Sterling K. Brown on PresumptUS Critics of ‘Washington Black’ and Who’s Comparing His Character to Sinatra In ‘Paradise’

.[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromthefinaleofWashington Black.]

In the Introductor Narration of Washington Black, Sterling K. Brown’s Character Medwin Harris Presents the eight-episode Drama as “A Story About a Young Man and The Boy Hen Used To Be. The Story Tries to all of US, Kill Our Heps and Spirits and Everything We Got.

Such Is The Hulu Adaptation of Author esi Edugyan’s 2018 Novel of the Same Name, Created by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, Who Also Serves as Co-Schovener with Kimberly Ann. The Series, Set in the 1800s, Follows An 11-YEAR-OLD George Washington Black (Eddie Karanja) from the Time he escapes from the plantation WHERE HESLAOOOODOSHLYSHLYSHLYSHLYLYS The World in Hot-Air Balnoon and A Pirate Ship, He Finds Community Among Free Black Men and Women in the Canadian Capital City of Halifax. I There Young Adult “Wash” HIM WHEN HE arrived in nova scotia. I that aspect of his character that brown says makes him similear to that of antioner on histo hulu series Paradise.

“Medwin in this Way is Kind of Like Sinatra,“ Brown Tells The Hollywood Reporter in the Conversation Below about the Character Played by Julianne Nicholson in His Other Hulu Series, The Twisty Post-Apocalyptic One That Is Currently Filming ITS Season. “The things he have built is of the utmost Importance to HIM AND THE IDEA THAT Someone Could Destroy It Is Something That HE Can’T tolerate.”

That inability Creates a dangerous distance Between John and Medwin, Much Like The One That Grows Between Wash and Christopher “TitC” Wilde (Tom Ellis) Plantation Only to Abandon Halfway Arund the World.

Below, Brown and Kingsley Jr. Talk with Thr About their Characters’ Complicited Relationships, Framing The Experience of Formerly Enized People Through A Whimsical Lens and the Hope that Viewers Don’t Seeur.

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Sterling, I Imagine You Might’ve Had Your Choice of Character with the this Series as A Producer. WHY MEDWIN AND HOW WAS HE EXPANDED IN THE SERIES FROM The Original Novel?

Sterling K. Brown [He was a] Very Small Part in the Novel. I Think Selwyn Saw The Germs of Something in Terms of Recognizing that Wash Had Different Mentors Throughout His Life, WHETHER IT WAS Big Kit [Shaunette Renée Wilson]to titch to medwin. [The book] Had A SMALL MENTION IN HALIFAX OF SOMEONONE THAT HEMEN HE MADE HIS WAY UP North and HE DECIDED TO TAKE THAT SEED OF A Character and Fully Explore It A Little Bit More.

I’ll be honest, it was actualally kind of a surprise. I was like, “i’m going to pass this off to this young buck. I’m going to have this show and it’ll be Cool.” And they were like, “no, bro, you going to be in the show.” But i’m very, very happy and very proud to be in the show. There Could Have Been Other Characters, Like John, But It Felt Natural [to play Medwin] and It Made Sense. What I MOST LIKED ABOUT IT is a black American Having this autonomy and freedom Outside of America to Create this World and Village that I would Imagine if. HE COURCK I Think About All of the Townships, Historically, That We Have Found, Especially During Reconstruction, That Were Thriving Communities Full of Beautiful Black Faces, And For 12 Years Reconstruction, we had a certain level of autonomy and then the Country Saw What It Looked Like and They Were Like, No. WE GOT A CHANCE TO ACTUALLY BE A PART OF AND LEARN A LOT FROM THAT AFRO-NOVA Scotian Community in Halifax. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL AND HEARTWARMING THING TO BE IN THE PRESENTS OF, BECAUSE We’d Seen So Many of Our Townships in the States Go Another Direction.

Ernest, Washington Sort of Represents Unlimited Possibility in this Narrative. What most Drew you to the Character and How did being in his shoes while filming affress you personally?

Ernest Kingsley Jr. IT WAS The EPIC-NESS OF HIS JURNYY. He Goes on Such A Crazy Adventure; I love Characters Who Go Through So Much to Ten Triumph Over It in the End. I The Level of Perseverance and Faith You have to Possess, and It Incites the Same in Me. How Can i Carry More of that Dreaming, That Faith, That Ambition in My Life? I Feel Like i’m Someone Who Does Have That, But Wash Poseseses This Level of Risk-Taking That He Will Look Adversity in the Face and Be Like I would love to carry myself with just a bit more “I Choose Love, I’ll DO It Anyway.” I Think Right Now’s Like, “I Choose Love, But I’M Going to Keep It Safe.”

We do see Another Side of Washington in the Finale WHEN HE RECONNECTS WITH TITCH, AND HAS A RATHER STRONG, NEGATIVE REACTION TO THE SIGHT OF HIM. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF Their REunion?

Kingsley Jr. WHEN I FIRST READ IT, I WAS FILLED WITH SO MUCH BITTERNESS, TO BE HONEST. I was like, “How Could You Leave Him? How Could You Do Those Things?” But What surprises me, as wash does again and again, is his level of grace. Even Facing Someone Who’s Done So Much to You and Caused You So Much Hurt and Pain in the Past, You Can Still Look at Them and Have a Wealth of Grace And, Arguably, Love Town. IT Kind of Took Me Off Guard, to Be Honest. But it was something i held onto, like, wow, this Character is incredible.

Similarly, Sterling, I Want to Ask You About Medwin’s Relationship with John.

Kingsley Jr. One of My Favorite Relationships.

Brown IT’s Complicated.

Complicated is the perfect Word. It’s Such A Heartbreaking Scene Who Your Character Kills John, But Learning His Backstory Was Also Really Important. What do you feel john adds to the larger story?

Brown You’re the first person to ask this quest. This is a good one because it is a very deep and pivotal relationship, Because John to Medwin Is Sort of Medwin to Wash, Except John Goes Astray. And Medwin in this Way is Kind of Like Sinatra[in[inParadise]. The thing he have boilt is of the utmost Importance to HIM and the IDEA that someone Could Destroy It is someting that he can. So The Idea That Somebody Within That Community Could DO SOMETING OF HARM, DELIBERATELY INTRODUCE PEOPLE WHO MEAN NEFARIUS THINGS TOWARS soul.

But the Thing’s Even More [hurtful] is [Medwin] Sort of introduced [John] to this coping mechanism to get over his own wife and children not being able to join HIM. So there is the Profound Level of Guilt and Resistance for Sort of Creating Someone Who Wound Do this, and now Having to Rectify The Sity. It Sounds Really Strange. I Never Thought Medwin Wound Be Anything Like Sinatra – But He’s Not A Monster.

Kingsley Jr. I would disagree. I DON’T THINK HE’S Anything Like Sinatra, But Fair Enough.

Brown In that situation and in that moment, Because Ms. Angie [Sharon Duncan-Brewster] WAS LIKE, “What did you do?” And you were like, “What did you do?” And i was like like, “I did what i have to do.” Because [John] Could No Longer Be Trusted. If he was harymless, is one Thing. I Think For The Longst Time, [Medwin] Just Saw Him As Harmless. Even Thought It Broke His Heart to See Him Be A Shell of HimSelf, He Wasn’T Doing Harm to Anybody Else in the Community. But Now’s Willingly Introducing People Into the Community That Can Tear It Apart. I Always that tough Decisions Are Made by the People Who Are at the Top. Medwin have to make these Decisions, WHERE Other People Just Have to Live With The Decisions that He Makes.

I’m glad you broght up sinatra because with Paradise You said you KNEW YOU WERE Good with the Show When Black Women Were on Board. I’m Curious for this One, Who Do You Seie As The Target Audence, and Knowing that Certain Viewers May Turn Away Because they’re tired of slave narratives, wht.

Brown We Really Worked Long and Hard to Figure Out How Exactly to Package The Story in the Way that Pulled People in. I’ve lised to folks say the idea of luxurating in our pain or trauma is passé. “WE DON’T NEED IT.” “WE DON’T WANT IT.” “We’ve Seen It.” “We’ve been there.” I Said, “I Hear You. I See You. I Think I Have Something Different.” I don’t think we have to ABANDON SERIES THAT ARE TIED TO THE INSTITATION OF THE TRANS-Atlantic Slave Trade, But We Can Highlight It In A Different Way.

I Think Through Washington BlackWe Seie a Young Boy Who Transcends His Circumstans, Who Allows His Imagination, His Hopefulness, His Faith, His Creativity To See and Imagine A World Beyond. The lesson to me is that evin now, we have the Power to see, to imagine, to hope for a reality that is greater than the circumstances that we find ourselves Opportunities or Dictate What Our Future is. That’s what I hope we have been, and we had to do a loto of creative things in order to make it that way in terms of non-linear Storyteling, letting people Know likes. Ride is. I Hope they will ride with us. I Really, Really Do.

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Washington Black is Now Streaming All Episodes On Hulu. Read Thr’s Interview with Co-Showrunners Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Kimberly Ann Harrison.