Sterling K. Brown,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you for having me, Trevor. Honored to be here.
Oh, you say it's an honor, but I've been trying to get you
on the show for years, and you haven't found the time
or the means to make it to the show.
And then now, now, when I can't be in the same space as you,
now you come on the show.
'Cause you know I wanted to take a selfie with you,
so I could show all my people back home that I know you,
and now I've got to be like, "Oh, yeah, I sort of know him."
But we did that selfie-- we did that selfie
at a pre-Emmy event one time, and you told them,
you hold the camera as if you're taking the selfie of yourself,
and then it can get rotation.
And it... your two got picked up.
You're a very busy man, not just, uh, working,
but also being nominated for the work that you do.
So let me start by congratulating you.
Congratulations on two Emmy nominations,
-=Thank you. -one for This Is Us,
one for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
If I... if I am correct in this stat,
I believe that you are the first actor
to be nominated in both of those major categories
in the same year, drama and comedy.
That's range, that's what that is.
So, maybe Ed Asner, uh, before me was nominated
for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and for Roots,
but at the time, Roots was considered just a drama
and not a limited series, so I'll take second,
and I'm good with that.
Uh, I know you... you are the father of two young kids,
and you've been in the house during coronavirus.
Did they give you any recognition
for your nominations?
Or were they just looking for, like,
"What is Daddy gonna do today, cook today, make today,
teach us today?"
Or, like, do they even care?
My youngest has no clue.
It's not important to him at all, whatsoever.
He's almost five.
My oldest knows exactly what's going on.
And so I told him that I got nominated,
he's like, "You got nominated again?"
Like, "Good for you. That's awesome."
He's like, "How many do you have now?"
He's like, "Oh, yeah." And then he'll mock me openly
to my face.
"Yeah, I'm Sterling Brown. I got Emmys,
"I have Golden Globes, and I have NAACP awards--
I'm so cool. Whatever, bro."
And then he goes and beats my ass in Madden.
That's how he reckons with me.
I feel like you are missing out on an opportunity
as-as a father if you don't wait for him
to graduate a grade, and then he comes and tells you,
he's like, "Dad, I passed, I got an 'A.'"
And then you go like, "Oh, look at me. I got an 'A.'"
(laughing)
I can't wait. Turnabout is fair play.
Turnabout is fair play.
Um, you're one of the people who gets welcomed
into millions and millions of people's households,
you know, every single week.
People know you and they love you.
And so anything you do will get a spotlight,
you know, shined upon it.
Everyone's gonna shine that spotlight where they go,
"Sterling K. Brown is doing something."
You're part of a project right now called
One Million Truths,
which is a really, really interesting project,
and I wanted you to share it with the audience.
What is One Million Truths all about?
I appreciate it, man. It's basically a platform,
an initiative for black folks in America
to share their experiences with racism.
And I think it's a centralized way
for black folks to see other people's stories,
and for allies who are interested to see
that the experiences that their friends have told them about
are not a one-off, that it's not just something
that happened, like, in an isolated sort of incident,
that these isolated incidents are happening
over and over again all over the country.
And maybe, by having one place where people can go and see,
like, "Oh, life for black people in this country
is not the same as it is for me." Right?
And then there's a-a development of empathy
and hopefully a wave of support that we can ride right now
to make some real change
to systemic racism in this country.
One thing I-I've always enjoyed about the show This Is Us
is it's-it's an interesting look
at how much people can love each other and know each other
but still not know fully about each other.
You know? And-and you, you play a character
where you're part of a family
where even though you share so many things,
there's still something that separates you,
and that is the color of your skin.
And-and I wonder if, like...
I-Is there... is there certain storytelling
that you try and get across in the show
that-that helps people empathize
with somebody who has a different skin color
without making them feel like they're being blamed,
you know, as opposed to the system being highlighted?
I would... I would hope so. I think Randall Pearson,
just like his brother and sister and mother and father,
is a human being first and foremost, right?
And I think so much of the power of media
is that people learn through exposure,
whether it's through travel, whether it's through books,
whether it's through the representation
that they see on-screen.
And our show...
The demographic of our show is vast,
but it's about 80% white, right?
And, so, there's opportunities that I have
to make conversations with people
who may not have those conversations
with someone that looks like me.
And by virtue of them seeing me in their home 18 times a week,
they can say, like, "This dude, Randall, he's just like me.
"He loves his kids. He loves his wife.
"Like, I understand part of his struggle
even if I don't understand the totality of it."
So, hopefully, the next time they see me
or anybody who looks like me,
they can lean in rather than step away.
I'd love to know about your personal story a little bit,
because I-I learned that you discovered
that, I think, your fifth great paternal grandparents
-were from Africa, right? -Yeah. Oh, man.
It's always interesting when people discover,
like, where their family came from,
especially when you live in America
and the records aren't there for you to easily peruse.
-Right. -Does that change anything in your world
and in your mind when you start to track
how and where your family came to the United States?
Does it change a little bit of the story you tell yourself
of you or-or your family or even the country you're in?
There is this really sort of profound experience
that you have as a young black man
in a predominantly white institution of learning.
I went to St. Louis Country Day
in St. Louis, Missouri,
and I would be one raisin
or one of a few raisins in the sun
in, like, you know, a vast white experience.
And every time February comes around
and you're talking about Black History Month
and you talk about the institution of slavery,
everybody looks at you, and they're like,
"Well, we're past that."
Like, "Why are we still talking about this?
This is ancient history."
As if this country is old enough
to have ancient history, right?
And, so, you feel this sort of defensiveness
to be like, how do you show
that, like, the repercussions of what transpired in the past
are still reverberating in the present?
And then you see documentation of your ancestors
listed as-as, um, property.
You know, listed as... There was a bank...
The guy wanted to... The... Excuse me.
I'm being very ineloquent in this particular moment.
The slave owner who owned my quadruple great-grandparents
listed them as collateral
because he wanted to extend his plantation,
and he needed them...
-to list them for-for the bank loan. -Wow.
And, so, you see them listed as property,
and you recognize that, like, it's not that long ago.
You recognize that while other people
could list your family as property
so that they could expand their wealth, their reach,
we had nothing.
And it's a completely different starting point,
and it sort of just validated for me
this level of defensiveness
that I've always had to prove something.
I don't have to prove it. Like, I can see it.
And that so little black folks across the world
have documentation of the oppression
that has transpired to them as individuals and as a people,
it really just...
I don't know. It-it made it real.
I knew it was real before, but I saw it.
-I had the ocular proof. -Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I wonder, is this... is this one of the reasons--
not this particular story, but-but the history of America,
your history in America
and the story that America tells--
is this one of the reasons that you-you named
your-your production company the way you did?
Is it... is it why you chose to focus on certain stories
and-and how to tell them using the platform of Hollywood?
So, it's interesting.
The, uh, the name of my production company
is Indian Meadows, and it's named after
the neighborhood that I grew up in
in St. Louis, Missouri.
And it's a predominantly African American neighborhood
that went through...
It was Jewish, and then black folks moved in,
and the Jews didn't leave.
But their kids grew up and went elsewhere.
So, I had old Mrs. Lieberman living next door to me
who was my substitute teacher at Spoede School,
and she was just playing with all these little black kids
who loved her as much as anybody, right?
And, so, it's just a testimony of where I come from
and who I wish to represent.
Um, because, as evidenced by the fact
that we get to celebrate
Kamala Harris being the vice president...
uh, the vice presidential nominee along with Joe Biden...
I'm very excited.
Uh, my wife, by the way, I should say,
is almost as excited as I am, but if you're familiar
with Greek organizations in the United States,
my wife is a Delta, and Kamala Harris is an AKA.
So there's a little bit of shade,
but there's still...
it's still a reason to celebrate, right?
Seeing yourself on-screen
validates your life.
And, so, I want to tell stories where people of color
who are marginalized groups are front and center.
They're not necessarily the sidekick
or the goofy friend or whatnot,
but the story is about them.
Because when you see yourself, you know that your story
is as important as anybody else's.
Well, I'll tell you this.
If, um, somebody's watching the Emmys this year,
they will see you twice-nominated
and hopefully twice-winning.
Sterling K. Brown,
thank you so much for joining me on the show.
Thanks a lot, Trevor. I appreciate you, brother.