00:00Subban, I know one of the things you said that drew you to Homecoming was that it was a sort of rare opportunity to play a colorless character.
00:14Yeah.
00:14Curious, in what way did that differ from the sort of previous offers that you were getting, and why was that so refreshing?
00:22Yeah, I mean, you know, just this idea that, you know, oftentimes when, you know, you get these breakdowns for these characters, sometimes it's a tough pill to swallow when, you know, you see an African-American is just explained in one sort of a way.
00:41Which is what?
00:41What's the way?
00:42Well, I mean, you know, I think we've historically, you know, been written, African-Americans have been written, for one, very one-dimensional.
00:52You know, perhaps they live one certain type of life.
00:55You know, maybe they're not educated.
00:58Maybe they are, you know, some sort of criminal, perhaps.
01:03Just say it.
01:04Just say it.
01:04Just say it.
01:05You know what I'm saying?
01:06Drugs and drugs.
01:07All that.
01:07And for me, it's like I take it, it's a responsibility that we have as artists, you know, to be responsible for the work that we're putting out into the world.
01:17And for me, it just meant a lot that, you know, I had this character, Homecoming, that didn't say African-American on the breakdown.
01:25I mean, it could very well say Caucasian.
01:28I'm acting opposite this little actress, Julia Roberts, you know, who I've grown up my whole life watching.
01:36And then it was just sort of this thing that felt like, you know, anybody could have had this role and here it is.
01:42It's mine, you know.
01:43And the power that we have with that is such an incredible, incredible sort of a feeling, you know.
01:47It makes you kind of feel invincible, you know, that people are seeing you in a different sort of a light.
01:52And for me, you know, while I don't think that it mattered so much that Walter was black, you know, for the story, it matters in life that he is.
02:02You know, it matters for the kids watching it, for the soldiers watching it.
02:07For the adults watching it.
02:07For the adults watching it.
02:08Who didn't have that.
02:09Yeah.
02:09And that was one of the things that was so powerful to me watching it.
02:12You know, coming up in another era where that was all we had.
02:16If you didn't play thugs or drug dealers, you didn't work at a certain age.
02:20And so to see this crack open like that.
02:23Yeah.
02:23To see this man, this beautiful man, be able to step into a space where his ethnicity is not even.
02:32Irrelevant.
02:33It's irrelevant.
02:34Yeah.
02:35It really blessed my soul for real.
02:37Specialty.
02:43At the stages of your careers that you are all currently in.
02:47What are the roles you're sort of either already tired of or just tired of being approached for?
02:53You know, the first thing that popped in my head was probably just period pieces.
02:58Oh, wow.
02:59That's interesting.
03:00Staying away from period for a minute.
03:01Well, you were doing, I mean, one after the next.
03:03Yeah.
03:04It was historical.
03:05Yeah.
03:05And, you know, playing these historical figures are great.
03:09I mean, you know, I played Jesse Owens and John Lewis and those things are great.
03:14I mean, you know, there's a lot of pride that comes with playing those types of people.
03:18But at a certain time, you're just like, you know, you get this feeling that people in Hollywood think you only exist in like the 1940s and 50s.
03:25You can't do anything contemporary.
03:28And so for me, that was one of the biggest, and again, it's the power we have as artists to say no to those things.
03:35And to try and change and maneuver and craft the kind of career that you see for yourself.
03:46Stefan, this has been quite a remarkable sort of period for you.
03:51You go from Beale Street to Homecoming, or at least that's the way the world sort of received these projects.
03:56Curious for you, A, how the opportunities have changed since and how you are making decisions have changed now that presumably the world's your oyster.
04:08I don't know.
04:09I think that the more eyes that are on you, I think that you're more mindful of just how careful, you know, the choices have to be.
04:16And for me, I think that it's a, you know, it's a wonderful thing to, you know, to be able to, you know, call up anyone or have anyone call you up and be able to sit down and have lunch with anybody.
04:29I think that that's really cool.
04:30You know, all of a sudden I'm meeting these directors who I've loved my whole life, and now I get to go to coffee and lunch with them, and they know me, and, you know, that's a cool thing.
04:39But I think certainly the decisions get tougher.
04:43You know, I think that you're constantly thinking about what's going to challenge you next, what's going to be different than what people are expecting, and then not wanting to oversaturate or do too much.
04:56So it's a little bit of a balancing act, I think, for me at this point in time is, you know, learning how to navigate this new level.
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