Entertainment
Entertainment: Nate Parker
In this episode of Careers, host Sarah Tran interviews filmmaker Nate Parker, who shares his journey from humble beginnings in Norfolk, Virginia, to becoming a prominent figure in the film industry. P...
Entertainment: Nate Parker
Entertainment •
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Interactive Transcript
Speaker A
Foreign.
Speaker B
Hello, everyone. This is Sarah Tran. And welcome to the newest episode of Careers. Today, we will be talking with Mr. Nate Parker.
Speaker A
Hello. How are you doing, everyone? Thank you for having me, Sarah. Very happy to be here.
Speaker B
Hi, Mr. Parker. I'm also very glad that we can meet today. You're my first guest from the film industry, so I'm truly excited for this conversation. Without further ado, I think we should just dive right into the questions. To start as an overview, could you give us a brief introduction of your career and any jobs you've held in the past?
Speaker A
Yes. Okay. So my name's Nate. I've been a Filmmaker now since 2002, so it's been a while here in Los Angeles. I started off in computers, and we can get into that a little bit more. But since I've been here, I've done dozens of films. I started out as an actor, and I pretty quickly started to write and direct and produce when I realized that I could be in control of the narrative and have more of a say in what I brought to audiences and the impact that would have over people globally.
Speaker B
Thank you so much for giving me that overview about what you've done in your career so far. We'll get more into it as we go further in the interview. So I know that often childhood experiences have impacts on your career choices, so I kind of want to talk a little bit more about that. Tell me about where you grew up in your childhood. What kind of student were you in high school, and what were your interests then?
Speaker A
It's a great question. Well, I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, so it's far east. We call it south. Some people would say Virginia doesn't feel very south. But trust me when I say, as an African American man in the United States of America, Virginia, south. So I grew up there in a community called Tidewater Park. We come from very humble means. So very early on, I knew that I would be in the position to best elevate my family from where we were. Poverty was a problem. Education, public housing, public schooling. There were a lot of challenges that we faced. Initially, when I went into my ideas of what I'd want to do in a career, they were all surrounding capital. How do I make money? How do I put myself in a position that I can provide, not just for my mother and my. My sisters, but for my extended family. So early on, for me, it was, you know, everything was oriented around how to best position myself to provide for my family. So in that respect, I. I worked. I worked very hard in school. More so because I felt the stereotypes on television depicted people who looked. Looked like me as inarticulate and not being those that could be, you know, trusted with wealth or assets. So, you know, I had a couple uncles that. That very early, early on taught me what they knew about the world and kind of put it into my mind that if I worked hard enough, I could be in a position to help kind of rewrite the future of our family. So, you know, my mother was. Was very loving. I grew up without my father. He passed away when I was very young. So there were a lot of challenges, but. But I had just enough support around me from my family and different people that I came into contact with that I was able to rise above my circumstance, make it to school and get a decent degree and position myself to do that very thing. And that was to provide for my family.
Speaker B
So when you're talking about how you mainly wanted to go into an occupation that could be successful not only for yourself, but also for your family, especially in the midst of the challenges you've had growing up, did you see the film industry specifically as a path for being successful in the future, or when did that realization play out, when you realized that working as a director or being an actor could become a pathway for that?
Speaker A
Well, it's a great question because it brings up this idea of what you feel you need to do versus what you feel you're called to do. And I think this may be helpful for your audience because I anticipate, if they're like you, they're younger, they're thinking about the pressures of what they're being told to do in life, and that being kind of contrasted with what they think they might want to do in life. And so, as I mentioned, when I was very young, the pressures of providing were great. It was. You know, very few people in my family were in a position that they could be supportive and additive to what we were trying to build in the way of our family. And so becoming, having kind of an obsession about making money was something that was in some ways imposed on me and in other ways, something I felt like I needed to pursue to make my mother happy, to make my family happy. But it wasn't until I realized that I had a different calling or that there was a different purpose for my life. And so when I talk to younger people about the careers or the things that they may find themselves doing in the future, I try to steer them toward purpose more than kind of external things that are projected on them. Make a lot of money get rich, buy a big house or. Or even do something just fun or just do what you love. And don't really think about how those, you know, how it impacts who you are, how it aligns with the tools or the skill sets that you are, that you are born with, so to say. And when I say that, I mean, like, you know, I am truly, I think as a filmmaker doing the thing I was called to do from birth. I feel it in my bones. And everything I do kind of permeates from that understanding that I have the ability, the tools in my hands to create content, media, imagery, moving pictures that can really shift narratives globally, that can impact hearts and minds around the world. And I think that had I stayed on that path of pursuing money, I never would have transitioned into this job. So to speak a little bit more about that. I didn't know I was going to go into the arts until I was an adult. I went to school, as you are, did pretty well in high school, and I went to college and pursued management science, information systems, computer science, because I was told that that is what I should do to make the most money. This was around 1998. I graduate, so I'm getting up there. And I met with my academic counselor. I said, what can I do to make the most money? She pointed me in the direction of computers, and I dove into that head. But it wasn't until I graduated school I was thinking about work. I was interviewing for jobs. I was looking at a company called Deloitte, another company called Anderson Consulting, figuring out how I could. Now all the things I'd done could culminate into a job that could make me a lot of money. And then I had this kind of divine intervention moment where I was at an event with a friend of mine who was studying the arts and pursuing a career in, you know, arts, entertainment and modeling. And I was discovered by a guy, some would say by accident. I was very much stressing going into the workforce. And this person saw me and said I had a look that they thought was interesting. Would I read a monologue. I read the monologue, I got a call back, and within weeks I was on the interstate, you know, the Interstate 40 to the 10, and then living in a Travelodge or Econo Lodge Hotel on Hollywood Way, trying to figure out how would financially survive in the city. But I was in an acting class. And that's when my life changed. You know, when I was given that opportunity to get into the arts. You know, I called my mom, we prayed about it, and I felt I just felt this. This feeling in my spirit, like this is what I'm called to do. And I pursued it. And it was a very difficult thing to do because at the time I thought maybe I'd be letting down my family and by going into something so trivial. But, you know, you fast forward, you know, within three months I had a leading role in the film. And then, you know, I never stopped working. And then my career happened.
Speaker B
Tell me more about this divine intervention moment you had. I see that there's a big division or. Or these conflicting thoughts where you wanted to become. Be in a place, place where you could be guaranteed financially stable versus what you were called to do or versus what you believed your purpose was to do. So what about the art specifically attracted you that maybe computers and consulting didn't offer you? So what specific characteristics made you so attracted to acting and film?
Speaker A
It's a fantastic question. The thing that really resonated with me very quickly is the power of the moving picture. When I first, you know, was given the opportunity to do this audition, it's funny because the monologue that they gave me was from like, you know, well, I chose. It was like four or five monologues on the back of the pamphlet. It was like the Fast and the Furious. I was like, all right, I'm gonna do that. I've seen that movie. I can do that. And it resonated with me because, you know, it's about a guy who's a rough around the edges, who comes from humble beginnings, and he's trying to figure out a way to provide for the people around him. And he's doing things that are often dangerous. And so when I auditioned and then I got the call back, of course he asked me to go and watch other films. And I started to realize, like, film and television and cinema, it's probably the most important tool we have as human beings. I call the TV or the electrified screen or whatever you call the phone. It's an empathy machine. It is a way to use tools to create images that literally can change people's hearts and minds. Sometimes instantly. You know, you think about how a cinema or a film works in the theaters is you take people captive into a room, you turn off the lights and you. You project an image on a 100 foot screen. And sometimes people leave different, sometimes they don't, but they never forget the experience. And I was so drawn to that. You know, there are people that do more important things than me every single day. You know, you have surgeons, neurosurgeons, you have Psychiatrists, people that fix people's minds. But the thing that really impacts people at scale is entertainment, is film and television. The move, the moving picture. I often ask people, you know, who they believe has had more of an impact on medicine, Ben Carson or George Clooney. Right. So do you know who Ben Carson is?
Speaker B
No. Tell me about that.
Speaker A
Ben Carson is brain surgeon, neurosurgeon. He was one of the most brilliant people in the field ever. Right. Had massive impact. And obviously you know who George Clooney is. There's a show called er. I bring up the point to say here you have a person who in real life did the work, the hard work of studying, becoming excellent, the highest level, 1% of his field, and is recognized as one of the very best neurosurgeons. And then you have an actor who probably never held a real scalpel in his life, but had more of an impact just by verge of being a part of a television show that went on for numerous seasons. And because of this actor and this show and the people who wrote it and put it together, there was a massive influx of students that went into the medical field because of what they saw on tv. So to answer your question, I was enamored by the ability of cinema to scale, or to put it another way, to travel around the world and touch people from different cultures, different ethnicities, you know, age, sex, religion. The idea that this field that I was going into could literally shift the world. And I wanted to be a part of that. And it became something that I said to myself. If I take all of the energy and focus that I put into, you know, computer science and mis, and. And all the energy I put into, you know, whether it be sports or the relationships in my family, like, just how do I channel all of that into storytelling in a way that addresses issues that I think need to be changed, in a way that addresses systems that I think are broken, that need to be revisited, then I think that once I'm done with this career and I retire or I'm on my deathbed or wherever I am, I'll be able to say that I moved in my purpose. I pursued it with a reckless abandon, and I was able to hopefully change some things for the better.
Speaker B
That's awesome. I can totally see what you're saying about how movies and films are essentially empathy machines. I love that terminology, by the way. That can literally shift perspectives of audiences. I think that's amazing. I've never really thought about it myself that way, actually.
Speaker A
Yeah, it's. It's really interesting. It's. It's the first thing I think about when I wake up and often the last thing I think about when I go to bed. Because as you know, we're living in very challenging and trying times for so many people. So it's always a question of what can we do at scale to get people to think differently about their circumstances. And not just think differently, but walk away with a call to action to do something differently, to have an impact on that system that needs changing. And if, and if we can get young people like you to think that way and even older people with power and positioning to think that way, then comes the collaboration and working together that allows us to do that very thing. Sometimes it's stories that happened long time ago and then sometimes there are stories about the future that feel prophetic. Sometimes it's aspiring to something that we think that will benefit us. And then sometimes it's, whoa, that's. This film makes me want to do something different. So we can avoid what it is projecting as an outcome, you know.
Speaker B
Yes, I totally understand. I think the way you describe it is like, I've never, I've never thought of the film industry in that way. So I just really like how you describe this transition between, you know, applying these skills purely to make money and succeed as opposed to finding your purpose. I think that was a really beautiful depiction of your journey.
Speaker A
Thank you. Thank you very much, Sarah.
Speaker B
More in the logistical processes. I'm kind of wondering, so in the midst of getting these auditions and kind of participating in this shift towards the arts, were you still in college when this shift was happening, when you realized that you were going to be more interested in film and the arts?
Speaker A
No, it happened at the perfect time because my undergrad and I was thinking about either continuing on and getting another degree or going to work. And my focus at the time was I was leaning toward going to work so I could very quickly start to make money. And then this happened in that, in between time and so I just graduated and it was the end of the summer of 2002, I want to say. And that's when I hopped in my car with my computer because, you know, a lot of times people think about success happening overnight as a real thing, but when you talk to people in industry, it's, it's never happens that way. You know, you have a lot of ten year overnight successes. It did it. I started to work early, but success isn't one job, right? Success is being able to be a part of community, of a community, being additive to that community and then being able to improve or progress the medium. I think there are a lot of things that go into success that are bigger than just having a one big job or making one big check. And so I finished my college career and then I started my professional career as an actor rather than start my professional career in computer science for mis.
Speaker B
And I want to ask a question about how you were first starting out to be an actor. So when you were starting out, was it. Was there any challenges that you were facing or. Actually, not only when you were starting out, but throughout your roles as an actor, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced in this area?
Speaker A
Well, another great question. The biggest challenge I faced was the fact that I was walking into spaces and being asked to perform on behalf of someone else's projection of who I was as a person. So, said another way, the only opportunities I saw early on were stereotypes of people who look like me. There wasn't really a humanity that made me feel seen and who I actually was. There wasn't really a representation of the culture I had learned about in my upbringing, of what it was and what it meant to be a person of African descent or African American in this country. So, as you can imagine, those early auditions were just of roles that I didn't feel my family would be proud of if they saw me depicting those roles. So there was a great challenge, because a part of my purpose, a part of realizing that being in this industry was my purpose, was also recognizing what my purpose wasn't, even within the context of this field. I often say this to young actors that come to la. I say, focus on your identity before you come. Know who you are when you get here, because if you don't, you will fall victim to whatever people project on you and say you are, and then you lose your way as an artist. So when I came here, I knew who I was. Identity was really important to me. So when certain auditions came in, I was like, I'm not that. I'm not that. That is not something I want to perpetuate. There are plenty of people telling those type of stories. These are the type of stories I want to tell. And so I really focused on roles that I thought would be additive to the experience of those around me that I respected and that I love, those that come before me and those who I knew were coming after me. And then there was just the challenges of. Of experience. You know, I had never taken acting class until I came to la. And so I was immediately put in into these rooms with People that had gone to, you know, Yale and Juilliard and Carnegie Mellon and, you know, you. You name it, you know, the. The. The most competitive schools for the arts in the country. And I think this goes back to what I was talking about with purpose. You know, if, you know, you're called to do something, then you don't see the challenges. You just see the path in front of you, and you recognize that it's different. You know, every single person has a different path on planet Earth. You know, I don't have to be the best version of any other person. I just have to be the best version of myself, you know, And I often tell people, you know, as an artist, you don't have to be the artist you're going to be a year from now. Just be the artist you are today, and it'll take care of itself as you. You go on that next 365 days. So that early challenge of making sure that I was being true to what I'd actually been called to do, rather than taking any job that was thrown at me. And it was challenging because I needed money. You know, I. I lived in the Econo Lodge, and then I ran out of money, and I slept on a guy's couch for a little while, and I just took acting class, you know, three times a week. I was doing monologues and Starbucks to random strangers just to, you know, perfect my craft. Because auditions don't come all the time, you know, which is another challenge. You don't really know when you get the opportunity. So you have to, in some ways, stay ready for your opportunity. So you don't have to get ready. You can walk into those situations knowing that you've done everything you can to prepare yourself. And of course, if it's for you, it's already yours. If it's not, you keep it moving.
Speaker B
There's so much determination and the experiences that you just talked about right now, like saying the monologues in front of random people, honestly, like that. Like, for me, as a high schooler, I feel like that in and of itself takes a certain amount of courage and determination to do, I'd say.
Speaker A
I think life, especially for a young person, is about overcoming challenging, terrifying things early, kind of setting the pace on how you will step into hard things. Some people go through life and they hit their 40s and 50s and 60s, and they've avoided hard things their whole lives. And sometimes their life is a reflection of that, you know, their disposition is a reflection of that. And again, everyone's different, you know, so I'm not saying courage is defined by doing things that are dangerous, but there's something to be said about overcoming your fears early on. So then everything you do after that is stepping closer to what you're called to do without having to deal about, deal with the fears that pull you back. Because, you know, if I Just for a second, I'll jump into why. You know, my acting teacher, when I first started to act, I was very self aware because everyone is. You're like, okay, I'm acting, You're having the scene. Your mouth is moving in the scene, but you're inside your head. Like, all of these people are looking at me right now. I wonder if they think I'm doing a good job. Am I doing a good job? Do I think I'm having. And all of a sudden the scene is over and you don't even remember the scene. You weren't present. So my acting teacher was like, listen, you need to go out into the world, find something that makes you terrified and face it. And you know, for me, it was going into Starbucks and sitting in front of a random person and saying, I have a monologue. Do you want to hear it? And I've probably done that five times, you know, in total. And I've never. Of all those five times, I'm five for five. No one has ever said, no, I don't have the time. It's like people enjoy live theater and you're literally creating a service in those moments. And for anyone out there that deals with stage fright or deals with night terrors, when it comes up the day before on audition, I would just say a couple things. One, I would say the goal for me was always to take the focus away from how I felt and always put the focus on the people that needed to hear the words I was going to say on the other side of the screen. If you approach it as service, then it takes away that feeling of having to do something for yourself and it puts it on. I am doing this because I am going to be in service of whoever is on the other side of that screen. And for the type of films I make and the type of things that I want to see change through my art, it carries weight. So I'm often, and early on I found myself overcoming those fears by reminding myself that what I was doing wasn't for me, but it was in service of people on the other side of that screen or in that audience. The second thing that I'll give to any artist out there that is thinking about how will I overcome being the least experience or what if there are 50 people auditioning? How will I, you know, how would I get the role? And this is, this is probably, I'll give you a gem that has that I still take with me wherever I go when it comes to auditioning or showing up in the face of that type of adversity. And it's, and it's an analogy, you know, I taught an acting class years ago, and the analogy, I always think about it, it's, you don't want another person's male. You don't want a gift that's meant for someone else to come to you because it's not your gift. So when you go, when I go into an audition or, you know, when I used to audition, I would constantly remind myself, if this is, if this gift of this job is for me, then it's, there's nothing anyone can do to take it away. It's my gift. It's like the mailman. When the mailman comes to my house and gives me a piece of mail with my name on it or a package with my name on, I know that is for me. I know I open it up and whatever is in it, that's my package. But if the mailman goes to my neighbor's house, my next door neighbor's house with a package with his name on it, I'm not going to be upset with my neighbor because he had something that was addressed to him. And that's how I think of these type of audition situations. I've never been rejected for a job in my life. I've never not given some, not received a job that was for me, you know. So when people say, how do you deal with rejection? I say, I've never been rejected. I've never been. Every job that I've ever gone in for, that was for me, was for me. That was my gift. And whoever. The other jobs I didn't get go, you know, whoever got those jobs, I was so happy for them because that was the thing that they had been waiting for, hoping for, praying for. That was their gift. And it's always allowed me to separate myself from that type of ego driven, you know, situation or separate myself from my own fears of what may or may not happen. If I was good enough, if I was not good enough, what I could have done differently. It's, if that is my gift or if that is my mail, then it's already in my mailboxes for me. If that makes sense.
Speaker B
Yeah, I totally get it. That's a really Interesting way to put it. I think it's definitely something that repels any kind of negative feelings about rejection. So I think that would be really helpful for audience, not only for people who are trying to become an actor or trying to become a director, but I think generally in life, whatever occupation they do, I feel like that mindset could be really effective or really applicable. I think that's really great.
Speaker A
Thank you. I hope so.
Speaker B
I have another question about kind of your day to day life as an actor. So could you give us a glimpse of what you would do if, say you were on set today or if you were filming today?
Speaker A
Yeah, of course. So I will give you the feedback as an actor and then I'll give you some tips for the actors that are listening about where the industry is going. So if I was an actor today, chances are I'd be on set already, unless it was a night shoot. So how these things work is when you're shooting a typical day, which is usually a day shoot, that is when kind of determined by the sun being up, you start very early in the morning, you're done early, early evening. A night shoot is when you start at the end of the day and you go overnight into the next. And sometimes. So when you're watching films and they're very obviously outside and they're not on a set and it's dark, it's likely a night shoot because they have so long to get, you know, you know, so many hours to get that whole day and get all those scenes. So if I were, if I was on a set today, I probably, I probably would have gotten a call sheet that said, you know, yesterday that says tomorrow you need to be on set at this time. And if you are on in the call sheet in any such a way, like a leading character, chances are they'll come pick you up to make sure you're there on time. They don't. They don't. They don't just bet that you're going to show up on time because there's a lot of money being spent. So they will send someone for you through transport, transportation. You'll get to your job, you'll go to your trailer or wherever holding is and. And then you wait. A lot of people think acting is showing up and immediately you get a fake grenade and you're in a war scene and you throw it and there's an explosion and you're running around all day. It's not really that, you know, it's a lot of setup, a lot of preparation. The director will show up with their cinematographer, they'll be blocking, they'll be working all those things out. When they're ready, they call you, you come to set. So really set is, you know, for me, is about using that time to make sure I am as aligned with the character as I possibly can be. Most young actors, specifically make the mistake of thinking acting is learning the lines and saying them in a way that is charismatic or natural. And let me be the first to tell you, it's. It's not that at all. When you are tasked with bringing a character to life, just like I said earlier about service, what you do as that character, how you bring that character to life, will not only impact the people you're in a scene with, but once it's cut and it's out to the world, it'll impact the people that maybe needed that scene to help them with a relationship that they were in or needed that scene to motivate them to feel like they could overcome that obstacle. So if you shortchange the character in your preparation and you're on set just kind of hanging out, playing video games, especially for young actors, I mean, older actors, once you have the muscle, a lot of times they can just hang out. But early on, you want to give that character everything they deserve in the way of preparation, in the way of, I would just say psychological alignment. And I don't mean, like, going method, like however you approach the craft specifically is. Is what it is. But just really understanding that character, writing a biography, asking questions of that person. It's like if someone said, today, Nate, you're going onto a set and you're going to portray the character of Sarah from the podcast. I'm like, okay, where do I start? Now? I could just try to make my voice sound like your voice. I could try to move like you move and laugh like you laugh. But that wouldn't even be scratching the surface of who you really are. I'd have to know more about who you are as a human being, the things you care about, the things that make you sad, that make you happy. Through a combination of all of those things, aggregating all the things that make you who you are. The closer I can get to those things as an actor, the better I'm going to be able to portray you in that. That piece. So being on set, for me is about doing the work even as you're on set. Getting the job is just when it starts. A lot of people may think you auditioned, you got the job. Now you just sit around and wait to Say your lines. It's definitely not that. Not for people that have real careers, in my opinion.
Speaker B
So I'm hearing a lot about bringing your character to life or as you said, giving that character kind of psychological alignment, as you put it, and really assuming the characteristics and personality of the role. So in this quality, would you say it's one of the most important qualities when considering an actor as a good actor versus an inexperienced one? And if not, what are some other good qualities that aspiring actors may want to try to achieve?
Speaker A
Okay, so this goes to the thing that I was going to mention where I said I have some tips. You know, I try not to label actors as good, good or bad. I think when you said experience, that's really important. Getting experience is studying the craft. You know, you have to look at being a professional actor, in my opinion, the same way you would look at being a professional surgeon. When you think about the hours that a surgeon puts in to be able to maneuver his tools in such a way that he does more good and doesn't hurt people, it's similar in a way. You have to put the hours in and the time in. So when it's time for you to use those tools, you're not doing harm, but you're helping people. And the tips that I'm going to give to your audience for anyone that's thinking about being an actor, is if you're going to act, you need to write, you need to become familiar with the adjacent professions and tools for where we're going. You know, there's this thing called the creator economy that is really exploding and you're familiar, you know, when you, whether it be Mr. Beast or Druski or any of these self starter creators that have created an ecosystem around their talent and they've kind of leaned away from traditional systemic filmmaking, I think the days of sitting and waiting for an acting job, I won't say they're over, but they're becoming increasingly difficult to have a career. I always recommend to young actors that they write. They write the things that they would like to be in. They write stories that they would like to portray or stories that they care about. You know, I'm really big on history, so I'm a big, a big fan of, you know, Carthage and Hannibal and Amilcar. And I'm a big, I'm a big believer in keeping stories alive by bringing them into the present through filmmaking. So writing, directing a short film, writing a short film, you know, writing out a podcast. If you want to be an actor, start a podcast. And bring in the masters and ask them what they. Not that I'm a master, but just bringing people that you really look up to and get their take and apply those things to your life. But there's so many tools now, whether it be with the phone or whether it be with AI. The idea of sitting and just waiting to be the paint, I think is a thing of the past. Everyone will have to become the painter in some way to really have an impact. If you really want to have an impact.
Speaker B
I totally see what you're saying. Especially this world is, as you said, it's so much more fast paced now. And I love the analogy that you gave with being the paint versus being the painter. Speaking of writing, I have a few questions about your experience as a director because I know you've directed some films in addition to acting. Nissan, did you act first or did you direct first?
Speaker A
Actually, I acted first. So I acted for several months before I started writing. And I only started to writing, started writing out of frustration of the roles that I was seeing come through my. Come across my desk to audition. And I, I just, at some point I said, I can't continue to complain if I'm not willing to disrupt the system that I'm complaining about. So I started to write. Early on it was short films, then I started to write features, then I started to write for other people. And then I started to realize that these things that I was writing wouldn't come to fruition unless I brought them to fruition. So I became a writer out of necessity of telling stories that mattered to me. I became a director out of the necessity of seeing those come to life. I became a producer out of the necessity of needing money to bring them to life. So I didn't go to school for any of these things, but all of these things worked together to allow me to bring the stories that I wanted to tell to the audience that I knew wanted to experience them.
Speaker B
And would you say that directing is a different experience or how would you describe directing as opposed to acting? What was your day to day like? Because acting, you know, when you talked about how you're supposed to be on or you're following the call, she supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time, but the director or like being a producer, it's probably a whole different story. So tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker A
Okay. I love these questions, by the way. I feel like this is one of the best interviews I've ever had. Very thoughtful. So I'll give you a quick analogy. Acting is like being the student in a school, whereas directing is like being the principal. The responsibility of showing up to act is just doing your job. You know, you show up, you have your little script, you have your half pages, you study, you bring your character, you do your job, you go home. Whereas the director. The director is responsible for everything from actors to the production design to catering. You interview everyone, you hire, pretty much hire everyone with the line producer, one by one, to create the culture on the set that you want to create, the story that you want to tell. So directing is far more demanding from the standpoint of what you are responsible for. I recommend it for every actor. If you only direct, maybe even just one short film, I think you do it so you understand how the sausage is made, you understand the process, you understand the ecosystem you're operating in. I also, anyone that's a director, I recommend you act in something, even if it's small, or do the little Starbucks monologue thing so you can have empathy for the actors that are, you know, charged with the task of coming in to bear their souls with everyone looking at them. The camera, the gaffers, the lighting. So they're. They're two. They're two different roles, But I think that they collaborate nicely when done well. I mean, having to act and direct yourself is. Is very difficult. I've done that a few times in my career, but again, I've only done those things as a means to an end. How do we get it done? How do we get it done in a way that it achieves the thing that we've set out to do?
Speaker B
I remember you said, I think in the previous question, when you're talking about what are we trying to achieve, you talked about how directing was a response. Response to believing that there should be more roles or more appropriate roles for these young actors. I know that you have this Nate Parker foundation, which I was looking at a little bit yesterday. Did any of these problems that you saw in your acting experience contribute to how you started the Nate Parker Foundation? And tell me a little bit about how the idea is that fueled this startup of this foundation.
Speaker A
Wow. Thank you. Thank you for. For asking about it. And yes, I think when I entered Hollywood and this kind of system of storytelling, I had very little context as to what it was, what storytelling actually was, the impact it actually have. I had this kind of these budding ideas, and I realized very quickly that an actor going into Hollywood is only going to be as successful as the support system around them. And I realized very quickly that there just wasn't a lot of support specifically for people that look like me. Yet there were so many people who had talent that were looking for support. And so I looked around and said to myself, what can I build as a mechanism to really impact or affect the change that I want to see in the world? Who do I see around me that has that potential but doesn't have that support system? So the Nate Parker foundation is really about empowering the next generation of storytellers to change culture through film. That's global culture, that's social culture. Empowering these young people with the tools to be able to tell stories that bring about the change we want to see in the world. So what we do is we raise capital. I always say, when it comes time for the Nate Parker Foundation, I'm the first to take out my beggar's bowl and go around the world and ask people to support these young people in shifting culture. So what we do is we underwrite the entire experience. We bring Every year about 30 young filmmakers from around the world. We have people as far as Kenya come, and we teach them all of the mechanics, the psychological, spiritual, physical aspects of storytelling. And we do it through one understanding identity, understanding their history, and then learning the mechanics, you know, the technical aspects of being a filmmaker. I bring all my friends, you know, everyone that knows me. If you're. If you're in this industry and you're taking from this industry, I will hold you accountable to giving back. So they all. They show up. We usually have it at a college, know different places around the country. And then we. We support them in telling their stories, and they go on to do incredible things. We just had a young filmmaker. He made a film that was useful in taking away the call, taking away the fees associated with incarcerated people, calling home the kind of predatory cost. So he made a. That was something that was important to him, important to us. We worked with an organization called Worth Rises, and we made a short film. They took it to Congress, and they were able to pass some legislation that eliminated predatory fees associated with people being in the individuals who are incarcerated, people that are incarcerated, connecting with their families on the outside. And that's just one example. We look at things that need attention, and then we use the tools of storytelling to give attention to those things in ways that shift systems and change people's thinking. Because a lot of times, people come into a situation based only on what they've heard, not on what they've seen. So we use filmmaking to provide context so it can create empathy and compassion. So we can then soften hearts to change things that bring more humanity in the world. And these young people really do all that work. So we've had maybe like 160 kids come through the program now, and they're all over. This one kid made that film. We have a kid that just got filming to Cannes. We have kids at usc, nyu, just. I mean, just all over. So we're very. We're very proud of the program because of the fruit it's bearing. But, you know, Jackie Robinson, who is from our area, said, a life only matters and the impact it has on others. So I try to get young people to buy into that with their filmmaking. So when they're making things, they're not just making things for money or even making things just for fun, but they're making things that have an impact on culture and others.
Speaker B
I think it's amazing that you've been able to help this next generation empower this change. And through filmmaking, which is, as you talked about before, I really liked how you talked about film as empathy machines. And you can really see, see the impacts that film has been making through your foundation, especially with the Congress bill that you talked about, about eliminating predatory fees. So I think all of that is really inspiring. Thank you so much for this wonderful interview. I'm afraid we have to start wrapping things up. I think this was a great end to this episode. But before we finish, I have one last question. What advice would you give to the next generation in film, just in general, whether from acting to directing or producing or basically anything about the film industry?
Speaker A
I would say to remember the words of Nina Simone. She said, the artist's job is to reflect the times. So this profession that we're in is very special. And I think the responsibility that we have as artists shouldn't be taken as something that is small. We should recognize that through us, the very problems that we're facing every single day, when we turn on our televisions, open up our phones, go across social, or even just walk outside, these are things that will more often than not be solved not by, you know, specifically politics or people standing on soapboxes, but through artists telling stories that speak to these things in a way that promote the change that we want to see. We've seen it happen so many times. We know so much about the things that we know about when it comes to the tragedies of the world, when it comes to the triumphs of the world through the moving picture. So my advice to the young artists, just understand the responsibility, answer the call, and recognize it is our job to reflect the times.
Speaker B
Thank you for tuning into this episode. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend and follow us on Instagram and wherever you get your podcasts. This is Sarah Tran and I'll see you on the next episode of Careers.