00:00Cynthia, when your casting was announced, I think you were unfairly criticized a lot about it.
00:05How did you feel about that reaction?
00:14I understand that people are definitely allowed to have feelings.
00:17People are definitely allowed to have opinions because we're human beings.
00:21And I don't want to negate that at all.
00:24I do want people to see this and hopefully change their minds.
00:28And I want people to know that the most important thing is that we're getting to tell a story at all.
00:33You know, this is a story that was held on the shelf for a really long time.
00:37It was written 20 years ago.
00:39This script was written by Gregory 20 years ago.
00:42It was on the shelf for a really long time.
00:44I think just 10 years ago, Deborah Martin-Chase was determined to make it.
00:49So she took it back.
00:50And then three years ago would have been when she asked me to play the role.
00:54So it took three years from when she even found me.
00:57You have made it 100 miles to freedom.
01:00All by yourself.
01:01Would you like to pick a new name to mark your freedom?
01:05Parentum.
01:06I understand it.
01:08I understand the frustration.
01:10It's about people that feel like they've been ignored.
01:14And people that feel like, you know, why isn't my blackness enough?
01:20Why isn't my American-ness enough?
01:23I've felt it before myself.
01:25You know, so I start there.
01:27I don't want to ignore that.
01:29And I'll add to it.
01:31I think we're in a, I know we're in a moment.
01:34Right now where our stories really are being greenlit, you know, that historically there's been such a lack of representation, such a lack of variety in our storytelling and a lack of opportunity.
01:44And so there's a knee-jerk reaction.
01:46We're super protective about the Harriet Tubman movie, this being the first Harriet Tubman major motion picture.
01:52We're super protective about it because we don't know when we're going to get another one.
01:56But we're in a time right now where it's like, I believe like this is the first, but it won't be the last.
02:03We're going to see other Harriet Tubman movies.
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