I mean, you’ve been at this for a while. Just killing it.
Ruben Santiago Hudson: No, I just started, man! I’m with the young guys.
What’s your process? How do you pick your roles? How do you go about, when you look at a script, like what interests you?
Ruben Santiago Hudson: Well, there’s two things. You’re taking advantage of the opportunities that come your way, and making opportunities. I do both. But what I want to make sure is whatever I do, it has integrity. That it shows our people as whole people, not fragments. So this is a piece of American history- we all need to know the contributions that we made as a people to the well-being of all of us. It was a very important thing. It’s rarely told, our stories. They’re important.
They’re just now coming around, telling a little bit, a fraction, of our stories.
Ruben Santiago Hudson: Here they come. We’ve been telling them a while, but we tell them in increments. We need to tell them in rushes.
As I mentioned, they’re telling them with Hidden Figures, and now with Henrietta. Why do you think mass media’s now just coming along to having our stories told on such a big platform?
Ruben Santiago Hudson: I think it’s because we’ve been pushing. We’ve been pushing hard … We just continue to push and then take the bull by the horns. You know, we’re the catalysts for this happening, as well as anybody else who would contribute or produce it. If we don’t push, the door does not open.
What do you think people will take most away from tonight and watching Henrietta’s story?
Ruben Santiago Hudson: Basically, it’s simple, man. The value of African American people and people of color, the way that we have changed, in the most positive ways, the well-being of all of us.
What do you think we can do to continue have that wave of change, and have our stories more told? What should we do to move forward?
Ruben Santiago Hudson: Financing.
Financing?
Ruben Santiago Hudson: We need to take charge of our stories, not wait for somebody else’s permission to do so.
Well, I look forward to seeing those projects financed, brother, and I’ll be right there to support them.
Ruben Santiago Hudson: Appreciate it. Thank you.
