in relation to the film,
to the work that you've been doing on this film?
Well, I knew I had an ending.
Those hate groups, at the same time as
murdering Heather Heyer,
they wrote me a new ending to the movie.
The film is set in the 70s,
you fast-forward 40 years,
what's changed and what hasn't changed?
This guy whose in the White House.
Not just that but the rise of the right
as a phenomenon all over the world.
You had that here with Brexit,
so that's been a big change.
How do you explain Donald Trump's rise?
I mean, you've just come out of Obama.
A lot of that is reaction to having an African-American
or a man of colour in that position for eight years.
They didn't like it and so, with the help of the Russians,
you know, they engineered a different direction.
A direction that deals with hate.
It's been nearly two years.
There's an argument I've heard that all this man is,
is like, actually, so many of the others
but without the etiquette.
That the others would at least try not to look racist,
would at least try not to goad ...
I mean, it's just not ...
If you want to think that he's a racist
and that's the only thing he's done wrong that's ...
Racist: just add that to the list.
This administration is corrupt
from the top to the bottom.
Corrupt. They're all crooks, bud.
They're like taking it to another level.
For example, to have someone to head the EPA,
Environmental Protection Agency, whose former job
was a lobbyist for the coal industry ....
[Laughs]
That, that that ...
You can't get more crooked than that.
So you think this is of a different order?
This presidency is of a different order?
This is some new shit.
Look, first president I remember
was JFK when I was a kid.
So you've been through Johnson, Nixon, Ford,
Carter, Reagan, Bush one, Clinton, Bush two, Obama
and you're saying nothing compares to this?
In my opinion. What's ironic is that
a lot of his base are poor, white people
and the reality is this guy does not care about them.
He only cares about billionaires
and poor people is not his concern.
I mean, are you worried at this stage that America
could descend into something even worse.
Oh, yes, but again it's not just America.
Just that your film is about America. That's why ...
No, I disagree. Anyone that sees ...
I hope they look at this film as a global viewpoint
and not just as something peculiar to
the United States of America.
This rise of the right is a global thing.
It's not just something that's happened
with the election of this guy,
the president of the United States of America.
I try to hold a mirror up to
what's happening in the world
and the truth as best I can, as I see it.