Dinner with Russell Hornsby - The Hate You Give

Russell Hornsby (“The Hate U Give”) with award-winning, Indian playwright Rahul Tiwari, Ocean Prime, in New York City. Feb. 12, 2019 Photo credit, Lapacazo Sandoval

“It’s colder than a pimp’s heart out there,” bellowed actor Russell Hornsby, as he entered the private dining room of New York’s chic restaurant, Ocean Prime to chop it up with a very small, select group of journalists to share light on his role, as Maverick ‘May’ Carter  in director George Tillman Jr’s, “The Hate U Give” which also stars Amandla Stenberg, now available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

It was an enchanting evening …

The dinner invitation to meet Hornsby was extended by 20th Century Fox Studios and the attentive staff at Ocean Prime filled the massive dining table with food, fine wine, and exotic cocktails. In short order, the evening morphed into a comfortable exchange making it feel more like “fam” was being schooled by a seasoned and respected member of an elite clan of like-minded storytellers.

Here’s where it gets very interesting because in discovering Hornsby what I noticed first (happily) is that he’s unapologetically Black (recognize),  brimming with passion for his profession, acting, and unafraid to share details about the dark moments of his climb to fame. From where he’s standing now, it’s hard to believe that he had moments of doubt, but he confessed:  “I thought this might never happen” sharing more with me, in a tone much lower than he used to field questions from across the massive dining room table— ”It was my wife,” Hornsby said in a tender, hoarse tone. “She’s my ride-or-die.”

There are moments …

Now that I have spent some quality time with Hornsby, I won’t use the word “fan” to describe my admiration for his work. Rather, I will lean on the word respect. Respect for his process of finding the soul of his characters and honoring his theater roots and the powerful connection he has with the work of the late, great playwright August Wilson.

Hornsby is always at the ready …

Toward the end of the dinner, he turned his body toward me—forcing the person seated between us to slide forward (and stay there) and he dropped, ever so cool,  into a monologue from “King Hendley 11,”  the ninth play in August Wilson’s ten-play cycle that, decade by decade, examines African American life in the United States during the twentieth century.  Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985, the play tells the story of an ex-con in Pittsburgh trying to rebuild his life.

Hornsby’s eyes never left ours and although there were other colleagues in the room at the time, his performance was done, just for us.

Here are edited excerpts from my shared evening with thespian Russell Hornsby.

MyNewYorkEye:  Did you just say ‘it’s colder than a pimps’ heart’? I’ve never heard that expression.

RUSSELL HORNSBY: Clearly, you’re not from Oakland [California]. That’s where I grew up. Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) and me went to the same high school, miles apart which is cool.

MNYE: Looking back do you remember your first thoughts on reading the screenplay for

“The Hate U Give?”

RH: Great question.  Well, I knew it had the potential to really make a dramatic impact, a deep impact, a social impact. Understand, just a visceral impact if it was done authentically and honestly, and that’s what George [Tillman] did.

MNYE: You’re a father of two, small sons.  That must be challenging balancing being a working actor and a father.

RH:  First of all to be truthful and this is very real, I picked the right mate. And, I’m not saying that to ‘say it’ it’s real. I have a ride-or-die wife. We’ve been married for ten [years], but we’ve been together for 15 [years]. And so, my wife in her vows said that ‘I will do whatever it takes to be supportive of you.’

MNYE: Russell, wait … I think I’m going to cry.

RH: I’m on the verge of tears myself and my wife, she’s held [to her vows] to that! She’s had my back the whole way. Do you know what I mean? And so what it really challenged me to do is to grow up! You know what I’m saying, on some real stuff. It didn’t take me long to realize that she’s given me a leg, a real opportunity to do what I need to do, and to be successful.

MNYE: That’s powerful. Thank you for sharing that.  Question, along the way, did you ever get a piece of advice that struck and stuck with you?

RH: Yes. Years ago a friend and mentor told me, when I was 30, that I had to put life first and I think when you choose to put life first, the balancing act comes easy because the choices and decisions that you make are in support of your union and your family.  I’m really trying to walk in accordance with that. I’ve been blessed.

MNYE: You’re the type of man that keeps it 100%!

RH: Exactly. I’m the type of cat that keeps it 100!

MNYE: Let’s discuss the character that you play, Maverick. A stretch to find him?

RH: Not at all!  I know him. You know him. Maverick exists in my community; I grew up seeing Mavericks, the character jumped off of the page and hit me; it was real and three-dimensional, which you don’t see.

MNYE: So the layers all the conflict that make him so powerful were there, on the written page?

RH: Absolutely on the page.  Listen, we’re talking about a complicated man who has conflict—outer conflict, inner conflict. He’s desperately looking for ways to resolve it. Right?  Maverick is an ex-con, a store owner; he’s a father and a husband. This is real life stuff. Regular people, stuff, how does one go about navigating their way through that mire?

MNYE: Real people are often the most challenging to bring to life, on the big screen. Do you agree?

RH: Hell yes, I agree and because of that, it presented a wonderful challenge, to be honest with you, keeping it 100, that’s the kind of challenge, as an actor, that I want to take on. It’s good to be a little nervous, but in the end, you just dive in.

MNYE: Got it. You dive in.  How did you, the actor find a sense of the reality of this character?

RH: As an actor, I do my research. I read the news, books, and I listen. I create a character’s backstory.  The saying goes, [that] you can’t lie in life, and tell the truth on stage. The character has to be a representative of who you are. I tell people, all the time, that there are very few, true chameleons in the business. So then every character that you portray is a representative of who you are at this point in your career.

I know Maverick. I know how he talks. How he walks.  I understand who he was, who he is now, whom he wants to be.

Russell Hornsby (“The Hate U Give”) at a special dinner held at, Ocean Prime, in New York City. Feb. 12, 2019

MNYE: You are a father of two, small boys.  What do you think of him as a father?

RH:  Maverick is an exceptional father.  There are men who get down. Who go to work every day, come home, feed their kids. He encourages his daughter to use her voice, however difficult it might be to do so.  He’s like an old school throwback.

MNYE: Who encouraged you? You mentioned that you were raised by a single mother.

RH: Good question. Let me think. I can’t narrow it down to one person. As you mentioned my mother raised me.  I was raised without a father, so many men that I encountered in my life helped raise me. Coaches, the football coaches, the soccer coaches and then the men you see in the street, around you. You know, as I get older and I reflect back and think, wait, maybe Maverick may have been a drug dealer, and you begin to realize the dimensions that people have, and that people take on, and the humanity that they possess.

MNYE: That was insightful.  Let me ask you if you could do anything for the big screen, what would it be?

RH: Any and all of August Wilson.  My favorite is ‘King Hendley 11.’  He says:

‘I don’t know about you and Leroy but Pernell made me kill him. Pernell called me champ, I told him my name is King.  He said, yeah champ. I go on. I don’t say nothin. I told myself, he don’t know. He don’t know my daddy killed a man for calling him out his name. He don’t know, he’s fucking with King Hendley, the second. I got the atomic bomb as far as he’s concerned and I got to use it.  Now, they say that GOD looks after fools and drunks. I use to think that was true but seeing how he was both, I didn’t know anymore. He called me champ but I didn’t say nothin. I put him on probation. I told myself, he don’t know but I’m gonna give him a chance to figure it out. He come back and say he’s sorry I’ll let him live. I’m gonna fuck him up. I’m gonna bust both his knee caps but I’ll let him live. Saturday. I don’t know why it’s always on a Saturday.

MNYE: OMG, that was amazing. Thank you.

RH: You’re welcome!

“The Hate U Give” now available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-hate-u-give

“Last Flag Flying” (3/4), in select theaters

“War is the worst act of terrorism and among the greatest causes of human suffering and death and ecological degradation. Wars are declared by the rich and fought by the poor. There will be no real justice and protection of human rights and the rights of nature until a sustainable global peace has been achieved.” This quote by Brian J. Trautman is a warning, and one that I pray will be absorbed, understood and acted upon, one can hope…..

Richard Linklater’s new film “Last Flag Flying,” which opened the New York Film Festival 2017, cleverly blends a buddy comedy road movie into its rightful place which is a home-front war drama.  There is side-splitting laughter to be sure with brilliant performances by  Steve Carell,  Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston but the film is also somber as it looks—closely—at the stupidity and brutality of war. 

There is an ongoing conversation about “why” war drawing parallels between Vietnam and Iraq and scratching down to the big questions, such as what is the nature of truth and heroism.

An Amazon/Lionsgate release of a screenplay that took twenty long years to get made. The journey of this particular incarnation of the story began in 2005 with novelist and co-screenwriter Darry Ponicsan a direct sequel to the author's debut, The Last Detail. 

The story is set on 2003 inside Sal's Bar & Grill (the "Grill" part went by the wayside) an empty Virginia local bar loosely run by Sal (Bryan Cranston) an ex-Marine. When an ex-Navy man Larry Shepherd (Carell), whom he remembers from their Vietnam days as Doc, wanders in out of the rain, the heart of the story starts to beat. 

It’s clear that the rain-soaked Doc is hurting but he doesn’t tell anything asking Sal to drive him to a surprise location, which turns out to be at a vibrant Baptist church, where the third member of their trio from 30 years earlier, "Mueller the Mauler," is now the Reverend Richard (Fishburne), preaching to his Sunday congregation.

After a traditional African-American, Southern Sunday dinner with Richard and his supportive wife Ruth (Deanna Reed-Foster), Doc reveals the real purpose of tracking down his two estranged Marine buddies. Doc's son Larry Jr., a 21-year-old Marine, was just killed in Baghdad, and his body is being flown home for a hero's burial at Arlington Cemetery. Having recently lost his wife to cancer, Doc asks them to accompany him for emotional support. The circumstances around Larry Jr.'s death are not as reported, causing Doc to refuse a military burial and insist on transporting his son's body back home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to be buried alongside his mother. 

On the journey is Larry Jr.'s close friend Lance Corp. Washington (J. Quinton Johnson) assigned as the trio's official Marine escort, and the heart of the story opens, wider

There is a brotherhood re-forming.  And in an effort to heal their aching souls, the three war veterans make a detour to pay a long overdue call to the elderly mother (Cicely Tyson) of another buddy from their extended tour in Vietnam, whose death has weighed heavily on the three men over the decades. 

The visit has an amazing surprise which helps to amplify the emotional impact of the film.  

The acting is first-rate, starting with Carell's subdued performance as soft-spoken Doc, a man whose life is filled with disappointment and hurt yet, he remains a human with great integrity. Fishburne is on point and commanding as a man of the cloth whose wild past seemed to be buried but arises on the trip in the most amusing ways. Cranston's character is wonderfully complicated—paradoxical even—charmingly and abrasive. 

Although the critics might enjoy picking this film down to the bone, it’s the audiences that will find and embrace the joy of “Last Flag Flying.” 

Last Flag Flying - Official US Trailer - Former Navy Corps medic Richard "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) re-unites with ex-Marines Sal (Bryan Cranston) and Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) on a different type of mission.

“Last Flag Flying” now playing.  Originally reviewed as part of the NYFF 55 Film Festival. 

Jaden Michael is wonderful in Todd Haynes new film, “Wonderstruck”

Actor Jaden Michael plays Jamie, a young boy helping Ben (Oakes Fegley) find his father in
New York City circa 1977 in director Todd Haynes’s terrific new film “Wonderstruck”.
The film made its New York debut at NYFF55 and will open—in select theaters—on October 20.

Already the Oscar buzz is swirling around this charming film and Haynes is back with his past muse Julianne Moore. This film is based on Brian Selznick’s trailblazing debut novel, The
Invention of Hugo Cabret.

“Wonderstruck” it is about a young boy named Ben who longs for the father he has never
known. Set in two different time periods, the film It is also about a girl named Rose, who dreams
of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a
puzzling clue in his mother's room, and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Ben's story is set in 1977 and is told entirely in words, while Rose's story, set fifty years earlier, is told entirely with pictures. The two stories weave back and forth before ultimately coming together. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful–with over 460 pages of original
artwork–Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.
Actor Jaden Michael plays Jamie, an Afro-Latino New York City kid who helps Ben (Oakes
Fegley) navigate the city after he runs away from home. He’s scared, alone, penniless and deaf
a recent event that occurred during a freak thunderstorm.

Young Michael has been acting since he was three years old, appearing in several programs
produced by Nick Jr. and Sesame Street. He’s also lent his unique voice playing
Baby Jaguar in “Dora the Explorer.” He has also appeared in the role of David Diaz in the
feature film "Custody" with Viola Davis and Ellen Burstyn. He also took audiences and critics by surprise playing the role of the young gangster Rafe in "The Get Down”.

Here’s what Jaden Michael has to share about his role in Todd Haynes’s “Wonderstruck”.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your character. He’s an Afro-Latino kid, right?
Jaden Michael: Correct, I play Jamie. His parents are divorced. He lives with his father, in NEw
York City, in the summers. His dad works at the Museum of Natural History and that’s where he
meets Ben (Oakes Fegley) and helps him out with his journey.

Q: Any challenges working on the set?
A: It was easy going. Everyone on set was so close, it was easy going. We bonded so well. It
was like family.

Q: How did you prepare to play a kid of the late ’70’s? The “Get Down” in which you also
played a significant character was
A: I understood what was happening in that time period. You also had a significant role in
“The Get Down” and that musical drama was also set in the 1970s.
(laughing)
Well playing a gangster is much different than my role as Jamie but I actually did my research
on this film [Wonderstruck] as well and I decided to find out more about the culture. I’ve always
thought that if you listen to music it’s easier to find a character. I like listening to music because
it defines who I am. It makes me special….not that kind of special..(jokingly). And so in order for
me to get into my character, I like to listen to music from that time period, if the story is set in
another era. Or if I think this is something the character might listen to. While I was getting my
hair and makeup done, I liked to listen to a lot of 70’s rock and some David Bowie, and other
people like Fleetwood Mac and Denise Williams’s “Free would always kind of click with me
(snapping his fingers).

Wonderstruck - Trailer - Based on Brian Selznick's critically acclaimed novel Ben and Rose are children from two different eras who secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known, while Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook.

“Wonderstruck” directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay was written by Brian Selznick, based
on his book. Stars Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and
Jaden Michael.

“Superheroes at the beginning, always break the rules because the rules are not just, that’s why Thurgood Marshall is a superhero”—Director and PGA member, Reginald Hudlin

Thurgood Marshall said it elegantly and honesty, when he said that “sometimes history takes things into its own hands.” The more brutal assessment is that history is told by the victors not the victims so the truth is rarely part of what really happened and therefore history is a flimsy and mostly, false. In the new film “Marshall” director Reginald Hudlin takes the audience back to 1940, long before he sat on the US Supreme Court or claimed victory in Brown v. Board of Education Here, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) is a young rabble-rousing attorney for the NAACP. The tightly directed film explores one his greatest challenges in those early days: the case of black chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), accused by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), of sexual assault and attempted murder. While most of Marshall's work is in the south, the Spell case lands him in the wealthy white enclaves of Connecticut, where racism is never far from the surface. Angry picketers and tabloid headlines scream for Spell's conviction as black servants are fired by their fearful white employers.

Marshall's attempt to fight for his client is stymied by Judge Colin Foster (James Cromwell), who
allows him to attend the trial, but not speak. This leaves the defense in the shaky hands of Samuel
Friedman (Josh Gad), who has no interest in trying this case. Local prosecutor Lorin Willis (Dan Stevens) senses an easy victory.

Marshall and Friedman struggle against fear and prejudice -- and each other -- as they unravel
the twisted tale to its shocking conclusion, with their client's life hanging in the balance. Largely forgotten by history, The State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell helped lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement to come and informed the legal doctrine of one of America's greatest jurists. 

“Marshall” stars Chadwick Boseman (“42”), Josh Gad ("Book of Mormon"), Kate Hudson (“Deepwater Horizon”), Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot), and James Cromwell ( The Green Mile, LA Confidential). Hudlin also serves as producer with Paula Wagner (“Mission Impossible”) and Jonathan Sanger. Chadwick Boseman is co-producer.

Here is a brief excerpt from an interview with Marshall's; director/producer Reginald Hudlin.

Q: Why do you call Thurgood Marshall a superhero.

Reginald Hudlin: Thurgood Marshall is not just a civil rights activist, he's a freedom fighter. He’s a superhero. All Superheroes at the beginning [always ] break the rules because the rules are not just that’s why Thurgood Marshall is a superhero.

Q: What made you say yes to directing this film?
RH: Well, I was not interested in making a classic cradle to the grave biopic. True Marshall is one of the greatest lawyers in the history of America but “Marshall” is also a legal thriller which gives an insight into who we are today by looking at our history.

Q: Not many people know this case but the subsequent trial of Joseph Spell in Connecticut was
anything but routine.
RH: Exactly. In 1940, Connecticut socialite Eleanor Strubing was found wandering down a road. and she claims she was sexually assaulted and almost murdered by her chauffeur [JOSEPH SPELL] . The case is shocking and sensational and if it happened today, it would be all over TMZ
Newspapers printed every graphic detail of the alleged crime, all of them filtered through race. Joseph Spell was often referred to as "the colored servant" or "the Negro chauffeur's in press coverage, perpetuating a "black v. white" narrative that hinted at an unspoken truth in Connecticut: racism in America was not confined to the southern states.

Q: Legendary songwriter Diane Warren wrote a song especially for this film titled "Stand Up for Something". How did that happen?
RH: I was producing the 88th Annual Academy Awards. Warren had been nominated for 'Til it Happens to You, a song she co-wrote with Lady Gaga for the film “The Hunting Ground.” She heard through the grapevine that I was directing “Marshall” and she wrote Stand Up for Something and she infused the song with the rolling blues rhythm and activist message of a Civil Rights-era anthem. Then she asked R&B singer Andra Day and rapper Common to participate, and they said yes.

Long before he sat on the United States Supreme Court or claimed victory in Brown v. Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was a young rabble-rousing attorney for the NAACP.

“Marshall” opens October 13.