- Good to see you, as always.
- Nice to see you.
- A lot going on in the Fox Universe, a couple cool films.
Let's talk about The Hate U Give
'cause this is a, it's a special one,
it seems like a special one. - Yep.
- Talk to me about just sort of the source material,
how if you were aware of it prior to this,
and what's the reasons to do this in a nutshell for you?
- So I actually attached to The Hate U Give
when I read the unpublished manuscript.
It had yet to be published as a book.
And when it was published,
it became a wild success immediately.
But when I read the character of Starr Carter,
I felt like I'd never seen myself so accurately represented
in such a nuanced way in any book or any piece of anything.
It was so special to see this character
who is growing up in this lower income, black community,
but going to this white private school,
which was actually my direct life experience.
Having to figure out how to navigate these different worlds,
code switch, and not necessarily belong in either world
but still try to navigate in order to survive.
- Yeah. - And not to mention,
just how powerful it is then to see the story itself
play out and make one of these stories
that we've become so desensitized to
because we see it pop up everyday on the TV.
See it put into a personal context
and live through this story with this girl
who's having to, I guess for those who might not know, go to
trial and testify for her friend who was killed by police.
- It's a very relevant story, clearly,
for these times that we're living in.
And I mean, I think a lot of people,
a lot of young people are finding themselves energized,
politicized by events they're seeing.
Events they're experiencing firsthand,
or events they're seeing on the news.
It seems like you've been, since you had cognition,
you've been an active person like, a socially aware person,
but was there a turning-point for you, an experience,
something you saw, something you experienced
that made you realize, "I need to be a participant
"in these events around me."
- I think when the Black Lives Matter movement
had such an initial surgence, I think that's
when I really found myself feeling energized and politicized
and wanting to use my platform
as much as possible to change things.
Since then, I've gone through different phases
of disillusionment and fear,
especially under the regime
that we're currently living under.
I think I've had moments of insecurity and doubt,
and I've had to refocus how I utilize my platform.
And so, I feel like movies like The Hate U Give
is the way in which I can be the most effective,
as opposed to, just utilizing the internet, you know.
- It's striking in the footage
they showed today here at CinemaCon.
Just seeing, you know, this character being
taught sort of how to behave around police, right?
I mean do you, just curious, like in your own personal life,
do you remember those kind of conversations?
Were there conversations like that growing up about
how to conduct yourself in those kind of situations?
- I can't necessarily remember one specific conversation
or moment from when I was a kid,
but growing up it was just a given,
especially in my neighborhood.
It was lock your doors, my parents wouldn't let me,
I was a latchkey kid so my parents wouldn't really
let me bike around my neighborhood,
but, it was a knowing that if you saw police,
you had to straighten up and act a particular way
and don't do anything out of line
that could even possibly be conceived as out of line
because they'll get you for it.
That's just something that like was
just obvious news to me as a kid.
And it was wild, I was talking to some people
who saw the footage earlier today,
and that's something that they as white people
had never even conceived of,
that you would have to have that type of conversation.
So I think that's why the movie is so important.
- You guys went through an interesting process
in the production of this, I just wanna mention them.
There was a casting switch. - [Amandla] Mhm.
- [Josh] I mean, there must've been,
caught you off guard to say the least.
- [Amandla] Mhm.
- Can you give me some perspective on sort of, I don't know,
what went through your mind when that happened?
When you were co-starring it, found some really
inappropriate stuff from past Youtube videos of his.
Landed K.J. Apa as your new co-star,
but just give me a sense of sort of what it was like
to go through that very unusual kind of circumstance.
- Yeah, I mean it was stressful.
Honestly, when I first found out, I laughed
just because it was so absurd, right?
That we're making this film about Black Lives Matter
and one of our cast members is making racist commentary.
Like I'm an absurdist in life, so...
- If you don't laugh at it...
- Right, so if you don't laugh, you're crying,
but it was a very obvious decision had to be made.
It really wasn't much of a decision.
It's like, if we're going to come forth with a film
about Black Lives Matter, we need to make sure that there is
integrity from top to bottom, there's integrity
with every single person who is involved
and that the project really rests in their heart
and they want to speak to the events
as authentically as possible.
- What was it like to go back and shoot with K.J.?
Are you a new Riverdale fan, have you been a Riverdale fan?
- I'm definitely a new Riverdale fan now.
I'm the biggest K.J. Apa fan now, huge.
Yeah, K.J.'s awesome, really, really fantastic kid,
and we had a really fun time.
I think I was definitely fueled
by my frustration with having to re-do work.
I think actually fueled my work in a really great way
where I was able to channel it into giving
the most angry performance that I could.
Yeah, just 'cause I think it's funny,
I was able to draw upon actual,
the actual transgressions of racist white men
and how they were directly affecting me in doing the work.
- Kinda went into some good art
that could provoke some good change.
That's good. - Exactly.
- It's so funny, I've actually gotten a change to see
The Darkest Minds and to see like,
there's some commonality in these films, bizarrely.
I mean like they're obviously different genres,
much different kinds of films...
- I definitely, I put my fist up in both of them.
- I noticed that, I noticed this is your new thing.
It's your signature move.
- It's a writer in my contract now.
I won't do the film unless
I'm raising my fist at least once.
- Do Star Wars, but you gotta find something in there.
(laughing)
But is that coincidence, it sounds like it's not.
You're gravitating towards certain types of material
that are about young people finding their voice
and using it for good.
It seems like it's something
that clearly is resonating with you.
What is the criteria in terms of what you're looking for?
- Looking for good, nuanced material
that I feel like represents me
and has strong female protagonists, and I feel like
it's really special that I'm able to do these roles
'cause even Ruby in The Darkest Minds traditionally
would've been cast white, and so, the fact
that I got to do that
was actually pretty mind-boggling to me.
I think what I'm looking for is anything that I think
can be a tool, and so, I feel like The Hate U Give
is a tool in terms of telling the story,
making accessible to people
that it might not be accessible to normally.
And even, Darkest Minds will reach a large audience
of people, and they'll be able
to see this strong character played by a black girl.
I think that's really special.
- You spoke very frankly recently about taking yourself
out of the running in Black Panther
when that casting conversation was going on.
I'm just curious, is there perspective on it now,
I assume, you've seen the film by now, perhaps?
- Mhm. - And obviously
touched a lot of people, and it was a great film just
in terms of quality and also in terms of what it means
I think for representation.
Do you have any kind of additional kind of perspective
on that decision having seen the product
and seen the reception to it?
- No, I don't, my perspective remains the same.
I think there was kind of a misconception.
I think my comments were a bit misconstrued.
People think that I was offered a role in Black Panther,
and I was like, "No, I'm too good for that" or something,
which is absolutely absurd.
I just decided not to continue in the audition process
just cause I thought it was a space that I shouldn't occupy,
and I still stand by that.
- And last thing for you, I wanna just mention
that the cast is pretty eclectic in this film.
Some really inspiring performers as actors
and in the way they carry their lives.
And that must inspire you both as an actor but also, yeah,
just being around them.
I'm just curious who inspires you,
whether it's someone that you worked with in this cast
or someone today that is a beacon of light
in a sometimes dark world right now.
- Yeah, god, everyone inspired me on set.
Everyone was so special from Lamar who played my brother
to Regina who was constantly cracking jokes on set
and giving us light in that form.
Russel Hornsby played my father and just gave me
so many tidbits of wisdom and advice throughout the process,
and so I felt very grateful
to be guided by him the entire time.
Something that he told that I carry with me a lot is,
he said, "Keep your fist, but put it in your pocket."
- Nice, unless you have to raise it for a movie.
- Or unless you have to raise it,
then you take it out of the pocket.
- [Josh] Temporarily, then it goes back in the pocket.
- Put it back in the pocket. - Exactly, good tip.
It's always good to see you, congratulations on the film.
- Nice to see you, thank you.
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