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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 14 OctOber 2017
Boseman, Reggie Hudlin team up to

portray a young Thurgood Marshall

By JESSE J. HOLLAND shall. It’s the origin story,” leads to us being able to
Associated Press said Boseman, whose next overcome impossible ob-
WASHINGTON (AP) — film has him starring as the stacles and I think that’s
Chadwick Boseman knows first comic book black su- why audiences really re-
a little about portraying perhero, the Black Panther. spond to the film — be-
icons: his acting resume The film focuses on one of cause it gives them a blue-
includes Jackie Robinson, the first cases of Marshall’s print for hope.”
James Brown and comic career with a then-strug- The case’s setting in Con-
book’s first black superhe- gling NAACP, defending a necticut was especially at-
In this Sept. 21, 2017 photo, director Reginald Hudlin, left, and ro, the Black Panther. black chauffeur, played by tractive to Hudlin, who said
actor Chadwick Boseman appear during an interview for the But even Boseman was Sterling K. Brown, against it plays against so many
film “Marshall,” in Washington. wary after director Regi- a wealthy white socialite tropes of racism being sole-
Associated Press nald Hudlin approached employer who accuses him ly a Southern problem.
him about portraying the of rape and attempted “Northern racism often gets
younger days of the future murder, portrayed by Kate a pass, but beneath that
Supreme Court justice in Hudson. veneer of gentility, institu-
“Marshall.” Forbidden from speaking tional racism was just as vo-
There were books written in court by a racist judge, ciferous, and it’s a lot more
about the early civil rights Marshall is forced to team recognizable to challenges
work of a young Thurgood up with Samuel Friedman, we face today,” he said.
Marshall, the lawyer who a young Jewish lawyer who That isn’t to excuse South-
won the seminal Brown v. has never tried a case. The ern racism, said Boseman,
Board of Education case two must struggle to dis- a South Carolina native
eliminating legal segrega- cover in a pre-World War II who said he could chan-
tion in public schools and America what really hap- nel some of his experiences
went on to become the Su- pened in the case while growing up to use to por-
preme Court’s first African- fighting a climate of fear tray Marshall’s frustration at
American justice in 1967. and prejudice in Connecti- the racism he faced during
But “it’s not the same as cut. the case.
having Hall of Fame inter- Marshall at this point in his The experience of “riding to
views with Jackie Robinson career is a lone wolf lawyer, school and seeing Confed-
or concert footage with working alone on cases erate flags flying on trucks
James Brown,” said Bose- around the U.S. But work- in front of you and behind
man, star of “42” and “Get ing with an initially reluc- you ... or being run off the
On Up.” ‘’How do you pull tant Friedman, played by road by a truck with a Con-
the spirit or essence of this Josh Gad, taught Marshall federate flag on it or being
man?” the value of allies and led stopped by the police and
But with the blessings of to him helping train NAACP you know that three to six
Marshall’s family, including lawyers to work on cases cars are going to show up
a handwritten letter from his around the country, Hudlin for no reason,” Boseman
son — “That was one of the said. said.
ways Reggie convinced “So much of this movie is “Why wouldn’t I use those
me to do the film,” Bose- about allies,” said Hudlin, experiences, if you’ve had
man said — he and Hudlin director and producer of them, you know the anxi-
spearheaded a biopic of movies like “Django Un- ety, the adrenaline, the an-
one of Marshall’s first cases chained,” ‘’Boomerang,” ger, the sadness, all those
as a young NAACP law- and “House Party.” You different things that can
yer, showing the drive and have a man who is dedi- come from a moment like
commitment that turned a cated to a cause but he that.”
brash, loner lawyer into the can’t do it alone, because Telling the story of a young
one of the nation’s great- none of us can do it alone, Marshall allows them to get
est civil rights lawyers and and you have a man who away from stereotypical
justices. has a life but doesn’t have stories about white protag-
“It’s the coming-of-age a mission. onists coming in to save Af-
version of Thurgood Mar- That combination is what rican-Americans in society,
Hudlin said.
“I’m grateful for this op-
portunity to tell these sto-
ries and to tell the part
that people hear the least,
which is black people
standing up and fighting
back,” Hudlin said.
“I don’t like when we’re
reduced to victims. ... We
have a history of resistance.
Thurgood Marshall’s pre-
ferred weapon is his law
books but you can catch
those hands too.”q