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*Bonus Episode* Charlamagne "Just Mercy" Q and A · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us for this very
0:04
Speaker 1: exciting evening for the very special film Just Mercy. We're
0:09
Speaker 1: going to start things off by spending time with a
0:11
Speaker 1: simply put one of the most inspiring people you will
0:14
Speaker 1: ever meet, a hero of our generation, Brian Stevenson. We're
0:20
Speaker 1: honored to have three people here who need no introduction,
0:23
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen. Here's the star and producer of Just Mercy,
0:27
Speaker 1: Michael B. Jordan, joined by two more of the film stars,
0:31
Speaker 1: Oscar winning actors Jamie Fox and Brie Larson. They can't
0:35
Speaker 1: wait for you to meet the extraordinary person at the
0:37
Speaker 1: center of Just Mercy, Brian Stevenson, a hero of our
0:41
Speaker 1: generation who has been a bold voice for the voiceless
0:44
Speaker 1: and has fearlessly stood up for justice when told to
0:47
Speaker 1: sit down in the crowd. We have some special guests,
0:50
Speaker 1: three members of the film's remarkable cast who all give
0:53
Speaker 1: out standing performances, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson and Kiron Kendrick.
1:00
Speaker 1: They are joined by our hosts, who needs no introduction.
1:04
Speaker 1: Please welcome to the stage, the popular and always outspoken
1:08
Speaker 1: hosts of the Breakfast Club and my friend Charlemagne. Y'all
1:13
Speaker 1: feeling this evening. What's happening? We're here to talk a
1:18
Speaker 1: little just mercy, Michael B. Jordan, what's happened to my brother?
1:21
Speaker 1: Doing good? How you doing? Man? I wasn't important to
1:24
Speaker 1: tell Brian's story. I mean for a number of reasons.
1:26
Speaker 1: I think once I discovered who Brian Stevenson was, and
1:29
Speaker 1: I'm very embarrassed that, you know, four or five years ago,
1:31
Speaker 1: I wasn't that familiar with him or his work. You know,
1:34
Speaker 1: I felt like it's something that's timely. You know, this case,
1:38
Speaker 1: the story took place, you know, over thirty years ago,
1:41
Speaker 1: but it's still relevant to today. You know, it's still
1:43
Speaker 1: going on obviously, And if I could take this story
1:47
Speaker 1: and get it out to the masses and keep that
1:49
Speaker 1: conversation going, if I could do my part and use
1:52
Speaker 1: my platform to make this a global thing, to make
1:55
Speaker 1: this a human thing, I was going to do everything
1:57
Speaker 1: I could to kind of get that done. And after
1:59
Speaker 1: meeting Brian and uh, really realizing the impact of the
2:02
Speaker 1: work that he's doing year, it's uh it's hard to
2:07
Speaker 1: not feel moved and not feel like you want to
2:08
Speaker 1: be a part of the solution and be a part
2:10
Speaker 1: of a change. How did you how did this story
2:12
Speaker 1: come across your radar? Um through through my agency? It
2:14
Speaker 1: was something that um, you know, as an opportunity for
2:17
Speaker 1: me to uh to want to tell the story. When
2:19
Speaker 1: I first met Brian, I had a feeling that he was,
2:21
Speaker 1: you know, he was auditioning me, like if I was
2:23
Speaker 1: worthy enough to kind of to tell his story, because um,
2:27
Speaker 1: you know, he's a very humble person. He's not you know,
2:30
Speaker 1: a guy who likes a lot of attention. He does
2:32
Speaker 1: his work behind closed doors, and and it really makes
2:34
Speaker 1: impact and um and and and I felt honored to
2:39
Speaker 1: be able to tell this story. You know, he's nobody's perfect,
2:42
Speaker 1: but he's damned he's damned close. And that pressure to
2:46
Speaker 1: to do him justice and not to let him down
2:48
Speaker 1: is something that really stayed up my mind as that
2:50
Speaker 1: we developed and worked on and on the movie. Briand
2:54
Speaker 1: did he do a good job? Brian, Oh, he does
2:56
Speaker 1: an amazing job. I think one of the things that
2:58
Speaker 1: I most excited about is the extraordinary performances that all
3:03
Speaker 1: of these amazing actors do. I mean, for me, I've
3:05
Speaker 1: always believed that if I could get people to see
3:08
Speaker 1: what I see on a regular basis, if I could
3:10
Speaker 1: get them to understand the humanity and the dignity of
3:13
Speaker 1: the people that I represent, and what's lost when we
3:15
Speaker 1: treat people unfairly and unjustly, when we crush hopes and
3:19
Speaker 1: we traumatize and abuse people, that people would want the
3:22
Speaker 1: same things that I want. And I wasn't sure that
3:25
Speaker 1: was achievable until I met Michael. And I was very
3:29
Speaker 1: apprehensive about having the book turned into a movie, because
3:32
Speaker 1: a lot of times Hollywood doesn't actually get the story right.
3:35
Speaker 1: They compromise. But Michael was aligned and he wanted to
3:39
Speaker 1: do it in the right way. And Deston had that
3:41
Speaker 1: same vision. And not only is Michael an amazingly talented actor,
3:46
Speaker 1: he's somebody who cares deeply about these issues. And his
3:49
Speaker 1: commitment to the issues and getting it right is what
3:51
Speaker 1: gave me hope. And then when Jamie came, and Breed came,
3:54
Speaker 1: and the other members of the cast came, I began
3:56
Speaker 1: to get excited about what might happen we lifted the veil,
4:01
Speaker 1: and what's happening in this country. I mean, our country
4:03
Speaker 1: has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. We
4:06
Speaker 1: have put millions of people in jails and prisons. We're
4:09
Speaker 1: putting children in adult prisons. We're executing people who are innocent.
4:13
Speaker 1: We have condemned people unfairly, and we haven't responded the
4:16
Speaker 1: way a just nation should respond. So we have to
4:19
Speaker 1: wake people up. And I'm hoping that the storytelling in
4:22
Speaker 1: this film will get people engaged in a way where
4:24
Speaker 1: they leave the theaters prepared to do something that it
4:28
Speaker 1: doesn't end when the film is over. And that's what
4:30
Speaker 1: really motivates me when I see the film, and what
4:32
Speaker 1: excites me about the performances. Gree Larthen, how are you hello?
4:39
Speaker 1: Are we on the radio? Yeah? No? Oh it just said,
4:46
Speaker 1: oh no, I heart radio. Is that's why it says
4:50
Speaker 1: that okay, got it? Yeah? But you play Eva and
4:54
Speaker 1: who was then allied to the community. Um, what was
4:56
Speaker 1: it like for you to portray her? Oh? It was incredible.
5:02
Speaker 1: I got to be with Michael B. Jordan like all
5:04
Speaker 1: the time. It was just wonderful. You know. Destin, who
5:09
Speaker 1: directed the film, is like my family is my brother
5:13
Speaker 1: and and um, when I heard that he was telling
5:16
Speaker 1: the story, I had read Brian's book a couple of
5:19
Speaker 1: years prior. I was just so moved by him and
5:22
Speaker 1: by his story, and uh, and Michael wanted me to
5:26
Speaker 1: be there. So for me, it was about doing the
5:30
Speaker 1: work that I needed to do to show up, to
5:32
Speaker 1: dissolve myself, to just be there, to listen and to
5:35
Speaker 1: hold space and to explore what that felt like and
5:39
Speaker 1: it felt so good? Or what did the story of
5:43
Speaker 1: Bryan Stevenson taught you? To get very very close to everything.
5:49
Speaker 1: Even just today doing press all day, I have a
5:52
Speaker 1: new person sitting in front of me every three minutes,
5:55
Speaker 1: and it's amazing to watch your mind run with how
5:58
Speaker 1: your brain wants to quant to fight any person that's
6:01
Speaker 1: in front of you and to really work to kind
6:03
Speaker 1: of push that away and to go who are you?
6:06
Speaker 1: Because I most definitely don't know, but I know we
6:09
Speaker 1: have a lot in common. And that's what Brian taught me. Dope,
6:13
Speaker 1: Jamie Fox, what's happening to my brother? What's up? I
6:17
Speaker 1: wasn't for you to portray? Portray your character? And how
6:20
Speaker 1: to Brian help you with the role. Well, first of all,
6:22
Speaker 1: just I mean meeting Brian is just incredible and effect
6:28
Speaker 1: that Michael playing and then they both look they you know,
6:33
Speaker 1: both be in the gym, so you know, like it
6:36
Speaker 1: all worked out because I thought, when you're saying you
6:41
Speaker 1: were auditioned for him, but I know he was telling people, Yeah,
6:43
Speaker 1: you know, it might be Jordan's playing a minute, Come on, man,
6:49
Speaker 1: but what what what Brian Stevens have done is so
6:52
Speaker 1: important because he doesn't fatigue when we have black issues,
6:57
Speaker 1: It'll be a black issue for thirty minutes on ourselves
7:00
Speaker 1: own or whatever we have our revolution about for forty
7:04
Speaker 1: five minutes behind our gates, and then we fatigue. Brian
7:10
Speaker 1: Stevenson works tiresly to change the perception of us. That's
7:15
Speaker 1: why I'm happy to Michael B. Jordan called me. I
7:17
Speaker 1: was humble to get that call to find out that
7:20
Speaker 1: he was doing his story. And it's important because we
7:24
Speaker 1: have to get into these narratives and really do something
7:27
Speaker 1: about him. Because we were dealing with this in Texas,
7:32
Speaker 1: people being wrongly accused and placed in prison to die,
7:37
Speaker 1: and the fact that the perception of a black man
7:40
Speaker 1: is so it's so a matter of fact that we're
7:43
Speaker 1: able to allow it to happen and we sit either
7:47
Speaker 1: not mute or just don't know about it. So and
7:50
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to Michael B. Jordan you
7:52
Speaker 1: have to commend him for what he did behind the
7:55
Speaker 1: camera and in front of the camera. It's his first movie.
7:59
Speaker 1: He produced city. He has the inclusion Act where he
8:02
Speaker 1: has you know, everybody who's represented behind closed doors, and
8:06
Speaker 1: you think about this. He could do anything wanted. He's
8:09
Speaker 1: a big star. Yeah, but I know you like me,
8:12
Speaker 1: Like when he laid that railroad, that groundwork in Fruitville Station,
8:17
Speaker 1: and he laid that narrative where he spoke for us,
8:20
Speaker 1: And I told you, I went with some I went
8:22
Speaker 1: with some homies. I went with the thugs to go
8:25
Speaker 1: see that movie, and there was sniffles because because of
8:29
Speaker 1: how you you touch us. And then to go from
8:31
Speaker 1: there to Kill Monger, biggest movie on the planet and
8:37
Speaker 1: Black Panther. But he took the same narrative with him
8:40
Speaker 1: at the biggest level of his career. And so now
8:45
Speaker 1: just mercy is the artistic sentence that's being finished, but
8:50
Speaker 1: not that's not the only sentence. And I think that's
8:52
Speaker 1: what's great about the film. This is the most important
8:55
Speaker 1: film I've been a part of, and I think that
8:58
Speaker 1: that we should make sure we get it is it's
9:01
Speaker 1: the most important. I'm gonna tell you why it's the
9:04
Speaker 1: most important because of perception, Like I don't like to
9:08
Speaker 1: visit people in jail because I don't want to see that.
9:12
Speaker 1: I don't want to get used to seeing family members
9:14
Speaker 1: or anything like. I don't want to see that. My
9:16
Speaker 1: father went to jail for twenty five dollars worth of
9:18
Speaker 1: illegal substance. They put him in jail for seven years.
9:23
Speaker 1: This man educated black studies in South Dallas for twenty
9:27
Speaker 1: five years. The very students that he used to have
9:31
Speaker 1: the judge come and preside and come talk to the kids.
9:35
Speaker 1: That judge presided over his case put him in jail.
9:38
Speaker 1: Next two kids that he taught. But they don't understand
9:42
Speaker 1: that that that black man taught me how to swim,
9:46
Speaker 1: that black man taught me how to throw a football,
9:48
Speaker 1: told me how to play tennis. And so I'm not
9:49
Speaker 1: learning to play tennis because I want you to know
9:50
Speaker 1: all of it, so you know, you know it's a
9:55
Speaker 1: it's a thing that I'm familiar with, and that The
9:56
Speaker 1: good part about that is is that when he got out,
9:59
Speaker 1: I the one letter I say, you come stay with me.
10:01
Speaker 1: I got on. Now you can come stay with me
10:03
Speaker 1: and you and I want to change your life. Now.
10:07
Speaker 1: This man taught me how to play tennis. The good
10:09
Speaker 1: part about their stories that I got a chance to
10:11
Speaker 1: take him to the US open and let him watch
10:15
Speaker 1: Venus and Serena play. So so when that man watched
10:20
Speaker 1: this movie about what was going on, I watched him,
10:24
Speaker 1: you know, I watched him get you know weak, you know, right,
10:29
Speaker 1: because because these stories almost every single day. So that's
10:34
Speaker 1: why I say it's the most important film I've ever been. Wow,
10:39
Speaker 1: Michael is it is it hard to get white Hollywood
10:43
Speaker 1: executives to make these kind of stories. I feel like
10:47
Speaker 1: this movie for me. First of all, getting any movie
10:49
Speaker 1: is really hard to get done, especially one with a
10:52
Speaker 1: message like this. I feel like for me in this project,
10:57
Speaker 1: I can't say that it was hard to get done.
11:00
Speaker 1: You know from from you know, Warner Brothers ran towards
11:03
Speaker 1: this movie. Uh, they knew it wasn't a cash cat,
11:06
Speaker 1: it wasn't one of their huge blockbuster movies, but they
11:08
Speaker 1: felt like it was very important. UM parlay my relationship
11:12
Speaker 1: with them at my overall deal there. Um, they ran
11:16
Speaker 1: towards the inclusion writer that I that I implemented with
11:19
Speaker 1: my production company. They collaborated with my team for all
11:23
Speaker 1: of Warner Media. So now Warner Media has the Inclusion
11:27
Speaker 1: Act in there, and that's how they hire through all
11:29
Speaker 1: of Warner Media, which is a huge first step. It's
11:32
Speaker 1: a huge precedents that set with that company, which is
11:36
Speaker 1: so a person of a minority, somebody from the LBGTQ community,
11:41
Speaker 1: some of an unrepresented group has to be heavily considered
11:44
Speaker 1: for a department head in front of the camera and
11:46
Speaker 1: a major role within the movie. And that's something it's
11:49
Speaker 1: it's it's something that on paper, a mandate that you know,
11:52
Speaker 1: can hold people somewhat accountable. It's not full bulletproof, it's
11:56
Speaker 1: not full full force, but it's something that they buy.
12:00
Speaker 1: It's a mandated the company works under. So that was
12:03
Speaker 1: a huge first step. We have a lot more steps
12:04
Speaker 1: to go, but it was it was a nice first move.
12:07
Speaker 1: I feel like the timing of this movie was very important.
12:11
Speaker 1: I feel like Brian's work had a lot to do
12:14
Speaker 1: with that. Brian Stevenson, who he was, I think the
12:16
Speaker 1: heads of the our studio was very progressive and wanted
12:20
Speaker 1: to get behind this message. So it was a lot
12:22
Speaker 1: of factors that kind of fell into place for this
12:24
Speaker 1: movie to get made with as much ease as it has.
12:27
Speaker 1: It wasn't completely easy, but it wasn't as hard as
12:30
Speaker 1: it has been in the past. Well, why why is
12:32
Speaker 1: Brian Stevenson a hero? I think he's a hero because
12:36
Speaker 1: he's selfless. I feel like he sacrificed his life and
12:39
Speaker 1: dedicated it to a cause. And he doesn't fatigue. Like
12:42
Speaker 1: Jamie said, he doesn't tire. I think he is almost
12:48
Speaker 1: He's so optimistic and so hopeful in the most dismal situations.
12:52
Speaker 1: I don't I can't even fathom, you know. I think
12:54
Speaker 1: one of the most challenging things about playing him in
12:56
Speaker 1: this movie was the situations that he was in. And
12:59
Speaker 1: he kept his calm and he kept his cool. Why
13:02
Speaker 1: because it wasn't beneficial for his clients something you know,
13:06
Speaker 1: being you know, strip search being treated, uh, you know,
13:09
Speaker 1: mis mistreated, and and and and and obviously you know,
13:13
Speaker 1: seeing laws being broken left and right, but being antagonized,
13:16
Speaker 1: being racially profiled, being harassed, and he still kept his
13:20
Speaker 1: his his calm nature when emotionally, even in the scene,
13:24
Speaker 1: I wanted to react differently, differently, so my artistic acting choices.
13:27
Speaker 1: I wanted to be you know, raged, while I wanted
13:29
Speaker 1: to lash out. But that's not what Brian Stevenson you know, did,
13:32
Speaker 1: That's not who he was. So that reserved nature that
13:36
Speaker 1: that methodical, that that you know, he's a strategist. He
13:39
Speaker 1: you know, he's five steps ahead. He's all about changing
13:42
Speaker 1: the perception. He has layers. He created this legacy museum,
13:45
Speaker 1: he has this memorial situation set up and down in Alabama.
13:48
Speaker 1: He's attacking this thing at so many different levels. I
13:50
Speaker 1: was so impressed by by how much strategy goes into it. Um,
13:59
Speaker 1: and he does all of us work pro bono. You
14:01
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying, and
14:04
Speaker 1: and and it's and it's uh, the man is so humble,
14:07
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, it's incredible. Man. So it's like, you know,
14:11
Speaker 1: he is our is our he is our hero. Man.
14:14
Speaker 1: It's like I've been in marble films, you know, I've
14:16
Speaker 1: done all that, But this is this is the one
14:18
Speaker 1: that I'm most proud of. Man. He's he's the guy
14:20
Speaker 1: look up to. Bryan got some fire quotes too, I'll
14:22
Speaker 1: put some in my phone. I want to ask you
14:24
Speaker 1: why it ran. You said you don't change the world
14:27
Speaker 1: with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction
14:30
Speaker 1: in your heart. Sure. I mean I just think that, Um,
14:35
Speaker 1: we have to recognize our power to make a difference.
14:39
Speaker 1: And we use some of these lines in the movie,
14:41
Speaker 1: but for me, they're not just lines. It's the way
14:43
Speaker 1: we do justice. You know, the question is how do
14:45
Speaker 1: we do justice. You do justice by being willing to
14:48
Speaker 1: get close to people who are poor and excluded and neglected.
14:51
Speaker 1: You know, in this country, we have a tendency to
14:53
Speaker 1: kind of let the lights always go to the rich
14:55
Speaker 1: and the powerful and the privilege. We tend to care
14:57
Speaker 1: more about what's happening in places where people have and
15:00
Speaker 1: lifted up and gotten a lot of attention. And I
15:03
Speaker 1: don't believe that our country will be judged by how
15:06
Speaker 1: well we treat the powerful and the privileged and the celebrated.
15:09
Speaker 1: We're going to be judged by how we treat the
15:11
Speaker 1: poor and the incarcerated and the excluded. And for me,
15:15
Speaker 1: that means understanding that we have an obligation to do
15:19
Speaker 1: these things. You know, my great grandfather was enslaved in Virginia,
15:22
Speaker 1: and he had the belief he believed things he couldn't see,
15:25
Speaker 1: and so he learned to read as a twelve year old,
15:28
Speaker 1: even though everybody was telling him he would never be free,
15:31
Speaker 1: and he learned to read. And when emancipation came all
15:33
Speaker 1: of the informally enslaved people would come to his house
15:36
Speaker 1: and he'd read the newspaper every night, and the house
15:38
Speaker 1: would get quiet. My grandmother would sit next to him.
15:40
Speaker 1: She said it would made her so proud that he
15:42
Speaker 1: had that kind of power. And he gave that desire
15:45
Speaker 1: to read to my grandmother, And even though they didn't
15:47
Speaker 1: have school, she was very literate, and she gave that
15:50
Speaker 1: to my mother, and my mother gave that to me.
15:52
Speaker 1: And we were poor, but my mom went into debt
15:55
Speaker 1: to buy the World Book Encyclopedia so we could see
15:57
Speaker 1: this other place. And I was raised is been natured
16:00
Speaker 1: by people who had the strength to keep fighting, and
16:02
Speaker 1: so for me, it's a choice. Hopefulness is what we
16:06
Speaker 1: have to have. And we say in the film, and
16:07
Speaker 1: I say it all the time, that hopelessness is the
16:10
Speaker 1: enemy of justice. Injustice prevails where hopelessness persists, our hope
16:14
Speaker 1: is our superpower. And I live in Montgomery, Alabama. It's
16:17
Speaker 1: a challenging place, but it's also an incredibly inspiring place
16:20
Speaker 1: because in Montgomery, you never forget that you're standing on
16:24
Speaker 1: the shoulders of people who did so much more with
16:26
Speaker 1: so much less. The people trying to do what I'm
16:27
Speaker 1: trying to do. Sixty years ago they had to frequently
16:31
Speaker 1: say my head is bloody, but not bad. I've never
16:34
Speaker 1: had to say that. And I feel the power of
16:36
Speaker 1: the enslaved who found a way to stay hopeful despite bondage.
16:40
Speaker 1: I feel the power of people who were terrorized and
16:42
Speaker 1: lynch and found a way to get to security. My
16:44
Speaker 1: parents were humiliated every day by Jim Crow's segregation, and
16:48
Speaker 1: yet they had enough hope to love one another, to
16:50
Speaker 1: create a generation. It gives me the opportunities that I
16:53
Speaker 1: have now, So I feel an obligation to fight for
16:56
Speaker 1: our future, to fight for our children. There's a presumption
16:59
Speaker 1: of dangerousness and guilt that gets assigned to black and
17:02
Speaker 1: brown people, and it's not right, and we've got to
17:04
Speaker 1: end it. We have a criminal justice system, you know,
17:09
Speaker 1: the system that we have that treats you better if
17:12
Speaker 1: you're rich and guilty, then if you're poor and innocent.
17:14
Speaker 1: It's not right, and we've got to do something about it.
17:17
Speaker 1: And I think we can when we get amazing talented
17:20
Speaker 1: people like the people on this stage, and people like
17:22
Speaker 1: Rob Morgan and Karen Kendrick and Tim Blake Nelson, when
17:25
Speaker 1: they come together and use their creative power to tell
17:30
Speaker 1: these stories. I don't think there are any limits to
17:33
Speaker 1: what we can unravel. We can unearth that can actually
17:36
Speaker 1: move us toward justice. And that's what excites me about
17:39
Speaker 1: the film. I think it's going to become something that
17:41
Speaker 1: I hope people are organized around, that people get inspired
17:44
Speaker 1: by that push us us towards something that feels more
17:47
Speaker 1: like justice. And that's the vision, that's the hope behind
17:49
Speaker 1: all of this. Affected. I would affected you think this
17:56
Speaker 1: movie will be in changing anything in our climate in
18:00
Speaker 1: America right now. I feel like the takeaway that I
18:06
Speaker 1: want at the end of this movie, I want people
18:09
Speaker 1: to feel I want people to start having conversations. That's
18:11
Speaker 1: where it starts. I want people to go home and think,
18:14
Speaker 1: you know, um. I want people to feel like what
18:19
Speaker 1: they what can they do? I think one of the
18:22
Speaker 1: major issues with with with criminal justice is people feel
18:27
Speaker 1: like the issue is so big that what could little
18:29
Speaker 1: load me do to affect this big thing? And it's
18:31
Speaker 1: paralyzing so they do nothing. And and I feel like,
18:36
Speaker 1: if you can identify with the thing that that makes
18:39
Speaker 1: you tick, that that bothers you, that that that that
18:41
Speaker 1: you want to go out and be a part of
18:43
Speaker 1: the solution. Go to eji dot org. There's a list
18:46
Speaker 1: of actionable things that you could actually do to start
18:48
Speaker 1: being a part of the actual change. Vote you feel me,
18:52
Speaker 1: I write that, you know our ancestors, you know died
18:54
Speaker 1: and went through all the ship forward is to vote,
18:56
Speaker 1: you know, find out what judges are where, what what
18:59
Speaker 1: policies being put in place? What? How can you vote
19:02
Speaker 1: on things that's going to directly affect your situation, in
19:05
Speaker 1: your in your circumstances. You know, those are those are
19:08
Speaker 1: the basic things that we just tend to ignore. So
19:11
Speaker 1: I want people to feel like they're not too small,
19:15
Speaker 1: that that they could be a part of the solution,
19:17
Speaker 1: that they could stand on the right side of history.
19:19
Speaker 1: After leaving and watching this movie, Bree, when you see
19:22
Speaker 1: stories like this, how does it make you personally feel
19:24
Speaker 1: as a as a yeah, as the white person in America?
19:27
Speaker 1: When you see stories like this, how does it make
19:29
Speaker 1: you feel? Thank you for the question? What is that funny?
19:38
Speaker 1: I really everybody white, no, no, no, no no, about that
19:47
Speaker 1: they just don't know breathe. They don't know breathe that well,
19:50
Speaker 1: they just don't breath. I mean, I mean everybody else
19:55
Speaker 1: building I think I just let the air of the
19:57
Speaker 1: room for it. I think a we can talk about
20:01
Speaker 1: that whiteness. You did went over there, I appear to
20:03
Speaker 1: be white. Um, I wait, I got time to speak
20:10
Speaker 1: on that whiteness. Oh man, white man speak on the
20:14
Speaker 1: white mansk. Thank you. I know what you meant, though
20:21
Speaker 1: I don't know I know what you mean. I'm just
20:22
Speaker 1: I'm just letting them. I'm letting them go because they
20:25
Speaker 1: held her breath, the whiteness all trying to catch a
20:32
Speaker 1: moment right, Charlotte Mane talks about whiteness. What you know
20:39
Speaker 1: what I mean? I know exactly. You don't have to
20:41
Speaker 1: end the Boys in the Hood with the boys that
20:43
Speaker 1: either they don't know exactly don't show. I don't care
20:47
Speaker 1: about what's going on. I wonder how much did they exactly.
20:52
Speaker 1: I'm just didn't happen. Um. Well, I mean the truth is,
20:59
Speaker 1: I'm so open, you know, and I'm I'm so open
21:02
Speaker 1: to learning about to learning more and to listening. And
21:07
Speaker 1: I learned so much on this movie and I will
21:09
Speaker 1: keep learning and so to hear these stories. It's hard.
21:15
Speaker 1: It's very hard. And I feel helpless too at times.
21:20
Speaker 1: And I know that I'm not doing enough too, and
21:22
Speaker 1: I also try really hard. So for me, it's about
21:27
Speaker 1: keeping my eyes open and keeping softness in myself because
21:31
Speaker 1: getting hard doesn't really help anybody, I don't think, and
21:35
Speaker 1: being available every step of the way. So it's doing
21:38
Speaker 1: things like this, making myself available to films like this,
21:42
Speaker 1: and it's activism outside of it that you may hear
21:44
Speaker 1: about you may not, but yeah, that's just me. And
21:47
Speaker 1: I did appreciate the question, by the way, Yeah, that
21:51
Speaker 1: was a great affort. Your publicis somewhere like. But I'll
21:58
Speaker 1: tell you what one does go a long way. The
22:01
Speaker 1: fact that she's a part of the filming, the fact
22:03
Speaker 1: that people can see it and feel included, and the
22:06
Speaker 1: fact that all the people on the stage were conscious
22:09
Speaker 1: about making sure that this movie was open to everybody.
22:13
Speaker 1: Michael B. Brian, We constantly destined, our director constantly made
22:20
Speaker 1: sure that there were things that we did so we
22:22
Speaker 1: can open it up. This movie tested a ninety seven
22:26
Speaker 1: in front of an all black audience, but then it
22:29
Speaker 1: tested in front of a all white audience, and I
22:32
Speaker 1: was like, man, what did they say? It tested in
22:34
Speaker 1: ninety eight. So it lets you know that your your
22:38
Speaker 1: question is absolutely pointed. It absolutely needs to be said,
22:43
Speaker 1: because I think in the movie what was brilliant is
22:47
Speaker 1: that when you did see the white characters, like the
22:49
Speaker 1: correctional officer, he had contrition. He knew that this was wrong.
22:53
Speaker 1: So you can see it on his face. That moment
22:55
Speaker 1: gives the people that are white in the audience who
22:57
Speaker 1: feel the way he feels, a chance to get into it.
23:00
Speaker 1: Also with the prosecuting attorney, you can see him stewing
23:05
Speaker 1: and toiling with this decision that's going to ruin this
23:07
Speaker 1: man's life. So I think by the movie, doing that
23:12
Speaker 1: brings everybody into it, makes it makes it a human
23:16
Speaker 1: a human condition of what we have to eradicate. If
23:21
Speaker 1: that means Ryan, I want to close with this. Michael
23:25
Speaker 1: bought it up earlier. But what are the big and
23:28
Speaker 1: small things we can do to help support a world
23:30
Speaker 1: with more Bryan's these? Well, thank you, I mean for me.
23:35
Speaker 1: We've gotten into this mess because we've allowed ourselves to
23:38
Speaker 1: be governed by the politics of fear and anger. In
23:41
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies and eighties, we had politicians that said
23:43
Speaker 1: that people who are drug addicted and drug dependent, those
23:46
Speaker 1: people are criminals. We're going to use the criminal justice
23:48
Speaker 1: system to respond to them. We shouldn't have made that choice.
23:50
Speaker 1: We should have said that people with addiction and dependency
23:53
Speaker 1: have a health problem. We need our healthcare system to respond.
23:56
Speaker 1: So we have to change the frame in this country,
23:59
Speaker 1: and we have to the politics of fear and anger.
24:01
Speaker 1: Fear and anger are the essential ingredients that contribute to
24:05
Speaker 1: injustice and oppression. Walter McMillan was convicted in this community
24:09
Speaker 1: because people were being shaped by fear and anger and
24:12
Speaker 1: they tolerated things they shouldn't tolerate, the accepted things they
24:15
Speaker 1: shouldn't accept. And I just hope people who see this
24:17
Speaker 1: film are motivated to push past the fear, push past
24:21
Speaker 1: the anger, and actually do the things that justice requires.
24:26
Speaker 1: We will have on our site a whole catalog of
24:28
Speaker 1: opportunities for people to get involved. There are hundreds of
24:31
Speaker 1: organizations around the country that are looking for volunteers to
24:34
Speaker 1: work with the thousands of people who come out of
24:35
Speaker 1: jails and prisons every month who need help. There are
24:38
Speaker 1: people that are doing campaigns. We need bail reform in
24:41
Speaker 1: this country. We put people in prison because they're poor,
24:44
Speaker 1: and we keep them there. We need accountability from police
24:48
Speaker 1: officers and prosecutors and judges and we've got to change that.
24:51
Speaker 1: I want everybody who sees this film to be motivated
24:54
Speaker 1: to learn who the prosecutor is in the community where
24:56
Speaker 1: they live. Most people don't know who their prosecutor is.
25:00
Speaker 1: And there are people who exploit that by doing all
25:03
Speaker 1: kinds of really horrific things, but they're never had accountable
25:06
Speaker 1: because we don't even know who they are. And that
25:08
Speaker 1: kind of education can be powerful. I hope people will
25:11
Speaker 1: see the film and come to Montgomery. We've opened a museum,
25:14
Speaker 1: we've opened a memorial. It's a place where we're trying
25:16
Speaker 1: to tell the truth about this history of racial inequality.
25:19
Speaker 1: It's a challenging place, but it's a necessary place. And finally,
25:23
Speaker 1: I hope people will come to the understanding that we've
25:25
Speaker 1: got to do better as people who care about other people.
25:28
Speaker 1: There's an absence of compassion and mercy in the policy
25:31
Speaker 1: debates that we see happening around us. There is, and
25:34
Speaker 1: when we allow ourselves to be disconnected from mercy and compassion,
25:38
Speaker 1: we do terrible things to one another. We don't send
25:41
Speaker 1: crimes to prison. We send people to prison, and when
25:44
Speaker 1: we forget that we're sending people, we do abusive things.
25:47
Speaker 1: And I just believe that a community that comes together
25:50
Speaker 1: and starts demanding more hope and more mercy and more
25:54
Speaker 1: justice is a community that actually begins to move toward
25:58
Speaker 1: the kind of community that I think all of us
26:00
Speaker 1: want to live in. We want to live in a
26:01
Speaker 1: place that's healthy, where no one is prejudged and treated unfairly.
26:05
Speaker 1: But to get there, we're gonna have to make some changes,
26:08
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping this film inspires people to engage in
26:10
Speaker 1: the kind of day to day living that those changes require.
26:14
Speaker 1: And I'm so I just have to say how grateful
26:17
Speaker 1: I am to Michael, and to Brie and to Jamie
26:20
Speaker 1: and the entire cast and to Destined. For me, watching
26:23
Speaker 1: the film and seeing the humanity and the dignity of
26:26
Speaker 1: my clients presented in such a powerful, thoughtful, kind way
26:30
Speaker 1: was incredibly moving. And my community, the people of who
26:35
Speaker 1: are on death row, the poor, the accused, the condemned,
26:39
Speaker 1: are so excited to finally be acknowledge, to be seen,
26:43
Speaker 1: to be recognized, and to have their struggle for justice
26:47
Speaker 1: to be portrayed with such care and compassion. It's a
26:49
Speaker 1: great gift to all of us that are trying to
26:51
Speaker 1: do human rights work in this country, and I'm enormously grateful.
26:55
Speaker 1: I know, I think that was the last question, but
26:58
Speaker 1: one wolf might have been joyed. This is a movie
27:01
Speaker 1: about a hope. So what what what do you want
27:04
Speaker 1: that hope to be for the people? What is that hope?
27:07
Speaker 1: M hmm, I want the hope to be m hm.
27:16
Speaker 1: That's a great question that I feel like within solidarity,
27:23
Speaker 1: if you get enough people, that was an extra timing
27:26
Speaker 1: all that awesome, I feel, and a black man get
27:36
Speaker 1: his thoughts together, he just starts talking. Jesus, I feel.
27:43
Speaker 1: I feel. I feel like with enough solidarity, with enough
27:47
Speaker 1: uh unification amongst people. I think the numbers of people
27:52
Speaker 1: talking about the same thing, that care about the same thing,
27:54
Speaker 1: you be able to demand the answers from broken systems.
27:57
Speaker 1: You know. I feel like if you get enough of us,
28:03
Speaker 1: the internet is a powerful thing. You know, we cancel
28:05
Speaker 1: things all the time. You know, you get it. Behind
28:06
Speaker 1: the movement, you actually can see some things start to
28:08
Speaker 1: actually change, from big you know, blue collar corporations to
28:12
Speaker 1: you know, to getting people released from from jail. Um.
28:16
Speaker 1: You can you can get some movement done if we
28:17
Speaker 1: all get together and push one narrative from something that
28:20
Speaker 1: we really care about I feel like we can really
28:21
Speaker 1: make some real change. So I think from watching this movement,
28:24
Speaker 1: I really want people I said it before, to to
28:27
Speaker 1: feel like your words matter, the things that you say matter,
28:32
Speaker 1: your vote matters, that you can get out and actually
28:35
Speaker 1: be a part of the change. It just don't sit
28:36
Speaker 1: back and do nothing, because if you sit back and
28:39
Speaker 1: do nothing, it helps No. Him makes me like Bryan
28:42
Speaker 1: Stevens and Jamie five Free Boston and Michael B. Jordan. J.
28:46
Speaker 1: Murphy comes out limited relief on Christmas Day and wide
28:50
Speaker 1: relief on January tenth to make sure y'all do support
28:53
Speaker 1: that I