OSCARs Exclusive: ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ Director Barry Jenkins On Race, Representation And Manifestation
JB: One thing about ‘Beale Street,’ there’s so much there that there is something almost everyone can relate to, would you agree?
BJ: It’s what you bring to the material for sure. I’m just trying to do justice to the material always. The reason why I say that is because there is a sharp distinction between what I’m doing in my work and what Ava is doing with “Queen Sugar.” That should be celebrated, shouted to the mountaintops. I think this is just the appropriate way that things should be done and I hope that in five years seeing someone like Kiki as the lead in a film is not something that is shocking or revelatory or a political act, but that’s me being glass half full, naïve in a certain way. And I love that people are coming to the work and walking away with this level of message because it’s important that people can see themselves. I think that it’s important that the next Kiki Layne can look at Beale Street and say – “SEE! You damn right, you should let me come audition for this thing.
JB: I see a lot of films and one thing that I liked about ‘Beale Street’ as well as ‘The Hate U Give’ is that you see the love in these black families, there are strong mothers raising daughters who have a lot to endure in the world, how important was it for you to paint a picture that was not the stereotypical single black mother on welfare type story?
BJ: To me it’s not about the importance of the picture. The picture is not important but I think black life, the black experience, Black America is not a monolithic thing. But it’s funny because as you were describing this thing that it’s not, you were describing ‘Moonlight’, you were describing my previous film, but I feel like these things go hand in hand. I think it’s important in both of those films you have these mothers who are doing the best that they can to protect their children from the world. I think it’s an interesting thought experiment if you were to take the Regina King character from Beale Street and made her the mom in Moonlight, and take Naomi Harris’ character from ‘Moonlight’ and made her the mom in Beale Street how would that affect the children at the center of the stories, it’s kind of a nurture vs. nature scenario.
But I want to go back to something you said before. I try to not necessarily get away from, representation definitely does matter, but I feel like in my work representation is not the point.
In trying to do justice to these stories, I’m choosing the stories that move me. So seeing someone like Kiki as the lead, even though I understand how for black women who look and feel like Kiki I can understand how there is something they’re going to feel that I can’t even fathom because it’s not my experience. Just like when I was directing this film, there were things that Kiki or Regina would tell me about the character that I had to as a director check my ego and go you know what I’m not a black woman, you are right. Let’s go down this path.
I say all that to say, looking at your pin for Stacy Abrams, there’s never been a black woman who has been the governor of a state in the history of this country, that’s insane. I think in seeing your pin and seeing Ms. Abrams, whether it’s on CNN, C-Span or whatever in the newspaper, it moves people. It moves me. I can’t imagine how it moves a woman who looks like Stacy Abrams so maybe I should own up to these women, particularly in this film but also in the last film and the strength that they show and again the nurturing they provide to the young black men in these films to grow and endure the things they’re enduring in these films, so maybe I should own up to it and take some credit but it’s just not the point.
Hit the flip to learn more about why Barry considers himself an artist, not an activist.
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