00:00Well, I hope that people who see this will be inspired to learn more about the party and about Huey.
00:07I mean, he's a complicated figure, right?
00:09He caused a lot of harm.
00:11You know, he was a product of his time in a lot of ways.
00:13He also was fiercely intelligent and so courageous and powerful.
00:21Oakley Jones with Essence.
00:22How you doing today, Andre?
00:23Doing all right.
00:24How you feeling, man?
00:25Good.
00:25It's a pleasure to be speaking with you, man.
00:28Likewise.
00:29So for my first question, my brother, I'm pretty sure you've heard this before.
00:34But portraying an iconic figure like Huey P. Noon, did you feel any pressure as an actor?
00:42And if so, can you speak to that for me?
00:45Yeah, man, I felt enormous pressure, to be honest.
00:49It's, I mean, pressure, but also responsibility.
00:52You know, he's such a complex character.
00:55And I wanted to make sure that I was, I was, had enough time to really research it in the right way and to really prepare in the right way.
01:02I also felt like, you know, everybody is familiar, at least with the image of who Huey Newton was.
01:08And so, yeah, I felt the responsibility to, yeah, to live up to and present like a really fair, balanced and nuanced portrayal of this person.
01:20And I think a lot of times with our stories, you know, it's so rare that we even get to tell them that there's an added pressure of, well, if this is going to be the one we're going to do, we need to make sure we do it right.
01:31You know, and while this show isn't a real detailed biopic look at his life or at the life of the party of the Panthers, but, you know, I still felt like there was an opportunity to lay in some real nuance and some history and some context that maybe people didn't know.
01:47I wanted to know, you portraying him, is there anything new or something that surprised you that you learned about Huey Newton when you were going down this journey?
01:57Yeah, a lot of things. I mean, one thing that comes to mind right now is his, you know, like his internal life, his interiority, and especially in relation to his upbringing.
02:11Like, I didn't know, for instance, that he was really an introvert. You know, he was hugely shy.
02:16I thought, you know, well, he's a revolutionary. He's this powerful guy.
02:21And there's these images of him standing up on the car with his shirt off, giving a speech and talking.
02:26And I thought, well, that's a person who loves to be in the spotlight. But in fact, he was like so afraid of the spotlight, did not like public speaking at all, and yet had to find a way to like find his own voice.
02:38You know, so I found that to be to be really interesting. Another thing is that he didn't really, from what I read, didn't really learn to read until a little bit later in life.
02:48You know what I mean? He was kind of late coming to being able to read. And I think, and yet he was so intelligent, right?
02:55And so a person who doesn't have access to the written word in the way that some people do, I think has to learn and navigate the world in like a very particular kind of way.
03:05So that was something that I learned and felt, yeah, felt was really interesting.
03:10And then he goes on to get a Ph.D., which is amazing. But anyway, yeah.
03:15A lot of our black leaders, especially during that time, it's different perceptions of them, you know, especially with the media.
03:21They might portray him in a certain light and we know them in a different light.
03:24Well, Huey P. Newton, what do you hope that his legacy or impact will be with the general public after they see this?
03:33Well, I hope that people who see see this will be inspired to learn more about the party and about Huey.
03:40I mean, he's a complicated figure, right? There were he caused a lot of harm.
03:44You know, he was a product of his time in a lot of ways.
03:46He also was fiercely intelligent and so courageous and powerful.
03:50One of the resources that was helpful to me was the Huey P. Newton Foundation up in Oakland.
03:56So they're doing a lot of really wonderful work at furthering his legacy, preserving his legacy and also educating people about what the Panthers were all about, really.
04:04You know, which was not obviously guns and, you know, violence and all of that.
04:08And then also trying to continue the work by getting a national park, for instance, and like, you know, educating young people in the community about about what the what the Panthers were doing.
04:19So I hope that people watch the series and then get really curious and go to places like the foundation or to the library and like pick up one of the many books that there are about the Panthers and particularly the women, you know, who are part of the movement.
04:32I think they often go under under celebrated.
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