00:00First, I want to congratulate you on all the positive buzz and excitement around Judas and
00:23the Black Messiah. I got a chance to view the film and I thought you did an amazing job as
00:29William O'Neill. Obviously, FBI informant who's been viewed throughout history as a traitor,
00:36you know, likened to Judas with the title of this film. But I'm curious for you, you know,
00:40having to step into his shoes, what is your perception of him?
00:46Thank you, first of all, for the compliment. My perception has changed over time. I mean,
00:51I think initially it was the same as everyone else or maybe the general consensus is that he
00:59was a traitor and that he did things that I found reprehensible and that he couldn't be
01:05forgiven for those things. I wrote him off. It's just that simple. But I think as I was able to
01:13dive into the role, you know, continuing my research and seeing a long form interview with
01:19him on Eyes on the Prize, I got an indication that he's actually a little bit more complicated
01:24of an individual. Eyes on the Prize, by the way, was a documentary that sort of documented in the
01:3060s and a whole bunch of cultural events, many of which dealt directly with the times of Fred Hampton
01:39and the Black Panther Party. And so I got the unreleased version of the interview that aired
01:45in Eyes on the Prize and I got to see full length what was going on with William.
01:50So, yeah, I just wanted to add layers to it and not create a scary villain type character,
01:57but really give him intricacies that could make him feel more multidimensional and alive in my mind,
02:03you know? Yeah, I definitely think you did that. And it was weird, you know, I was looking him up
02:09last night and I'm like, you two really favor. Like, I looked at him when he was younger and thought,
02:13oh, I can see, like, did that kind of freak you out a bit or were you shocked?
02:17No, you know, I'm a young Black dude. I look like a lot of young Black dudes. A lot of them look like me.
02:25It's all good.
02:27Well, in thinking, you know, about these men, Fred Hampton being 21, you know, O'Neal only 20
02:32at that age and just, you know, how headstrong they were, but how, you know, young they were to be a
02:39part of such strong, you know, movements. And I think a lot of people, they look back on that time
02:43and they think, oh, if I was around in the 60s, I would have been like this, or I would have done
02:47this, I would have done that. You know, if you were around during that era, what kind of camp do
02:52you think you would fall into or how you think you would navigate that time?
02:56I mean, yeah, people do say that. I don't know what they would have did, what they could have did.
03:01I mean, you know, it's hard to say. It's really hard to say. I'm inclined to believe I probably would
03:06have been a Black Panther, as most of us probably are, but, you know, it's really hard to say.
03:12And that's another question I wanted to pose with my portrayal of O'Neal. You know, you might think
03:18you're going to do one thing, but when you're, when you have two options and one option seems like a
03:23bad option and one seems like a less bad option, you're most likely going to choose a less bad option.
03:29Now, Fred Hampton didn't do that. He chose the option that put his life on the line for people that he didn't
03:34even know a lot of the time, you know, but that's an exceptional and rare type of person.
03:39Bill O'Neal is more of what you see every day walking around. People that are going to take
03:43the easier route out or take the route that they feel will lead to their survival or allow them to
03:49not be locked up and incarcerated. Most people are going to take that option. Yeah. Yeah. You know,
03:56and after his death, we mostly heard in terms of family from his Uncle Ben, you know, I know he also
04:01had a wife and a son. Did you speak to any of his family in preparing for the role?
04:05No, because I just, we didn't have very much contact with them. And yeah, I mean, I, I mean,
04:13we, I had no contact whatsoever with anyone from his life. All I had was the things that were left
04:19over that he recorded and the transcripts from his court hearings and books and stuff that accounted
04:26things that he had done or been a part of. Even after the Black Panther Party, I got most of the
04:31information about him after he had done on his time with Mitchell. I mean, within that story,
04:39because he continued to work with Mitchell and got a lot of other people in crazy situations and
04:44got himself in a lot of crazy and dangerous situations. And so I think that's why, that's
04:50why by the time Eyes on the Prize aired in the 90s, he might've just been done. But then again,
04:58who knows what the, what those government agencies, who knows?
05:03And, you know, obviously this also isn't your first time working with Daniel Kaluuya,
05:08even Lil' Real, you know, on Get Out before. What was it like being a part of this project,
05:13working with both of them?
05:15It was cool. You know, I always, I wanted to work with Daniel in a larger capacity,
05:19you know, since we did Get Out. And then we did, we did a performance at Carnegie Hall,
05:23where a bunch of kids from countries that maybe don't have as much, we're able to write stories
05:30and send them to actors in America and abroad and have us replay the characters and their stories.
05:37And then they will record it and then send it back to the kids at home. So I was, and we did it all
05:44for charity. So people would buy tickets and all the tickets revenue would go back into charity for
05:49the kids. So we did that. And that was cool. I got to see it on stage for the first time there
05:55and just see how Verisifus and like his, how, how like massively powerful his voice is. Now he
06:03can command the room. And, you know, so when I heard he was playing Fred, I was like, damn,
06:07if he's going to bring that to this, we're lucky. And he did that. So yeah, it was dope to work with
06:14him. It's always great to see Real. We worked a lot. We did, you know, Issa Rae's video. I mean,
06:18Jay-Z's video with Issa Rae. And, you know, obviously we did Get Out and we've done a couple
06:24of little things. So it's always nice to see him. Yeah. And just thinking about your career
06:29overall, you know, is it going the way you, I guess, intentionally, you know, formatted it to be?
06:36I think about Atlanta and then I think about Get Out, the photograph. You know, Judas is so diverse
06:42and most actors don't have that diversity, you know, particularly so soon. Is this how you kind
06:47of mapped it out and wanted it to go? I mean, I don't know. That's hard to say
06:52because I always envisioned myself like being at this point kind of, but not in this exact way.
06:58Like I knew, I knew I had something special, you know, I didn't really know what it was, but
07:03I knew if I was given the opportunity, I was going to take it all away. You know,
07:07so I didn't know it would be like this exactly, but no doubt in my mind, I was going to get out
07:14of the situation I was in, you know, and try to do something better. So yeah, I remember,
07:19I remember thinking that like, oh, you're not, I'm going to get out of this.
07:23I don't know how it's going to happen, you know?
07:24Yeah. Which I have to ask, what's going on with Atlanta? Everybody is like, is it coming back?
07:30Yeah. You know, we're talking right now about ways to safely be able to bring Atlanta back to
07:37everybody. And I got some exciting news. I really can't share it, but yeah, we're going to be back
07:44at y'all soon. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
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