Here's the thing about Jamie.
Not only is he an amazing human being, wonderful, big, warm
heart, hilarious, as we know, great dramatic actor, musician,
so talented in so many ways, this movie
is so important for everyone to see.
It's called Just Mercy.
And really, everyone must see it.
He just got a nomination for a SAG award.
You're going to get nominated for an Academy Award.
I believe you'll win.
[CHEERING]
I mean it.
He's incredible in this.
It's a true story.
Tell everybody what this is about.
First of all, thank you for that.
And anything that we get nominated
for, we're going to share this.
Michael B. Jordan--
I can't say enough about him.
He brought this project--
he asked me to be a part of this project.
And I commend him for what he did behind the scenes
and in front.
He brought me the story of Bryan Stevenson, who
he plays-- is a lawyer who tirelessly, his whole life,
has been exonerating people off of death row.
I play Walter McMillian, his first case.
And there hadn't been a case overturned in Alabama ever.
And so we start on this incredible journey
of telling this man's story--
Walter McMillian-- who was accused
of a murder in a city he never been in and a person he
never saw.
They put him on death row for six years without a trial.
And understand this.
This is 1986.
This isn't like the '60s and the '50s.
And not only that, from talking to Bryan Stevenson,
he lets us all know that this is still going on.
So it was an incredible project, and it's personal.
Being a black man, sometimes jail is synonymous with us--
which, I don't like that.
When I was getting the character together,
it was personal for me, because my father
was placed in jail for $25 worth of illegal substance for seven
years.
This man taught in the schools for 25 years educating kids.
The very kids that he had the judge come talk to-- that judge
presided in his case--
and they put him in jail next to the kids that he taught.
But what they didn't understand was
is that that father taught me how
to play football, basketball.
He taught me how to play tennis.
I said, why am I playing tennis, man?
That's what they do.
He said, no, I want you to be--
I don't want you to be limited.
So some of my childhood heroes, as a kid growing up,
was Vitas Gerulaitis, [INAUDIBLE],, John McEnroe,
Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe.
But my father sits in jail.
And I don't like visiting jail, because I don't
like seeing people like that.
So I wrote him one letter.
And I say, hey, listen.
When you get out, things are good for me now.
And he's been living with me now for 20 years.
[APPLAUSE]
And not only that, I got a chance
to take him to the US Open.
And he watched Venus play, and we sat there
with tears running down our cheeks.
So when I got into this character, Walter McMillian,
I know what that is.
And so what I hope now is that, because of people like yourself
telling people to go see it, you go-- you see it and enjoy it.
It tested at a 97 in front of an all-black audience.
And we expected that.
But then we tested it in front of a mostly white audience.
It tested at 98.
Standing ovation at Toronto Film Festival.
Like an eight-minute standing ova--
Eight-minute standing ovation.
So please go out and see it, because I
think you'll be changed by it.
And listen, the fact that I didn't know this story,
I felt like I should have known this story.
Like you said, it didn't happen that long ago,
and it's still happening today.
And we've got to address this issue of racism,
because everyone just acts like it doesn't exist,
and it does exist.
And we need to help.
Everybody needs to help change this.
Yes.
It's all of our responsibility to do that.
[APPLAUSE]
So--