Russell Hornsby shares exclusive, behind the scenes of The Hate U Give.
In celebration of the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital release of The Hate U Give, Fox Entertainment hosted an intimate dinner where Russell Hornsby shared insight on his depiction of Maverick Carter. The discussion was an exclusive, personal talk about Hornsby’s relationship with the script, especially surrounding the topics of police brutality and systematic racism.
As an actor, to what extent is it helpful to have access to footage of live shootings? Do you feel that it is an advantage to honing your craft or a disadvantage?
Russell Hornsby: “I think it’s all an advantage and what I mean by that is, what was told to me and what I now tell younger actors and younger artists is that you have to live life. And so I think [you have to] be aware of what’s going on around you. You can’t be afraid of it. You have to live it. It’s going to be painful, but you have to watch the shootings, you have to watch all the negative aspects of the press, you have to watch us in our negative light, even, and the choices that we make collectively as black people and you have to embrace that and let that rest where it does. And then again, you have to absorb the world, you have to be a global citizen and use that to inform the characters. As an artist, if you hide your eyes to something like that, then you’re not being honest and you’re not being truthful to who you are and what the world has to offer. You have to absorb everything as much as you can, as painful as it is, and feel it. You just kind of put it into the work. For any and everybody, that’s what makes the work sync. If you listen to Mary J. Bilge, you know what she’s going through. You know some of her story. So what does Mary J. do? She doesn’t run from it; she told people about it and then she poured all of that pain into her music and said let me use this for good. And I think those are the best artists. That’s what art is supposed to be. Art’s supposed to be life. Honestly, I think that of late, we’re getting away from that a little bit. I think people are running from that because it’s too painful and also because we have been desensitized with media.”
On the inspiration of Maverick Carter…
Russell Hornsby: “I always consider myself as a feeling person, with a high level of empathy for a lot of people—people that I meet, people that I see on the street. Your heart goes out to them in real ways. As I said to Angie, she wrote a real man on the page! In that book, that’s a man! Maverick Carter is a man! And I said thank you [to her]. As a black woman [she] could have diverted from that and made it about the single mother raising the child and nobody would have been mad. Nobody would have said anything. They would have said ‘yeah girl, that’s what goes on, that’s real.’ But I know and everybody else knows that there are men who are present. There are men who get down. Men who are fathers, go to work everyday, come home, feed their kids, all that stuff. But the fact that she put it in there, and you know, she was raised by a single mother. But what she said is that she was raised by her uncle, by her cousins, her grandfather, who taught her how to do certain things and those are the men that she witnessed, same way as I did. So you get it from your real life and I said as she did, I want to honor that! Mav is like an old school throwback! Remember when we would say, ‘do what I say and not as I do?’ I wanted [viewers] to have that idea of [the type of dad who didn’t play around].”
How did you feel about the film not being considered for certain nominations?
Russell Hornsby: “Everybody agrees that the movie was good! It was authentic! Let me tell you something, you got that much authenticity, you better make some money. Listen, I’m not mad, they made the movie. I’ve got to give them credit! [They gave permission to director] George Tillman Jr. to keep it 100, keep it real, and we did. To the point where audiences were like, yal did that! Again, that means more than these [nominations] because of the legacy! Long after I’m gone, does the movie hold up? This is going to affect kids and families long after now. Can you walk in the community with the people and get respect? That means more to me than anything! And people are going to remember me and say ‘man, that dude always kept it 100%,’ and that’s what you want because again, I gotta raise kids. So what I put out, I don’t need it back. I’m trying to put that energy out so that my kids get right! And so it would have been nice, but it wasn’t the end all be all, it just wasn’t…”
About filming in Atlanta…
Russell Hornsby: “I think for the film, it was great because of all the stand ins and all the extras, they knew what was happening. There was an extra sense of pride that they had when we were working on the film because people started to feel all the passion that we were bringing to it. All the scenes with the riot, people were getting into it. And you just appreciated that because I think they felt like this is representative of who we are as well.”
Do you feel that more people of color should be in law enforcement?
Russell Hornsby: “I do think that more black people should be in law enforcement. The other thing one has to ask is, what kind of black person are you stepping into that job? All your color ain’t your kind, we all know that. We have to walk the blue line and we understand that, but are you still aware and are you still cognizant as to how your brothers and sisters are being treated systematically? And this is the point that I was trying to get across when I was doing Lincoln Heights. My uncle goes and serves people and tells them they are being evicted and stuff like that. And when I was preparing for Lincoln Heights, I used to go with him. And he’s serving people that he went to school with, and that he’s seen their kids grow up with. So he doesn’t just come in there with no compassion! He says hey, listen, now I’m supposed to come serve you tomorrow. Now, you can either go and deal with it down in the city, pay your [fines],or get as much stuff out of here because when I come, I’m getting it all! This is what’s going to happen, be aware of that. How are you going to be as far as helping your people? The relationships… because that’s important. And that’s supposed to be the advantage of having the police in your community and of your community. But when you have cops come in from out of the city/district or things like that, they don’t care because they’re not invested.”
On the various perspectives of law enforcement…
Russell Hornsby: “It’s how you’ve been conditioned and how you choose to be conditioned. As a black man, are you scared of your people? When I was shooting in Chicago, in the Southside, there was this place, it was like a fish spot. So you know, it’s during the day, so I’m rolling through, and I’m one of those cats that likes to explore neighborhoods. So I leave early, I’m rolling, I’m in the cut and I got to this fish spot! And everybody’s like ‘yo, wassup!’ I said ‘hey, how’s everybody doing?’ And one dude is like, ‘man, you ain’t scared to be down here?’ And I’m like, ‘should I be? Is something going to happen, should I be scared?’ But it’s how you have been conditioned and what you choose to believe that changes your perception.”
For more information on purchasing The Hate U Give, click here.
