The feedback from the director at that time was David o' yellowell is not Doctor King. Three years went by and it was a phone call from Nate.
Have you heard of this film, Selma.
I've been asked to audition, and I really think you should go up for.
This the director and he had reached out through someone to me and I said, do you know David o' yellowell. I can remember him just kind of pausing, because rarely will someone be talking about a role and ask him if they know someone else, And I said, you really should be David.
When I finally got the meeting, he sent me a book called nineteen sixty five, Selma, just research for the audition. I'm emotional about it because I've never experienced anything like this before.
Since Hella Loves I'm Andrea Waters King. That was David o' yellowell reflecting on a pivotal moment in his journey to playing Doctor King, a moment shaped by the unwavering support of his best friend Nate Parker. And today, during Black History Month, David and Nate's story of brotherhood, faith, and breaking barriers takes on even greater meeting. It's about the power of standing together in a world that too often divides, because legacy isn't just what we accomplish, it's the people
we lived up along the way. This is My Legacy, a podcast hosted by me and my husband, Martin Luther King, the oldest son of doctor Martin Luther King Junior and Coretta Scott King. Together we're caring forward their iconic legacy of equality, peace and justice. Plus we're joined by our good friends New York Times bestselling authors Mark and Craig Kilberger.
Let's begin.
Welcome to My Legacy Podcast, where we help you create a living legacy and live a fulfilled life. One of the things that makes this podcast special is that we don't just meet extraordinary individuals. We meet the people who know them best. These are the ones who shared their high There are loads and everything in between, giving us deeper insight and understanding into what truly shapes who they
are and the legacy they want to create. David o' yellow, you brought someone remarkable with you here today, Nate Parker. Would you do us the honor of introducing him to our audience and who he is in your life?
Yes, Nate is my best friend in the world. We met over a decade ago doing a film called Red Tales Together, and I found in him a kindred spirit, not just as as an actor and an artist, but also as an advocate for others, as someone who is deeply invested in community. I learnt the phrase we not me from him, and that's something he absolutely lives by. He has five kids. I have four, so he's one of the few people I know.
Who beats me.
The way he really beats me is that he has five daughters and I have three sons and a daughter. And my gosh, the fact that my daughter has on my heart. I just don't know how you manage it with five daughters. He's just someone I deeply admire, has been incredibly impactful in my life, and yeah, as I say, one of my favorite people on the planet.
We want to get to know both of you and your relationship, but David, can we take a little bit of a step back to get to know you better? Yeah, you have a remarkable origin story, and I love the fact that, if I'm not mistaken, your last name actually means king. Yes, so I love that mister King and mister King. But what impact does that have in your sense of legacy when you can trace your roots to your grandfather, who was a tribal Nigerian king.
Yeah, the full meaning of a yellow actually means a king deserves respect and it's an extraordinary thing to be born into a family. Where as you say, that is the legacy, in fact, a very touching moment for me, where you can take that for granted when it's something you've had since you were born. But Nate came to the memorial service of my mother when she had passed away, and my cousins were there, who are more like uncles.
They're quite a bit older.
Than me, and they were talking about the meaning of not just our last name, but our.
Names in general.
And Nate came up to me afterwards, very very emotional and saying, I really was impacted by what we as African Americans have lost in terms of our names, the fact that our names are not necessarily steeped in the history that or the likes of the history to which you have our names are rooted in something more painful historically.
Like I say, I take my name for granted, but there is something about the disposition you walk in knowing that your grandfather was a king and I lived in Nigeria from the age of six to thirteen, and I lived in a society, in a culture, in a country where I was part of the majority, not the minority, and that had an enormous impact on me. When I then returned to the UK age thirteen and now living in America for the last seventeen years, something that happened
for me which was a real blessing. Between the age of six and thirteen, when I lived in Nigeria, what was eroded in me was a minority mentality, and that meant that no matter the environment I go in, I don't see myself as a minority, regardless of whether that is one of the definitions that is attributed to me. I walk in in the center of my own life. I apply that to the stories I want to tell and how I choose to live my life. And so
that was really formative for me. Only my name where I'm from, but having a time of living there and then being able to apply that, you know, as I move forward in my life.
Well, it's interesting because I can also see a connection with that and with Martin's father because the name and taking the power back of your name, because most people don't know that Martin Luther King Junior was born Michael Michael King, and that his father, his grandfather, was so inspired by the German reformer Martin Luther, that well, I don't want to tell your story, Honey.
You're doing a good job.
Can I keep that on loose?
Yeah?
My grandfather changed his name at about thirty maybe he was thirty five and Dad was six or seven. So he came back from Germany after an experience and seeing the influence of Martin Luther, and he just came back to Atlanta said I'm no longer Michael, I'm Martin Luther King, a senior, and my son is going to be Martin Luther King Jr. So you think about the fact that all of that says something about who my grandfather was and indirectly impacting who my father became. So Martin Luther
King Junior saw injustice like all of us did. But he saw his father stand up against a system that was in just and say we're not going to tolerate that. And so it prepared Dad for in existence to constantly challenge a system to become right. The system we all knew was wrong. But what do you do about it?
You can choose an I want expecific example going into a department store in the front door where everyone would come to buy shoes, and Dad took his sons in, and the clerks had looked, Reverend King, if you could come in the back, we'll be happy to serve you. My grandfather grabbed his sons and he said, if we cannot buy shoes and come in and be treated with dignity and respect, we will not shop here. And I'm going to tell my three thousand members not to come here.
So Dad, seeing this at a young age was one of the many examples that he saw that helped him ultimately become a change maker.
And you have to understand too, even more so like the power of the Black Church. So you were the minister of one of the largest congregations. You're not going to refer to me this way anymore. This is who I am, and all of you all must refer to me now as Martin Luther. And not only that, you know my son is now. Can you imagine going back to school and telling his teachers I'm no longer Myael. You know, you know I'm Martin Luther. You know just
that power. And I'm also curious what type of is there are any childhood experiences from both of you all that have really impacted legacy and how you view legacy and what you all are sharing with your kids and how you've moved.
Forward with that.
Well, you know, I would say the thing that has been said here just now that really comes home to me is you cannot be what you cannot see. And you know, for your grandfather to decide that I recognize my position in this community, and I am going to redefine how I am seen based on the legacy of someone else who is more in line with the legacy I want to have, and then that goes on to be the legacy of your dad and then you and then we all know what that has meant for the world.
Tied to Martin Luther, the original who was the inspiration for the change of the name, I think that in and of itself really demonstrates not only the power of
a name, but the power of intention. A lot has been done to try and break people by changing the definition of who they are, whether it be their name or racial epithets that are used, or just ways of recalibrating how they should see themselves and the people who do that know that there is power in doing that, power in denigrating a people, whether it be how they are referred to as a group or their names in particular.
And so to see your grandfather do that and for it to go on to have such incredible impact, just that change from Michael to Martin, there's not much difference when you look at those names, but the origin of the name, the reason for changing the name, and then the legacy of the name. It goes to your spirit, It goes to your mindset, and it gives you a fuel and an engine that you towards wanting to ascend
to the power of that name. So that's why I talk about you cannot be what you cannot see once you've seen it, once you have been able to redefine the nature of what it is you are here to do. And what also I was so inspired by is your grandfather talking about you will not have access to my three thousand strong congregation if you do not choose to refer to us or treat us in a rightful way.
That's power.
So it's a recognition of who you are and the power you actually have, and the combination of those two things are incredibly impactful. And so to your question about a childhood memory, you know, I go back to living in a country for a time where every opportunity on offer was mine for the taking, and how different that is than when you then are living in a country where, by definition, by example, in reality, and by perception, that is not necessarily the case. And I call it the
Sydney Poitier syndrome. There is a reason why he had the kind of outsized success here in America that even today we as black actors, are trying to get to. It's because he grew up in an environment as a child that didn't have the same pressures as it pertains to the redefinition of him. He grew up in the Bahamas. He grew up in a place where he was part of the majority, and so he also didn't have that
minority mentality. So by the time he came to America and people were constantly trying to deny him opportunities, he sort of had an attitude of I don't understand why you do that. I'm going to continue to walk in my truth. And that truth. You know, there's a saying people treat your home the way you treat it he treated himself the way he expected other people to treat him, and that meant that doors opened for him differently, I think, And so that childhood he had, I think helped him
move through the world in a certain way. Mine certainly did as well.
Stay with us as David and Nate share more of this powerful journey and inspiring friendship. We're back with David oh Yelo and his best friend Nate Parker on the My Legacy podcast.
And so much of my friendship with Nate has been really looking at who we are as men, as black men, considering the platform we've been afforded. Not unlike your grandfather with that three thousand congregation, we have an audience who are invested.
In the things we may.
You know, I fought seven years to get the privilege to pay your play your father. I watched Nate fight so hard to get the story of Nat Turner told. And one of the extraordinary things that happen is I desperately wanted him to be in Selma, and I remember calling him up, and I think it was the part of John Lewis that I was actually quite keen for him to play. And he said, David, I've made a vow to myself that I'm not going to be on another set unless it is to make Birth of a Nation.
And even though we were best friends and I was reaching out to him to say, look, come have a good old time making this film with me, I deeply admired his conviction to be like, no, this is one of the things I've been put here on the planet to do. And he stuck with it, and that was I can't remember the years long. I know is many years a long journey for that to come to fruition, but that conviction is just so inspiring to me.
Thank you tell us about that. And I know you're asked about legacy and what that means to you in terms of your childhood, but that was an incredible story. How do you feel about hearing that and how do you share that with our audience?
Well, I'll try to speak speak to all of it. I think we underestimate as a people programming language. I have a you know, a computer technology background before I became an artist. A lot of people don't know that about me, but I remember having a professor and he said, you know, a program will only do what it's coded to do, no matter what you tell it to do, it will only do what the code says. So if a program didn't work and we came to it's not working,
so we'll check the code. But it's right. Well, if it's right, then it will perform. It will execute, and if it doesn't, there's something in the code. So we think about our behavior as a people, specifically people who are of the legacy, legacy of the enslaved in this country so much, and this speaks to being brought up. I was in Norfolk, Virginia, so so much of what I desired to do with my life, what I wanted to do, what how I deemed success as a man, as a black man, as a as someone who was
you know, a part of my family name. Very little of it, as I look now at forty five years old, was healthy. You know where I come from. Your goal is to get the money, no matter what, just don't be poor. Escape, you know. So when you have an entire community and their goals are set on escaping rather than renovating or changing or improving, then problems will follow. We're speaking from from you know, degradation, speaking from what we've been told about ourselves. But it's a we're speaking
from teachers who tell us. I remember teacher sitting me down saying you're gifted. You can get out of here, literally looking in my eyes, telling me I could escape from those around me if I just kept working hard enough. And so all of a sudden, you look around identifying your peers as problems, as people you do not want to be around. So then when you escape, you celebrate yourself as someone who escaped, and then you speak to the fact that you've escaped. We hear it in all
the conversations I got out. I made it out. In northern Virginia, there is no pro team, so there was no aspiration to be a football player. There's no aspiration to be a basketball player. You will either be in the military and be in the naval shipyard, or you will sell drugs, or you will in some other way fall by the wayside or be in service forever. And so my upbringing was not so different than many that
come from the South. So and I say that as a contrast to being able to walk in the room and say this is my room, we would walk into the room and say, if only I can get away from them, I may be able to shine in a way that I could have a success where I could have a position in this country that programming language without being able to go to Germany in getting a new line of code or somewhere else. You're kind of destined to be to live at the ceiling that has been
designed for you. And it wasn't till even though I went to college that I learned about that Turner, which is why it became my obsession. Any room I came into and they say, well, who's your hero before they could finish, I'd say that Turner one, because I was so inspired by the sacrifice, because I think that is
a theme that I'm sure we'll touch on. But also I was so enraged by the fact that in all of my schooling in Norfolk, Virginia, thirty five miles from Southampton County, I never heard of the man only in whispers, in ways that it was clipped before it could make it all the way out of the mouth of the person who's saying it. And that is problematic. So when I left and learned, my goal was not to escape anymore, but to come back with that story to remind people
that there was another side to that. There was someone that said we will not tolerate this behavior. We were put here by the God that we're looking up to, who created the heavens and earth, that has a purpose for us. That is not to be your mule, that is not to be your animal. And so that became my mission, which is why I switched very quickly away from a computer. I didn't want to be an engineer. I ended up being an actor because I said, you know,
I always asked. I asked David this, and I asked friends, you know who has had more impact on medicine, Ben Carson or you know a guy from Er.
You know what I mean?
The reality is more people went to medical school from Mere than Ben Carson. Ben Carson is a genius. The power of storytelling is so evident. But the storytelling is just programming. We're teaching people how to be. If you don't see it, you can't be it. So, you know, to answer your question. Growing up in Virginia, the programming language was very clear on what I would be able
to achieve. But it took me leaving. You know, college was my Germany to get what I needed to do come back and to change the people that were around me and to change my mindset on the art of the possible. When it came to came to people who look like me now for natur for telling that story, I had to make a decision, you know, Paul Robison said, the artists much must decide whether he will fight for freedom of bondage. I've made my decision, and it was so
inspiring to me that I said I need to. There's there's only far, so far.
You can go.
Holding out in your hand what someone else has made for you before you drop that and decide who you're going to be. And I said, I've made my choice. And so when he called me, I don't know. I don't know if I have enough time in this podcast to explain to you all what this man means to me as a brother and friend.
I love love stories, and I love love stories in all different formats, and I think it's so powerful and wonderful for us to present a love story of black men. I think that.
Is in any ways awkward.
Yes, So you know, when he asked me, I always tell I told this. I said, there's nothing you'll ask me to do that I won't do, So be careful if.
You tell me to show up.
Something's happened and we need to you know whatever, we need to build a wall to cover the I'm showing up. He means that much to me as a brother and friend.
So when he says, hey.
We're gonna go and do this, We're going or we're gonna do it, I'm showing up because from a spiritual standpoint, you know, I laid my life down for this man, and I know he'd do it for me. So when he called and asked me, you gave me the opportunity to say, would you come and be in this film? It was a I've never had to tell this brother, No, it's my brother, I said, you know as much. I remember where I was. You were in costume me and you were right next to Sharon. I remember like it
was yesterday. I was in New York City, I was in I think that I was in downtown. I forget the name of the hotel, and I remember my heart hurting because I had to stand on my you know, to my best friend. I said that, I told myself, brother, the next skin I live in will be that turner. I will never work again, and if it's the last movie I do, I will know that I've done the thing that God has called me here to do, and he never questioned it again. He was like, okay, and
you know, we pray a lot. And you know, I think the core of our you know, our love story as brothers is our faith. It's not our careers, and it's not even first our people, you know, because I think that the faith element has just been lost in
many ways. We pray a lot together. I think that that has been the thing, the common thread through how we see the world as brothers, how we see our purpose as artists, how we see ourselves as fathers to our children, how we see ourselves as entertainers in public spaces. It all goes back down to, you know, what have we been called to do? And will we be obedient to that thing.
But the thing that also made it easier for me to accept the know from Nate is that, you know, in two thousand and seven, not long after I had moved to the States, the script for Selma hit the doormat and I was in a time of praying and fasting at the time, and I very clearly heard the Lord tell me you are going to play doctor King in this film. I wrote it in my prayer diary on that day because it was such a bizarre notion.
I had not played anything akin to this before. I was a British actor newly moved to the States, in an apartment in Studio City in La This was a crazy notion, but I do know the voice of God and I ended up auditioning at that time for the film. The feedback from the director at that time was David o'yellowo is not Doctor King. That was the feedback I gotten. I thought, oh, maybe I didn't hear God as I thought I did, so I let that slide. Three years went by and it was a phone call from Nate.
He called me up and said, have you heard of this film?
Selma? Uh, They're they're auditioning.
Uh guy, guys for you know.
I've been asked to audition and and he he, I said, I really think you should go up for this.
I was like, I know that film, and.
I don't even know if I said to you on the phone that God told me I was gonna.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna jump in and tell a part of the story as well. So and I'd love for you, David after to kind of come behind with kind of the crisis we're dealing with in our industry when it comes to there can only be one because we've really bonded on this idea that what is
for us is for us, you know. So I was talking to the den who had the control of the rights the director, and he had reached out through someone to me, and so we were in this back and forth about like the early stages of you know, the story and how this person.
Wanted to tell the story.
But I remembered that, you know, in our conversation had it come up, and I said, do you know David or Yellowell? And I can remember him just kind of pausing because rarely will someone be talking about a role and ask him if they know someone else.
But it was just on my.
Spere, do you know David Dover yellow He's an extraordinary brother.
You should meet him.
And so I've reached out to David and I said, hey, you know, we talked about doctor King and you were like, yeah, it was just this weird and I said, they're you know, they're having it and it wasn't wide auditions. It wasn't like they're seeing everyone, and so David needs to get in line. It was very, very selective auditions and for what I'd understand, it only been like a couple of people. And I said, you really should meet David and called
David and connected them. Wow, and I guess you can speak on the story, not me that.
But when you.
When I finally got the meeting, he sent me a book called nineteen sixty five Selma and it's just you know, just research for for the audition. I'm emotional about it because I've never experienced anything like this before or since. When you are from a community that is rooted in scarcity. Nate talked about programming. You are programmed to self survive, to hold on to your piece of the pie, to crabs in a barrel, the whole situation.
So for him to reach.
Out to me in that way at that time was truly profound and exemplary for me. And to cut a very long story short, I obviously went on to get the role, but I will never forget the fact that something that I felt the Lord Ha told me I would do came back around through a friend saying, Wow, you must go up for this, and him recommending me like this is a brilliant actor. You know, anyone who sees him as an turner in Birth of a Nation. I remember him inviting me to a screening of the film.
I saw the film, and I had to go and see it again the very next day because I couldn't quite understand not only the profundity of what I had just seen, but how he had pulled it off. He had written it, he had produced it, he had directed it, and he was starring in it. And the performance in and of itself was that extraordinary, let alone all these other hats he was wearing doing it. So this isn't like a guy who's like, oh, I don't think I could play doctor again.
You you know, this is not that.
This is just someone who that's his heart.
And that's why I go back to what I said earlier about we not me, And so you know, that was just such a profound moment that led on to what has been the profound moments in my career thus far. So when I called him and said, do you want to come be part of anyone? I have to go do this thing, I understood what that is because someone was that for me and I wanted to support him in that.
I felt some kind of way for a second, but.
But you know, considering what he had already done for me.
I knew the spirit from which.
He was operating in and that that of you know, and that has been I think. I think great relationships, great love stories, have these these cornerstone moments, and then that was just a massive cornerstone moment for us.
You're listening to My Legacy, Stay tuned as we dive even deeper with David and Nadan too this inspiring journey and friendship. We're back with David oh Yello and his best friend Nate Parker on the My Legacy podcast.
In line of the fact that you've known David for over a decade, certainly as a friend and a creative partner, how do you see his upbringing influencing him.
David very much recognizes he is a part of a tapestry or a blanket that only exists as a sum of its parts. If you've ever if anyone has ever had the opportunity to see David in the presence of his mother or in the presence of his father, they will know exactly the type of stuff he's made of. The integrity, the love, the care, the compassion. He is, in my opinion, the definition of a man from what from every example for better and words that I've had
as a measuring stick growing up in this skin. So I think his upbringing, I would say, is less about the lessons learned in this way, but more about his understanding of how he fits within the clay of the Yellow, a yellow old clan. And that is something I have really taken into my family.
You know.
I want my family to know how I see us from a thirty thousand foot view, how I see us thirty thousand years from now, and how I feel about us being the origin story of the world as black people all those years ago. I don't think we have the luxury to walk through life with each one teach one perspective.
We just don't.
We matter in different ways as your father continues to matter. On what would have been his one hundredth birthday, I'm not sure we're celebrating him just because he was bold enough to do the things that he did. I think we're celebrating him because he was obedient enough to challenge constructs that are forever changed. And I see that in David, and it's only ironic because he played the man who lived it in a different way. But who else but David as someone who lives that even separate in his
own legacy. So I think it's something that is inspiring. And I, you know, I often call myself as me as little brother, he calls me. You know, we don't say that often because we don't really allude to hierarchy. But the reality is he's a little older, a little wiser, and I call him about things that are sometimes even smaller. You know, I'm changing the living room.
What should I.
Because I respect his process. He is someone who consults God before he consults his ego, you know, And I don't say I say that to say it's God then everything else. That's how he shows up as a father, That's how he shows up as a friend, That's how he shows up as a colleague. You can best believe what you get from this man is going to be rooted in prayer rather than in some type of selfish direction. And you can't say that about everyone. And I know
it's hard for him. He's probably squirming as I continue, but I think it needs to be said. You know, as we talk about what does it take for a man to be able to publicly say I love this man, I give my life for him, and it not be a diety, not be God or not be I think it's seeing in that person qualities that you hope your children's children have, and so, you know, I think that's the that's the highest quality of a compliment I can
give to a person. And I don't know if I've said this, you know, in this type of setting, I'm very private, you know, as David will tell you. But when he says will you please show up? I say, brother, I'm here.
So this time this is something else, like another movie after.
I'm very curious. What was the most intimidating part of taking on the role of Martin Luther King Jr.
How long do you have?
I mean, the estimation in which he is held by so many was the thing that was so intimidating. And because at the end of the day, I don't care who you are. I don't think anyone in their right mind feels worthy.
Of playing doctor King.
All I knew is that I had to do as much work as humanly possible, and my prayer was that God and your Father would flow through me in a way that I couldn't control. So the most difficult thing about playing your Father was trusting that that would happen, because when he was giving those speeches, anyone who has eyes to see will know he is moving in an anointing that is otherworldly.
It is not just.
Intellectual or cerebral. He is speaking into time immemorial. The speeches are timeless, the spirit from which he's talking is timeless. I literally was at lunch with someone yesterday who was talking about listening to a speech of your father's, and he started crying. And there is a profundity to those words. That means it's not about acting, it's about being an instrument of service. So this wasn't like an acting exercise. It was like a channeling thing, and you were.
In character for like three months. If I'm not mistaken it or maybe you can help explain that to our audience, like, how did you channel that for such a long period of time.
Well, there were practical reasons and there were spiritual reasons for that. The practical reasons is that we're shooting in Atlanta, which is where he is from. I'm giving speeches to people who had marched with him, who had heard his sermons, who knew him personally.
If I walked in with this accent saying Hello, I'm David.
I'm going to be playing Doctor King.
I mean, like instantaneously, the confidence levels of everyone around us, it goes way down. So I felt I had to stay not only in the accent, but in the sort of hemisphere of him for the shoot.
But like, this thing I'm.
Talking about was very real for me, Like when I watched the film. Now we're literally about to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the film, and I've seen the film of you know, MLK Day. The film comes on and I watch it, and I don't recognize myself because I I can see that something was was was being channeled through me. That is is not something I'm walking in right now. But you know, it was tricky from my wife.
She you know, we were we moved house at the time, and I remember once her calling me about which color curtains we should have, and.
What did Doctor King say.
Doctor King is on the phone talking about whether they should be gray or brown, and she was like, okay, just stop, stop, stop.
I cannot be talking curtains with Doctor King.
We're gonna We're gonna pick this up after the shoots, you know. But but it was it was the price of playing that role. And I was fortunate enough to be in Lincoln that Daniel d Lewis played Abraham Lincoln. And I was fortunate enough to be in the film Asking of Scotland, where Forrest Whitzaker played idiot I mean, and I watched those two gentlemen pay the price for playing those kind of roles. And it's not just an act.
You got to stay in it. And I got my lesson of how to do this by watching them, through prayer, through just being in Atlanta, being in that hemisphere. It was a truly profound experience. And I know I will not get to do anything like that ever.
Again.
What was the greatest piece of advice that anyone might have given you that you felt this is the most appropriate piece of advice that I embraced so that I could personify what I was attempting to do.
The thing that It wasn't a piece of advice. It was a piece of footage I saw, and I only saw it once. So much of the footage of your father is him giving speeches or being interviewed by the press. The camera is on, and so therefore to a certain extent, he is on. There was one piece of footage I only saw it once and I could never find it again.
It was him in a corridor. The camera is coming towards him, and he stood there on his own, and he doesn't know the camera is on yet, the camera is moving towards him, and his demeanor was so different from what I saw in speeches and press interviews. He
was entirely human. And I know that sounds like an odd thing to say, but he just seemed like a human being as opposed to an icon or a hero or all of those things that we have transposed onto him or that he stepped into when he was giving speeches or talking to the press or meeting people, whether it be the sanitary workers or whatever it was. And I saw a man who he hit. His head was down, he was being thoughtful, he was sort of swaying a
little bit. The camera was moving towards him, and then suddenly a light came on in order for him to be more visible, and I saw him click into something
in order to present something to the camera. And we all do that, We all do that, And in that moment, I got what I needed to be able to show the man behind the iconography, the man who was reluctant at times to lead the man who when I spoke to several people, the fact that you and your siblings and your mother's lives were at threat every single day of his service, those thirteen years of his service, meant that when he was away from you, guys, your lives
were under threat, and he, as a father, had to carry that. So when the camera isn't on, that's what he's thinking about. The price on the ones I love the most is incredibly high. And so it wasn't a piece of advice. It was that piece of footage because at the end of the day, if I just was good at the speeches or good at what people had already seen, that's not revelatory.
Of who he was.
You have to be seeing something of the human being. Otherwise go watch a documentary. And so that was a real gift to me. And it was literally a few seconds of footage I only saw once and never again.
And I think that's the price, which we don't talk about that often. That not only for Martin and his siblings and his mother, but even when I even think about to our daughter, right because our daughter is the only grandchild of Martin Luther King Junior and Coreta Scott King, and you know we grew up, you know, well when
we grew up and there wasn't grandparents Day. You know, now when our children grow, you know's grandparents Day at school and all day you know, all the grandparents come out if you're you know, and the fact that her grandfather was never there, so even she understands the price that was paid. You know, she there is when we go to the King Memorial, there's this nook and when she was really little, she would always want to climb
and sit on this nook. And I thought it was, oh, that's just a cute picture, but she said, she's like, this is the closest that I ever have to sit in my grandfather's lap. And it was at that moment, you know, at eight, that I realized that even for her, that there was that you know, that there was an aching and that you know, the price that was paid
that even through generations, we still feel. And I'm really curious though, because when you're playing someone like Martin Luther King Jr. There are you know, there's you know, recordings and footage and video and speeches. You didn't have that with Nat Turner, So how did you conjure up without any of that embody in such a significant and powerful way.
It's a really great question. And you asked the question a little while ago that we didn't get to about faith. And it's not lost on me or you that we both has happened to play men who are preachers. Nat Turner, in my opinion, with someone who was seeking to hold not just those around him accountable who were responsible for his circumstance, but God to his word that was written.
And so I approached it from the standpoint of, you know, if God's word is true, if we have been positioned here as those who are the image of God, then how are we being treated as chattel? You know some of the things in the film that people don't recognize as often as you know, Not Turner prayed for signs and saw signs. You know on record he prayed said, you know, if I am to stand against this, I mean we were able to get the couple things happened
from that film. We were able to get the Bible that he held in his hand, he kept in his pocket as he fought put in the Smithsonian. We were able to get his only remains, his skull, which was sawed at the top with the inscription of the people who cut his head off because they wanted to examine
his brain for the disease that made him rebel. It was sitting on a professor's bookshelf at a college that I'm not going to name, and we were able to work with National Geographic get that back, get it to the family, and they were able to lay his remains to rest. So the approach, as you said, I didn't have anything other than you know where he marked in the Bible in Revelation, you know, cutting the head from
the serpent. You know, like, at some point, if God is who he says he is, and we are who we say we are, we need to move without fear. And that is the thing when we talk about the legacy of doctor King, even in the space as we're talking about that human moment, thinking about his family, he did it anyway. And that's the thing that I still
grapple with. To walk into sure death, sure pain, to leave your grandchildren without a grandfather, to know that that will be your demise, and to do it anyway is something that all of us don't.
Have in us.
I'm an actor, you know, I have five daughters. I'm not sure I'm walking out the door down there to the left. I know walking out there will separate me from my family while at the same time liberating people that I won't be here to see liberated. Call me selfish, but these men were really courageous. So I tried to take the approach of what the sacrifice in the name of God was rather than the kind of the details
of Innitia that I did not know. And I think that is the thing that guided me, and that was the thing that made it very difficult, you know, on the days in between action and cut was the stakes. You know, I don't know if you want to speak to that, but there's the fear that you're all constantly beating back. If I do this wrong, then that is the thing that is studied forever.
And also just the recognition. The thing I came away from playing your father was object indisputable recognition that I.
I am not made of what he was made of. Yeh.
To Nate's point, know that I have four kids like he did, and I just in fact, I'm not going to say I don't know. I know I am not made of the same stuff. That would mean that for over a decade I would knowingly, intentionally, willfully, obediently step into circumstances that would jeopardize their safety every single day. I couldn't do it, and so that's why what he did was so incredibly heroic. And the thing that I found so moving was that it wasn't of his choosing.
He didn't run towards this. He had those dark knights of the soul of why me. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't feel up to this. I don't want to do this. I am tired of this. And that's stuff that people don't know, maybe don't even want to know, because we want our heroes to be perfect.
And he was, of course.
A human being who would have you caught him on the right day, he would say, No, I don't want to much. I don't want to give that press conference. I don't want to give that speech. I just want to be back with my family, or I just want to rest. I've been on the road for twenty nine days of this month so far, and I've given speeches. I've given of myself for twenty nine days straight with no rest, and I just heard that the next place I'm going to give a speech, there's a real chance
that I'm going to be assassinated. And I'm talking about real circumstances. I'm not making that up. This is my research that all that stuff out. So there is a sort of you know, these men we've been afforded the
opportunity to play. I think that the reason why Nate fought as hard as he did to get the story told, the reason why I just I felt called to every single day I had to do something to move the needle towards that film being made, because it was unacceptable to me that the only American not African American, the only American to have a day named after them in the twentieth century, had not yet had a film made
about them. Remember what I said earlier, when I first read the script of Some in two thousand and seven, Lyndon Johnson was the protagonist, Doctor King was a supporting character, you know, And that film went through in the seven years before we got it made. When I first read it, it was a white male director, then another white male director, then an African American male director, then an African American
male director. Then it was Ava Duverna who came along, and finally truly recalibrated it to what it always needed to be, which was not only the man and the movement, but the women who also supported that want something done. Exactly, the first black woman exactly on script. I read your mother was featured in three phone calls, none of which had Doctor King and your mother in the same room at the same time.
By the time it.
Was in Ava DuVernay's hands, you not only had a role that was worthy of a Carmen a Jogo who played your mother, but roles that were worthy of Oprah Winfrey, Nissi Nash, Tessa Thompson, Lorraine Toussaint, you know the the And that's to do with perspective.
And that's the power of what we do.
We can bring a perspective that is flies in the face of the marginalization that has created the circumstances that caused challenge for the heroes that we are trying to platform. And even in those seven years of me trying to get that film made alongside the folks that Plan b and Pathay, there was resistance to it being told in the right way. The reason why it took five directors over those seven years, all of who to a certain degree failed to get it made is because of the
notion black doesn't travel. The white audience don't want to be made to feel guilty. Black people don't want to feel black pain. All of these narratives that meant that the truth, yet again wouldn't be told was what we had to fight against. Let alone get to the set and actually play the role to the degree whereby you
feel like, oh, gosh, I actually did my job. So you know, these resistances are not imagined what your father was pushing up against to a way lesser degree, we have those resistances in getting these movies made.
Grab a refill in your coffee or tea because you won't want to miss the rest of this conversation. We'll be right back. You're listening to my Legacy podcast. Thanks for sharing your time with us.
Now, the two of you have launched a new platform, MANSA Correct Yes, to continue to uplift the voices of black and brown storytellers and stories. Can you just tell us a little bit about about that.
Yeah, I'm gonna give it to David as he You know, I think it's a great transition from you talking about, you know, the growth and transition of the script into the hands of the very capable and amazing Avid de Verney and why that's important to what we're doing with MANSA.
Yeah, I mean we faced challenges not just on those films we made, but the work we've done generally. I mean, we met doing Red Tails together. And George Lucas had an obsession about telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. He actually said their airplane battles were the inspiration of what you see in Star Wars.
And he was.
Obsessed with with, you know, World War two and planes, And.
I just have to say, can we also say that that was done too with they did not have the best equipment, Oh yeah, you know, like they were not invested in no, you know, and then they took all of that, yeah, and then became the best of the best and most of the war and won the war. Came back to more discrimination, but you know, and then you know, forty years later, you know, Star Wars was patterned after the battles of the time era.
Their dogfights literally inspired George Lucas in terms of what you.
See in Star Wars.
He's and that's verbatim from his mouth to our ears. But as you say, they were marginalized, and that time in which they were sidelined and benched, they continued to forge their prowess in terms of what they did, and out of desperation because of how many planes were being hemorrhaged by the US forces. Out of desperation, they deployed the Tusky Geemen and the Redtails, and they had a
better record than any squadron that came before them. But that story, George Lucas, couldn't get made for thirty years. This is the guy who instigated, initiated, created the greatest film franchise in the history of cinema. You'd think if there was anyone who's going to be able to tell that story, it would be him. He couldn't get a single studio to do it. He paid fifty million dollars of his own money to make that film because no
studio would make it. And he said very explicitly to us, no one was gonna make it with a group of black, unknown actors, which it had to be because the Tuskegee airmen were in their twenties. There were young men, so it can't be as amazing as they are. It couldn't be Morgan Freeman and Denzel and you know all the people who have had time to establish a name for themselves, so it had to be this group of young actors,
and so he had to pay the money himself. So I say that all to say that that's the context in which Nate and I met someone like George Lucas advocating for us, giving us a platform to tell this kind of story. And even when the film was made, he still couldn't get a studio to distribute it. So he had to go to the studio that did distribute it essentially use their mechanism to do.
Him a favor to distribute the movie.
Now, the amount of people who come up to me about that film since it came out and to say it's their favorite film, or it was the first time they knew about the Tuskegee m and all of that stuff. So cut to over a decade later, we are by products of that man's advocacy for us, and so we have seen that it can. The thing that we don't have is pipes. We make great product we make great projects, but what we have never had is the means to disseminate it. The thing that was genius about your father
with selma Is. He knew that it wasn't just about a march, it wasn't just about a speech.
It was about the cameras.
The cameras need to be there to capture the truth of what was happening. And on the night where John Lewis was being beaten over the head in Selma, a live broadcast was disrupted and all of America saw what looked like, as they termed it, a war zone in a foreign country, and then all of a sudden they found out that was here in America, and it changed
the narrative. What we have never had is the means to direct the eyeballs to the things that we create, and so MANSA is a byproduct of a technical revolution, which is that we didn't have to build a brick and mortar studio. We raised enough money to be able
to create a digital one. That means we now have over half a million subscribers to our platform, which is going to grow, which is going to become global, and we now have a place for margined groups whose work is traditionally undervalued, to meet the audience in a way that isn't being funneled through the eyeballs of people who traditionally deem that work and those people to be lesser than.
Is often said content is king, But what we've learned is distribution is king and kingmaker. You can make anything you want to make, but if you have to then go and take it to the very people who told you you were not good enough. It is not good enough, the story is not important enough. The chances are it is not going to find the audience it was intended for. So in building this platform. Mons and Mons is an advertising supported streaming platform that brings the best of black
culture to a global audience. So we recognize if we're writers. David is a writer, director, producer, actor, catering person if he has to be whatever is necessary to get it done.
But once that thing is made.
He made an extraordinary film called The Waterman and was in a situation and where and I've seen the film. If you haven't seen it, please see the film. I mean it was the critics loved it. It was called SPIELBERGI and all of a sudden it was well, there are all these reasons why it might not be able to find an audience until you see the data. And it was one of the most distributed watched films globally, yet we had no control over getting this cup to the
people that want to drink from it. So in building manset, it's about saying, in the same way that there is a two B, in the same way that there's a Pluto, in the same way that there's a Netflix, we need to control the pipes that control the content we create. When I say we, I mean anyone that understands the importance of black culture because black culture drives world culture, and being able to control how that gets to the hearts and the minds of the people it needs to impact.
So if someone wanted to make a documentary about your life or your relationship or your granddaughter, because I'm still seeing her in that nook, that's important to my daughters to know the importance that she saw. I want to be close to my grandfather, though I'll never get to me. If my eight year old could hear that I know her,
I know her heart, she'd be impacted by it. We could say okay, or a podcast where we can say we can get this podcast or the hearts and minds of the people that need to see it without having to beg Anyone that is opposed the idea of us reaching the people that are for us. We don't have to ask permission. We can take it directly to their eyeballs. So that was what mons us about. It's a streaming platform.
You can download it now on iOS, Roku wherever. But the future is about access to the people who are looking for you, and so all of the content creators, all the people because sometimes that the new social justice leaders, a lot of them are content creators, you know, a lot of them didn't come up in the church, and they have different ways of interacting with millions of people
who follow them. So to give them a platform where they can have a constant flow distributing their ideas in ways that enhance the lives of us, our children, and our children's children is the focus of our platform and why we created it.
And we're just getting started with David o'yelowo and Nate Parker. Their story was too powerful and too important for this moment to fit into a single episode. Next week we go even deeper into the kind of friendship that's tested in life's darkest moments when the world turns its back. Who stands by you when everything is on the line, Who fights for you.
When he talks about us having prayed together, We have snotty, dribbling, screaming, wailing prayed together over this stuff because it was hard.
Trust me, you don't want to miss part two next week. Thank you for joining us. We are so grateful to have you as part of this journey. If you enjoyed today's conversation, subscribe and share the podcast with friends, family, and loved ones, and follow us on social media at my Legacy Movement. You can also sipp ksribe to our YouTube channel at my Legacy Movement. Produced by Legacy Plus Studio in partnership with iHeartRadio creator and executive producer Suzanne
Hayward co executive producer Lisa Lyle. My Legacy podcast is available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, may you find connection and inspiration to live your most fulfilled life.