Washington
For Sterling K. Brown, Hulu’s ‘Washington Black’ seeks Black joy, not pain
James Pardon/Disney
“Your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people.” —Sterling K. Brown.
For Sterling K. Brown, part of the appeal of producing and starring in Hulu’s Washington Black (July 23) was mentoring Ernest Kingsley Jr., the young actor playing the title character. “If I’m in a position where I can help somebody get an opportunity to do it, that means a lot to me, because your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people,” Brown said. Based on the bestselling novel, Kingsley plays George Washington “Wash” Black, a young boy who escapes slavery and, through his scientific mind, sets off an unexpected adventure. Brown plays Medwin, whose life intersects with Wash. “It seems most Black stories that are for mainstream consumption have to do with Black pain, have to do with Black trauma,” Brown said. “So I thought, how awesome would it be to take this historical context but to still illuminate, [and] highlight, joy, hope, faith, love, etc.” And for Kingsley, the story has broad appeal—”that universal story of us going through that harrowing narrative and pain in our past and triumphing over it.”
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Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
Sterling, you can always take top billing, but for this project you’re supporting and producing. What about this inspired you to want to make it?
Sterling K. Brown: It was the central character. It was a young boy who finds himself in the midst of slavery, but through the power of his imagination, of his hope, of his faith, is able to transcend his circumstances. And it’s also the community that protected his dreams, right? Recognizing the power and importance of dreamers and how dreaming is contagious. I think that’s why, oftentimes dreamers are sort of snuffed out and taken out, and why people need to protect them, because they recognize that, like so many of us, [they] are just trying to survive, or just trying to make it from day to day to day, until you come into the presence of a dreamer, and they say life is bigger than what you can currently imagine. And if you follow me, I can show you something bigger. That’s who Washington is, and I’ve never seen that in the historical context of slavery, not allowing slavery to define who he is as a person, but allowing his creativity to be fully manifested and ultimately be like this brilliant creator, the seeker of love and beauty everywhere that he goes, and bringing that contagion with him.
Disney/Chris Reardon
That’s one of the things that I think I was so pleasantly moved by the story is that so often, when it comes to depictions of slavery in film and television, joy and hope are often not necessarily part of the story. And those stories are very important to tell. But I loved the aspect of hope that this story has.
Brown: It was very important to me. Interesting enough, this project came to me before American Fiction. But American Fiction actually talks a lot about how it seems most of Black stories that are for mainstream consumption have to do with Black pain, have to do with Black trauma, right? So I thought, how awesome would it be to take this historical context but to still illuminate [and] highlight, joy, hope, faith, love, etc.
And Ernest, taking on this role, the title role, that’s a lot this early in your career. Did you feel the pressure of the title role? And how did you go about finding your version of Washington?
Ernest Kingsley Jr.: Of course. Look, I did feel some pressure. It was quickly dissipated by the cast around me, the community around me, and someone like Sterling as well, who’s been such a mentor and a friend and a brother. He definitely was showing me the ropes all along. I was really being supported by the talent and the love and care by our cast and crew. And in terms of research, I guess to start off with, definitely reading the book. The show kind of branches off from it. Reading the book was a great foundation for me, just to kind of initially get into the world of Washington Black and the epicness and the journey and the story, and then obviously, going deeper into other things and the time period. But it was definitely the book that launched me into it.
Disney/Chris Reardon
Even though this is a work of fiction, it does really illuminate part of Black history that not a lot of people know much about. Black pirates, for example. Was there any part of this history that you learned something from?
Brown: I love the Dahomey, which also is echoed in [The] Woman King. I loved the sort of throughline of the Afro Nova Scotian community that we’ve discovered in Halifax, right? And I’ve worked in Charleston, South Carolina, on a TV show called Army Wives, for a long time and the Gullah accent [also called Geechee] I found very peculiarly in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And I was like, “You guys sound like you’re from South Carolina.” “No, we don’t sound like we’re from South Carolina. We’re from up here.” And I’m like, “Whoa, what are you talking about, man?” And it’s sort of like the accent that Medwin uses, because I thought that 50 percent of all Africans that entered into the United States came through a port in South Carolina called Sullivan’s Island, right? And so for me to hear that accent when I went to Halifax was this incredible moment, like, “Oh, wow. We really did make it.” This underground railroad is not something that I just heard about. I see the evidence of it here in Nova Scotia while we’re shooting on location. It was a magical moment for me.
And Ernest, what about you? Did you learn anything about this history?
Kingsley: I think Sterling kind of touched on it, the Afro Nova Scotia community. Obviously, we see how Medwin has really upheld and built that community at the time, but also just going there and filming and realizing that they’d been there for nearly seven generations. And just seeing the community they’ve built and how close-knit and tight they are, against all odds, against when they first arrived there, all those generations ago, they were given kind of terrible land, the unfertile land, and what they built from that, what they did, and they’re still there in abundance. Just getting introduced to that kind of culture and community was really cool.
There are also aspects of the characters in this that we so often don’t see, particularly Black characters in science, space, flying, all of those things. Was it important to you for these characters to be doing things that, historically in entertainment, we’ve often only seen white characters do.
Brown: Man, you’re making my heart just crack open in the most beautiful way possible, because there is an active erasure of our history going on in the United States right now. To make it sound as if we just didn’t exist. And there is no American history without Black history. And there’s also a de-emphasis of our history of creativity, of innovation, of invention, right? And so, in order to put that on the screen, hopefully people will reverse engineer and be like, “You know what? I know it’s a work of historical fiction, but what is the history of Black entrepreneurship, invention, creativity?” Because there’s so much that we’ve done, but that’s not highlighted for such a long time, especially as a young person growing up in the States, the idea of being smart and being cool was sort of seen as an anathema. They didn’t cross over with each other, especially in the Black community, actively putting something on screen that shows a very, very cool, passionate, loving man who’s so smart, who’s so imaginative, who’s so creative.
I had a professor tell me once that Black history is American history, you can’t really separate the two. But Ernest, for you, as someone who isn’t American yet you’re telling this uniquely American story, what was it like for you processing how this story is told?
Kingsley: To be really honest, it’s quite like universal in terms of the Black, British and American [experiences]. I feel like that universal story of us going through that harrowing narrative and pain in our past and triumphing over it. And also, just the thing of us not getting the credit for our inventions and beautiful things we’ve done spans across, unfortunately, history across the world. And so it was touching the core of the experience that is universal for us. And I think the thing about seeing this Black boy and him getting the visibility—obviously his credit is stolen, but like the visibility—just the narrative and seeing him build this invention, build this thing with his creativity. There’s something about being seen and seeing that on a screen, as opposed to—like you were saying—you see a very common narrative of certain people do certain things, we don’t see Black people in sci-fi, but you see that in the story. And it’s like, that’s evidence, and that’s permission. So, yeah, it was really cool.
To that, what is really powerful about Washington’s experience is every time he looks to the sky and hopes or dreams. The power of the sky and stars in Black history, in spirituals, in the work of Harriet Tubman, it’s really powerful.
Brown: It does make sense, right? Because if you look just in your immediate circumstances, you may just see fields and places where you’ve labored throughout the day. And so the escape is the sky, right? Like sky is the limit, sky is the possibility, because it doesn’t represent anything that’s immediately around you. It’s like, at least there’s some expanse, there’s space, there’s distance, possibility exists up here. Reality is here [on land], possibility is there, right? Even with regards to Wash and the water, he’s never gone into the ocean and didn’t know how to swim, and then ultimately, my man had to throw you into the water, because the water also represents possibility. It’s the unexplored, right? We’ve explored this part. Where can I go to be free, where can I go to be fully realized, right? And then you have a young boy who goes into the water and learns how to fly.
Sterling, it seems like you’ve had one big project after another these past few years, picking up an Oscar nomination along the way. Do you not like taking breaks? And what is it that makes you want to keep producing projects like this?
Brown: Thank you. That’s very kind. There is a part of you that feels like you want to strike while the iron is hot. There is a part of you that feels like, “Oh, you know what? If you don’t do something, then maybe they’ll forget about you.” Easy come, easy go sort of thing. I do take breaks. Like, I still assistant coach my son’s NFL flag football team. I see my other son play soccer all the time. I take little breaks for myself, but I try to structure it in such a way [that] the TV show that I get a chance to do in the states keeps me at home for about half the year, and then I have the other half a year to play around with. And it’s been a good formula for me, because my family knows where I am most of the time, and then I still have space to sort of scratch the creative itch inside of me, to just do something different. Variety is the spice of life, and I’m so fortunate H. Alan, in an industry that is undergoing a massive contraction; to be busy and people want to work with me that I feel like I should take advantage of this, because not a lot of people are having these opportunities. It’s a blessing.
Disney/James Van Evers
What does it mean for you to mentor someone like Ernest? Considering that you could have easily produced a project for yourself in the title role.
Brown: Sometimes you see people try to make that part their part. I was like, “No, it’s not my part.” But if I’m in a position where I can help somebody, where it is their part, get an opportunity to do it, that means a lot to me, because your legacy isn’t just the work that you do, it’s the opportunities that you create for other people, and hopefully just make it a little bit easier. That’s all you’re trying to do. The people that come behind you, you want it to be just a little bit easier, right? I stand on the shoulders of Denzel [Washington], who stands on James Earl [Jones], who stands on Paul Robeson, like there is a legacy here of performance, and each one of those dudes made it a little bit easier for me. And hopefully I get a chance to do the same.
And for you, Ernest, it’s so rare for someone your age to have this kind of mentorship. What is it like for you to have this support?
Kingsley: I don’t think there’s enough words that I could use to describe the level of gratitude. The level of support and love and care that Sterling has poured into me from when I was 21—I’m 24 now—has been second to none. The last three years, he’s been nothing but support, like a pillar. We’ve seen how this industry can be, especially with the strikes and stuff, and it’s not lost on me how rare it is to have that kind of support system with a star that Sterling is a gift, it’s an absolute blessing. I’m really grateful.
Donald Trump’s plans to build a skyline-altering arch in the nation’s capital won initial approval Thursday from a key federal commission, but its members put off a decision on whether a federal law that limits building heights should be applied to this project.
Despite overwhelming public opposition, the National Capital Planning Commission voted to approve preliminary site and building plans for the 250ft (76m) arch the Republican president wants to build on a traffic circle at the Virginia end of the Memorial Bridge from Washington.
The project, one of several being pursued by Trump in his quest to reshape parts of the nation’s capital to his liking, moved a step closer to reality with the vote.
Staff had recommended in its report on the project that the commission grant such approval and request a series of changes so the arch would comply with the Height of Buildings Act. The suggested changes included redistributing the heights among the main structure of the arch, the habitable roof, where an observation deck is planned, and the statues that would top it.
But commissioners, led by chair Will Scharf, voted to continue deliberations on whether the law indeed applies.
The staff report said the commission has long applied the law in its approval process. Scharf said the applicant, which is the interior department, had, as requested, provided a legal analysis that he said makes a “compelling argument” that the law “is not binding on the federal government”.
The interior department oversees the federal land where the arch would be built.
Eight of the 12 commissioners, including Scharf and two others appointed by Trump, voted for preliminary approval. One was against, and the remaining three commissioners voted present.
“This is a complex project,” Scharf said before the vote. He said a vote on final approval could come at the agency’s next meeting, in September.
All 12 commissioners listened to a summary of the staff report and its recommendations, and heard from several dozen people who had signed up to testify about the project.
As the commissioners met, construction continued at the White House on a $400m ballroom Trump is building there and crews draped tarps over the stone columns at the north entrance to the mansion, where work is being done to scrape off layers of paint.
Some of those who testified against Trump’s project opposed building a celebratory arch so close to Arlington national cemetery. Others suggested it would be more appropriate for a neighborhood near the Capitol and sporting venues.
Opponents say the arch is too big and would disrupt the carefully designed view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington national cemetery that was meant to symbolize the reunification of the north and the south after the civil war.
The arch would be more than twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99ft (30m) tall, and close to half the height of the Washington Monument, at about 555ft (169m) tall.
Concerns about vehicular traffic and pedestrian safety also were expressed on Thursday. Others insisted that Congress must approve the arch – a position Trump disagrees with.
The US Commission of Fine Arts, a separate federal agency, approved the design for the arch in May. The National Capital Planning Commission oversees construction on federal land in the city and began reviewing the arch plan in June.
Trump had said last year that the arch could be paid for with unused funds from the hundreds of millions of dollars he said he has raised from corporations, donors and other wealthy people to pay to build a new $400m ballroom at the White House.
But, as it turns out, some public money will be used for the ballroom project, as well as the arch. The White House has not released a cost estimate for the arch.
The Washington Commanders are retiring John Riggins’ No. 44 during the upcoming NFL season, the team announced Thursday.
The Hall of Fame running back will be honored in a ceremony at halftime of the team’s game against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 8.
“There are certain players whose impact goes far beyond statistics, championships and accolades: They become woven into the identity of a franchise,” controlling owner Josh Harris said in a statement. “John Riggins is one of those players. …Our fans not only admired him, they identified with him. He is authentic, unapologetically himself and deeply connected to the people around him. John has meant so much to this franchise, our fans and the game of football.”
Riggins is the organization’s all-time leading rusher with 7,472 yards and 79 touchdowns on 1,988 carries and helped the team win the Super Bowl in the 1982 season.
The fan favorite nicknamed “Riggo” was the MVP of that Super Bowl for his performance best known for his memorable 43-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that put Washington ahead of the Miami Dolphins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.
Riggins is the seventh player to have his number retired by the team, joining Sammy Baugh, Bobby Mitchell, Sean Taylor, Sonny Jurgensen, Darrell Green and Art Monk. Green, Monk and Riggins have all happened since Harris’ group took over from longtime owner Dan Snyder.
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