Coming out this week from STXfilms is the civil rights drama The Best of Enemies, starring Taraji P. Henson and Academy Award winner and Sam Rockwell.
The film is directed by Robin Bissell, who also adapted the script from Osha Gray Davidson’s book “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South.”
The story centers on the battle and eventual friendship between Ann Atwater (Henson), a working class, single black mother in Durham, NC, who quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight, and C. P. Ellis (Rockwell), a working class white man also from Durham who, as a young man, joined the Ku Klux Klan. They fought for a decade until 1971, when the two agreed to co-chair a two-week community meeting to deal with a court-ordered school desegregation decree. That event changed both of their lives immeasurably.”
For Henson, this is the second time in recent years where she has played an historical figure. In 2016, the Empire actress played NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson in the Oscar nominated film, Hidden Figures. Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Henson about playing Atwater, doing her research and working with Sam Rockwell.
What led you to say yes to this project?
Taraji P. Henson: The fact that the story’s actually real. It’s so perfect, I thought it was fiction, and I mean I just never heard of such a thing, a Ku Klux Klan member denouncing the Ku Klux Klan and then becoming a civil rights activist. I’d never heard or seen anything like that in cinematography, and I just thought, wow, this is a true story, this could change things. Danny Strong gave me this script when we shot the pilot for Empire. Danny Strong is co-creator, producer of Empire. And at the time, the show was just getting started, timing wasn’t working out.
And then our current president was elected, and the temperature of the country changed. And I called Danny, he felt it, and I was like, “You know we gotta make this movie and we gotta make it now.” And he was like, “You’re right.” And that was the year that I did two movies in my hiatus. I only get two and a half months off, but this movie was so important I was like squeeze it in. So I did Proud Mary, and then I left Boston after six weeks of Proud Mary, and I went down to Atlanta and did this. I got sick as a dog, I ended up in the hospital, almost died. But it was worth it! It was worth it. We need this story and we need it now.
With you doing back to back films, how much time did you have to do research?
Taraji P. Henson: Because I had the script for so long, I had already done my research. Remember I had it for a few years, so it was something that was on my mind and I had been researching Ann, and we know about segregation and integration, so it wasn’t really a lot of research on that, it was just her. I had to do a lot of listening to her, watching a lot of her interviews. Most of it was listening to what C.P. had to say about her.
Since you mentioned you only get two months off, I assume there was not enough time for you to gain weight for the part?
Taraji P. Henson: No, I couldn’t, it was, because remember I did Proud Mary, which I had to be fit because I’m, guns, action star. Then I go down there, so it had to be a prosthetic suit because right after that I had to go back to Cookie, so I had no time to really gain the weight. One thing I did do, because I see, especially us, “Why she look dark?” Well, you know black people we tan, you know that right? So I went away, I had a two week little vacation, I went and I just laid out on a beach and baked just to get my color a little darker for her.
Now did you see any footage of her, in terms of getting her personality so that it comes across as her and not you?
Taraji P. Henson: Yeah, absolutely. And again, it was a lot of the stuff that C.P. Ellis said. You know, “You could hear her before you see her.” You know what I mean? “Oh that’s a powerful woman, boy, she walk in a room and you just stand to attention.” You know what I mean? So this was a woman who did not bite her tongue, you know? This was a woman who moved with a force, you know what I mean? So I just … a lot of the stuff, when you’re reading a script, a lot of the information you get about your character is coming from other people. That’s why it’s so important to read the entire script. I don’t understand people that just read their scenes. You don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t know where you are, who you are and where you’re coming from. You’re just reading your scenes, and you come in the set and I know it, I know the actors that do it.
Can you talk about working with Sam and Babou. A lot has changed differently since the movie first went into production. Sam’s now an Oscar winner.
Taraji P. Henson: Oscar winner! I said to him recently, I said, “Look at us, it’s like we’ve been born again as old geezers in the industry.”And he was like, “Yeah, I mean like look at Regina King.” I said, “Everybody’s like got these new careers.” It’s so beautiful to watch because we’re all like 40 and over, you know? It’s so great. We’re at the age where it’s supposed to be dying down, and it’s like all of us got this revamping of our careers, and it’s just beautiful to see.
In playing these historical figures, from Katherine Johnson to Ann Atwater, what does that do for your career, when you can bring their lives to the screen and let people know who they are?
Taraji P. Henson: Well for me, it’s not even about my career. For me, it’s about me as an artist and what I’m adding to humanity. How am I, as an artist, doing my job to move humanity forward? I do some jobs where … a couple jobs might be just for the money, you know what I mean? And the timing is right, so I get in there and I do it. But most times, I’m looking for roles that will impact lives, change hearts, perceptions of people, especially us. That’s why I fight for different stories to be told, because if you had 12 blonds playing stories, I bet you they’re 12 different stories. It’s just the lead actors just happened to be blonds, but that doesn’t mean they all live a cookie cutter life and there’s only one blond story to tell.
Like for us, we have all kinds of stories, and that’s what’s so beautiful to see all of my friends working because we’re telling each different perspective of the African American experience, you know? And that’s what’s so beautiful about right now. We’re starting to see more than one story. And more than one actor.
Last year with Green Book, you had all these stories written here and there. And then with this movie, the question is whose story are we getting? Are we getting Ann’s? C.P.’s? Is there, as people may call it, at some point a white savior moment in here? Or is it both stories we’re getting?
Taraji P. Henson: Well, the thing about what makes this movie different is that C.P. doesn’t necessarily save the day, it’s Ann who changes him. Ann changes him. So to me, it’s Ann Atwater’s story, but it’s actually a story about a friendship, but it’s from her lens.
What’s the selling point, when people see the trailer? What are we going to get out of this?
Taraji P. Henson: I think what people will get out of it is that … and I know it’s cliché and you hear it all the time, but it’s the absolute truth, love always wins. When you meet them both, they’re actually the same person. They’re very passionate about their beliefs, they’re just on opposite sides of the track, right? You can’t meet hate with hate, you can’t meet it with hate, right? Because then you’re just yelling. No one is listening to understand. No breakthroughs are happening, so now we’re just gerbils in the wheel. Spinning, spinning, right, right? Yelling and screaming at each other.
It wasn’t until she decided to follow her faith. Because when you think about God, and God’s love is unconditional and it’s all inclusive, right? So that means you’ve gotta love like Jesus did, you gotta love the ones that nailed you to the cross. And you know what that means? That means you love unconditionally, you love with the understanding that love is the search for understanding, right? So that’s how you have to love your enemy. That’s what the bible says, so if Ann is really going to be a Christian, then she needs to stand up and act like one, right? So she had to fall back and really look at this man and try to understand him.
And that’s the thing in life, we’re all broken. Everybody. I don’t care who you are, what walk of life you come from. If you have breath in your body, you’re broken and you have some pain that you carry. That’s why humans, we have to be so mindful of each other, because you never know what somebody’s walking around and carrying. I’ve lost so many people that I had no idea they were suffering, that they were in that kind of turmoil. You never know, just a touch, a hi, a hug, how it could change a person’s life for the better. Or save someone’s life, you know?
I think Ann had to fall back and really get into her religion, her spirituality, and she really had to understand this man. As hateful as he was, all he wanted was love. That’s all he ever wanted. He wanted a sense of belonging. That’s how kids end up in gangs, that’s how people end up in hate groups, because they’re looking for a sense of belonging. But it’s false love. Because who came to rescue him when he needed help with his son? Not his brothers. A black woman. And she came at him with love. A conversation that he wasn’t used to having, you know what I mean? He was looking for that in this brotherhood, he didn’t get it. So when she approached the love, it was almost like a dog. When you say something new to them, they go, “Huh?” Because that’s all he was ever looking for.
With more episodes to go on Empire, what are we expecting from Cookie?
Taraji P. Henson: Cookie’s finding herself. Cookie’s finding herself outside of the family.
At one point last year we talked about Emmett Till, is that ever going to happen?
Taraji P. Henson: I hope so. We have to work on the budget and some things, but it’s probably not going to happen in this hiatus, but don’t worry we are not giving up on that story.
What other films do you want to do, as opposed to what’s being offered?
Taraji P. Henson: I want more comedy. I’m doing, actually, another little dark comedy on Netflix. I’m not leading, it’s just a supporting role with Ed Helms. It’s just for fun. And just to have something on my hiatus. I’m only working on it two weeks. But I don’t know, I want more comedy. I want some more physical comedy. I had too much fun in What Men Want. I want more.
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