WATCH: Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Weruche Opia Talk Breathing New Life Into The Legacies of Martin And Corretta For 'Genius: MLK/X'

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The actors discuss humanizing history and by showing another side of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King&#039;s lives and works.

Transcript

00:00 you know, people try to say they're passive, but I'm like, they were just strategists. They were

00:03 like, we mad too. And we read it up. But at the same time, like, what does that gain us in this

00:10 moment? You know what I mean? Let's, let's, let's work with the heat. Malcolm's bringing up North

00:15 and allow that to, to put a fire under these people. And while I'm in the office talking

00:20 to Kennedy, he knows what's happening. My people understand who they are now.

00:24 So what do you want to do? Let's get this bill, brother. You know what I mean? Like,

00:28 let's see the words. It's okay. It's the long game. I think, yeah, the strategy that they,

00:36 they had was seeing the bigger picture.

00:40 Minister.

00:45 We meet at last.

00:49 I believe you're going to do great things.

00:56 We must be a little daring.

00:58 Just to kick things off this series, folks is more on, I guess, the formative years of MLK

01:08 and X and their wives. And I feel as though, even though it is recent history, a lot of it seems to

01:15 be getting lost over time, especially as you know, black history is being taken out of schools. And

01:19 you know, these people are kind of becoming representatives of ideas rather than people

01:24 giving them a full view of who they are and what they did. How is it for each of you? I guess I'll

01:29 start with you, Kelvin, to kind of humanize these figures and show them in a way that they're not

01:35 really seen so much in the media today. Yeah, I think it's exciting. I think,

01:39 I think I agree with everything you said. I think we have an idea of Dr. King in a very distant

01:47 form, but we've lost some of the nuance. We lost some of the intimacy and we lost some of the

01:52 things that really connect us to the man. And the whole point of having a Dr. King be a representative

01:59 of our blackness and our culture and our freedom is to remind us that we have it within ourselves.

02:06 So to do a show like this is cool because we get to see the women that led this movement. We get to

02:12 see that they were fathers, that they were sons, that he liked to eat. You know what I mean? That

02:18 he liked to watch TV sometimes, you know, things that make him relatable and it didn't deter him

02:24 from being able to inspire and make big moves and kind of change the nation. Change the world.

02:36 Same question. I think that this show does a wonderful job at showing, again,

02:47 I think the humanity of these almost larger than life people that we know of, we know that we've

02:54 all, I mean, they've done incredible things and they've been put on a pedestal. But I think what

02:58 I really enjoy about this show and Genius and the way it's all done is like Kelvin said, it shows

03:03 every part of them, you know, them as fathers, as wives, as sisters, as lovers. And it just allows

03:12 us to enjoy them as fully, as full humans, you know what I mean? Not just these people on pedestals

03:19 to see them as regular people who were so convinced and so singular minded about a movement

03:27 that they put everything into it. And yeah, but they were still human. And that's what I really

03:32 enjoy about the show. Now, Ruche, so few projects that go into the King family focus on Coretta as

03:41 an individual, you know, kind of giving her voice and showing what a powerhouse she was on her own,

03:47 besides being a support for Martin. How did you approach this role, being able to give her so

03:53 much more voice and a fuller picture? I absolutely loved it because I mean,

03:59 we know about Coretta, but we know generally about her. I mean, I was completely shocked to

04:04 find out that she was an opera singer. I didn't know. And I didn't know that that was such a big

04:09 part of her life because that's what got her out of her hometown. So it was like a propelling force

04:15 for her to want a greater life for herself until she met Martin. And then things just kind of,

04:21 I wouldn't say went away, but they just changed, you know, a little bit. Researching about Coretta,

04:26 I found a lot of similarities with me and herself. She's a woman of faith, so am I. A lot of the way

04:31 she handled her life and the things she thought and how she thought is very similar to mine.

04:35 So it was very, I had a lot of fun just basically like, yeah, bringing her to life and showing that

04:42 she was a strong woman, but also had her vulnerability. There were moments of fear

04:47 because we give again, God-like pedestal positions to these people, but they had fears as well. Do

04:53 you know what I mean? And they were young people trying to figure their lives out, being a wife,

04:57 being a mother. I'm sure she was going through a lot. So I made it a point to enjoy her,

05:05 make her laugh a lot because I'm sure she was a woman full of life. She was with Martin,

05:11 who's a prankster. So there would have been a lot of jokes in their home. And I just think it just

05:17 paints like a full 3D image of Coretta and just allow people to enjoy my understanding, my idea

05:26 of what I think she was like. - What is something new that you feel like you learned in your

05:30 research process, getting ready for this role about Martin Luther King that perhaps we didn't

05:35 learn growing up or in college? - I mean, there's so much. I think

05:40 we didn't learn enough. So it almost feels like everything in the show is something to take away.

05:47 But not to bring it back to the women, but I'm gonna bring it back to the women. I think we

05:53 had an understanding of him as if he was the only trailblazer in that home. And what I love in one

06:00 of the first episodes is we get to see how she knows just the same amount of philosophy, if not

06:05 more, that he does. This is a well-studied, educated man and she is not missing any beats.

06:13 And it's exciting. You even think about his stance on Vietnam and her being such the initial force

06:22 behind that. She was well-researched. She was aware of what was going on in the country. She was the

06:26 humanitarian that was like, "Listen, we wanna step out and say we're humanitarians and we're doing

06:31 all this for our country. What are we gonna say about people that don't even look like us? We're

06:34 trying to bring people together." So it is your obligation to do something about that. So just

06:39 learning about how we can't really do these things alone. It does take community. It does take great

06:46 partnership. It does take trust and great minds. So yeah. - That's so smart. I like that.

06:53 - Thank you. You said something. You was smart. I used all my smart up in that answer.

06:58 - It left out. You said you started the smart. - It's okay.

07:02 - See what I mean? I need her mind. - Period.

07:07 - We can't always need our mind. That's how it is.

07:09 - Yes. Talk about it. - You both have kind of touched on it,

07:15 but I feel like the Kings as a couple kind of have a history of remixing it. It's kind of making them

07:22 very pacifist and kind of laying down and taking everything as being like their form of revolution.

07:30 I guess, what do you want people to take away from this series as the way that you have shown them

07:37 that might necessarily kind of counter some of that misconception about who they were and what

07:43 they actually stood for in real time? - For me, more than anything,

07:50 I just think they're regular people. They were regular people, husband and wife. They courted,

07:57 they flirted, they got together. They both understood that they had a purpose that was

08:03 greater than the both of them. And they both dedicated their lives to this and it worked.

08:10 - And I agree. And I also think that they had a unique opportunity. Martin's family came from

08:17 an interesting level of privilege for considering the time, especially growing up in the South.

08:21 His mom was very well-educated. They were very well-known inside that particular community.

08:27 Daddy King married into a system that worked. And they would kind of call Daddy King a race man. So

08:35 he was the one that was bringing these ideologies around what does it mean to be Black in America

08:41 and educating Martin in that. And I think that what they managed to do with their knowledge was

08:48 to be strategic in the political space. Whereas I don't think it was very rare you get a Black man

08:54 that can kind of be, people will want to receive what you said and want to listen to what you have

08:59 to offer. And so, people are trying to say they're passive, but I'm like, they were just strategists.

09:04 They were like, we mad too. And we read it up. But at the same time, like, what does that gain

09:10 us in this moment? You know what I mean? Let's work with the heat Malcolm's bringing up North

09:16 and allow that to put a fire under these people. And while I'm in the office talking to Kennedy,

09:21 he knows what's happening. My people understand who they are now. So what do you want to do?

09:27 Let's get this bill, brother. You know what I mean? Like, let's see the words.

09:30 - It's okay. It's okay. It's the long game. I think, yeah, the strategy that they had was

09:38 seeing the bigger picture and doing what needed to be done is playing the long game.

09:45 - Yeah, it's chess. - It's like big brother.

09:47 - It's like big brother. - He loves big brother.

09:49 It's the strategy. I really understand that. So they didn't take, it might have looked like they

09:57 were taking things lying down. But they was not. They was thinking.

10:02 - They was thinking. - It's making those moves, those chess moves.

10:05 - Ooh, ooh, I love it. Ooh. I hope that was an answer.

10:12 - And agreed. It was a great answer. Absolutely. And agreed. I guess just to wrap things up,

10:17 what was it like for you all, I guess with the rest of the cast shooting on location in Atlanta?

10:22 Because I know a lot of things that happened in the story, it really did happen on these

10:26 locations and sets. So what was it like kind of walking in those same footsteps?

10:30 - It was very special for me. I think before we started filming, we had the opportunity,

10:34 we went to Martin's birth home together. And we also went to the MLK Center. And I remember

10:40 walking into his birth home and immediately feeling, I just felt a presence. Because

10:51 that's the birthplace of everything. Do you know what I mean? And so it was an honor,

10:57 a privilege to be in the places where these people actually walked, they breathed, they lived.

11:04 And just to be a part of that, it was definitely a spiritual experience for me, I would definitely

11:09 say. But it was very special. And I don't think, I don't know how I'm going to top this in life now.

11:17 - I do agree with that, yeah. - It's tough.

11:19 - Yeah. I also would say that the extras were really special, the background actors. Because

11:24 - Yes, the other ones especially. - A lot of them, yeah, being from there,

11:26 and they were like, yeah, I remember growing up watching Dr. King and Malcolm X. And they were

11:31 very comforting and very supportive and lifted us up in times where we were insecure and doubted

11:36 whether or not we could actually portray them appropriately and respectfully and honor them in

11:43 the way that they should be. So it was really beautiful getting those firsthand stories and

11:48 just that encouragement from the people that live in the soil.

11:53 - All right, well, thank you both so much for your time. Truly appreciate it. And yes.

11:59 - Thank you. - Thank you so much.

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