'The American Society of Magical Negroes' Cast Share Their Experience With Racism | Sundance 2024 - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

'The American Society of Magical Negroes' Director Kobi Libii and cast Justice Smith and David Alan Grier stop by The Hollywood Reporter's studio during the Sundance Film Festival to discuss their own experiences with racism. Plus, Libii talks about making a subject matter that's difficult to talk about, possible to discuss and Smith shares what in the script stood out to him the most.

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00:00because i've been in that situation so many times where um a friend of mine a white friend of mine

00:05is is uh having big feelings about uh something racist that they did and and i have to uh somehow

00:14alleviate their guilt rather than focus on the ways that i'm hurt you know i've been in that

00:20position like specifically through my adolescence you know racial confession a racial confession

00:27yeah yeah it's like oh like you're the priest oh my god yes

00:34it was called the american society of magical negroes um and it starts with the magical negro

00:38trope which is a black supporting character who doesn't have his own internal life is just there

00:41to support the white protagonist and uh our movie is a satire of that trope uh but it's also um uh

00:48not just to sort of take down of this racist trope it's also a way for me as a writer director to

00:52explore um uh some particular defense mechanisms i was taught in response to racism and it's also i

00:59i think a very full-hearted love story about being um seen by someone who loves you and how nourishing

01:04that is in a culture that would rather reduce you and see you as a stereotype did you have any

01:10particularly egregious examples of that in pop culture that you were thinking about when you made

01:17this yeah i mean there's there's a couple there's certainly some some stuff we you know reference in

01:21the film you know but you would you know you know you all know them you know and it's an old trope as

01:26long as there have been white people writing there has been this trope but you know in in america anyway

01:31and and one things i say about it is that it's a it's a happy slave trope is what it is right so it's

01:36a trope that imagines that but that where a white person likes to imagine that black people just love

01:43putting them first and just love fitting ourselves into um uh existing white systems of power and um

01:50that's not true but funny yeah yeah what yeah when i all the like very rich political stuff i said but

01:58with funny you know but imagine david alan greer saying it instead of instead of a writer director

02:04part of the the the whole um exercise is making this subject matter that's really difficult to talk about

02:12uh uh possible to talk about so part of that is humor but also it's it's fun it's the fun of a

02:18magical world and and beyond that it's it's a bit of a metaphor because the the things black people

02:24have to do to survive in america are utterly fantastical and there's no better way to express

02:31that than by creating a literally fantastical world that is a reflection of again the wild and

02:37unbelievable lengths we have to go to to navigate this place david and justice when you guys read

02:41the script for the first time was there one particular because you write a lot of examples

02:47of like seem like they could be exaggerated but they're not did anything from the script like one

02:53particular scene or moment or interaction pop for you right away your post strongest i'm bone dry

03:01you want to take this um yeah uh i mean i was just in awe that like my my personal racial experience was

03:11captured so uh accurately and and and beautifully and and with humor and and light but with just as much

03:21weight um and that's obviously because you know me and kobe have a very similar mode of moving um through the

03:30world uh but i remember specifically the scene at the bar um between um aaron say it between aaron

03:41liz and jason good because i've been in that situation so many times where um a friend of mine a white

03:50friend of mine is is uh having big feelings about uh something racist that they did and and i have to

03:58uh somehow alleviate their guilt rather than focus on the ways that i'm hurt you know i've been in that

04:07position like specifically through my adolescence you know racial confession a racial confession yeah

04:13yeah oh like you're the priest yeah oh my god yes have you ever had a friend who's gone to aaa and

04:20they're going through their steps and they call you oh i won't apologize about three years like we're good

04:25man yeah two years ago but i puked and i ate it um i just wanted to be like yeah let's move on yeah

04:36fully the film is so much about who who's the main character right who gets to be central and who gets

04:41to be in the background and obviously it's it's it's david you know as as he's made very clear thank

04:46you yeah finally a film centering on the travails of an older very naturally sexy black man but what

04:55david and justice are both speaking to in terms of that confessional quality i think one way that

05:00white people can can center themselves in conversations about race is is they make it they

05:05ask us as black people to make them feel okay and take away their guilt and and absolve them of

05:11different things as opposed to again just listening to us in our experience i have a serious question

05:15have you ever been in that conversation and inside you know that this person they have up yeah yeah

05:22but you choose to go no we're good because because because if you say anything else yes you're going

05:28to be there for two pick and choose your battles i'm going to give you an example um i was on a plane

05:34sitting first class it was not full so there was an older white man sitting next to me total stranger

05:41and uh right after we took off the stewardess says you can move around if you want to so he left and

05:48went and sat somewhere else about an hour into the flight he came back obviously inebriated to apologize

05:55for moving away i do not know this man he came back a second time even drunker i know what you think

06:04you think you're calling me racist and i just was like whoa this went on for the whole flight oh my

06:10god like it wasn't even about me i'm a stranger yeah like it was all about him confessing his uh racial

06:20and this is one of the things i want to tell you guys see i'm stuck right now and uh and i'm gonna make

06:25up a word he kept it's like he wanted to regurgitate his ineptiosity yeah

06:38no but for real no he came and you and it got more animated and more he was arguing with himself

06:44yes right like i know what you mean i know what you're thinking you're all silent sitting i'm a

06:50racist that's what you know what it didn't get combative it was mildly combative until finally

06:59i acted like i was asleep i mean i'm telling this really happened i'm like yeah this this was all him

07:06yeah yeah it was we never i think we said hello yeah and so that was probably for me the worst where

07:13you just oh my god it's so funny because as as black audiences as any marginalized person can attest to

07:21we've had to find ourselves in uh white stories we've had to find white characters that we identify

07:28with for so long and then now that we are centering ourselves in these stories white audiences for the

07:34first time ever are being like oh like like now i have to find myself even though no one in this

07:41looks like me you know i'd like i really identify with this protagonist and um but that's where empathy

07:48comes from you know that's where that's where actual movement comes from and it's you know with

07:52this piece i think it's it's actually a terrifically universal piece because it's it's really just

07:56it's the story of a guy who has trouble speaking up for himself who learns how to speak up for

08:00himself you know and i think that independent of the sort of racialized um sort of generation of

08:05that for for for myself and for the character that the justice plays i think that's something a lot

08:10of people from a lot of different backgrounds can connect with but yeah but i think sometimes people

08:13look at a piece that's that's labeled with race or has race associated with it and um when you know

08:19white people i mean have and worry whether or not they'll be able to connect to it but i think all

08:23all stories are universal the more specific they are the more universal they are

'The American Society of Magical Negroes' Cast Share Their Experience With Racism | Sundance 2024

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