00:00Hi, I'm Cynthia Eriva.
00:01And I'm Leslie Odom, Jr.
00:03And you're in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:08Well, first of all, thank you guys for being here.
00:12I've admired you guys for so many years as performers.
00:16The magnitude of your talent.
00:18And now to see it in Harriet, I just had chills.
00:21So, 2016 was a big year for you both.
00:25Winning Best Actor and Actress at the Tonys for Hamilton and The Color Purple.
00:31And now you're being able to share another big year together with Harriet.
00:36What is it like to be able to be a part of this film together?
00:40That's pretty awesome.
00:42This is my good, good friend who I love daily.
00:45And just being able to share big moments like this is always really special.
00:51I mean, just, you know, you're not on your own and you get to share some wonderful things with each
00:56other, learn with each other.
00:59I'm having a good time with him.
01:01Yeah.
01:01And everybody, I mean, everybody should be lucky enough to have a friend like Cynthia Eriva.
01:06She's just fiercely loyal, protective, supportive.
01:11And, you know, and also like a talented, wonderful scene partner, too.
01:15It's like, it's a dream.
01:17Now, this film is such an incredible and also important piece of storytelling.
01:23Did you face any challenges when it came to playing these roles?
01:29Because I imagine there's a sense of pressure when it comes to playing someone like Harriet Tubman and William Still.
01:35Well, for me, it's more a responsibility.
01:42That's really the thing that I was feeling, to be able to try to tell her story as fully and
01:48as truthfully as I possibly could.
01:50And I take the responsibility quite very, very seriously.
01:53And I wanted to do as much as I could to make sure that I could do that, to make
01:59sure that I don't let anyone down.
02:00There is the want to make sure that people are happy with what they see, learn something from it, that
02:07I do her justice, that she is happy.
02:09Because I do believe that she has some agency in this, Harriet.
02:14So, yes, I guess the challenge is, there are many of them.
02:19For me, we had long, long days in the middle of the forest at night when it was freezing cold.
02:26One of those days was in the water at 37 degrees.
02:29And you're trying to figure out how to make that work and get rid of any fear you might have
02:36to be able to do the story, do the job fully.
02:42I had made the decision to do as many of the stunts as I possibly could, to be a part
02:48of as much as I possibly could.
02:50Because I wanted to be able to tell the story fully.
02:52And I felt like that was what was going to encourage that.
02:56As a follow-up, what was it like to be able to play the father of the Underground Railroad?
03:02Because not many people have been able to see his story come to life in this way.
03:07I mean, I think, I imagine there'll be, you know, William's story will be more fully told at some point.
03:16You know, I've said before, too, I don't think we're seeing the last of Harriet either.
03:24You know, maybe the first, but I don't think we're seeing the last of a Harriet Tubman story.
03:28You know, I hope that the floodgates are open now, that we'll see more Harriet stories, that we'll see a
03:35William story.
03:37Because it, I mean, there's, you know, you delve a little bit into those narratives that he compiled.
03:43You know, the Underground Railroad was a book also, you know, of escaped slaves, you know,
03:52that when they would find themselves on William's doorstep, he risked his life to record their stories of courage and
04:01bravery and, you know, cunning and, you know, to make it to freedom.
04:10So, I mean, I think there's lots of movies. I think there's lots of movies in there.
04:14A big, big part of this film was music and faith.
04:18So, how vital was that in telling the story and specifically telling Harriet's story?
04:23Very vital. And both factors are recorded about her.
04:30She is known to have said that God would give her messages and she would follow them.
04:35One of which, which is in the film, is when she was told that there was, that she needed to
04:42go left because she could, there was danger somewhere else and she needed to go left.
04:45So, she went left. And it turns out that there was, like, a siege happening.
04:49So, she, they had been infiltrated and someone had, they would have been cut off if they had gone in
04:53the other direction.
04:54And she would speak about it often.
04:59And most of her friends that, who knew her would say that they didn't know if that was the case,
05:05but she believed it.
05:06So, they were inclined to believe it too.
05:08As for music, it's just a big part of the history in general.
05:13It was used as a way to communicate and a way to stay safe when you needed to tell something
05:19to someone that might get you killed, in some cases, if it was heard, spoken.
05:27And singing is the way in which she communicated to let people know she was there or when she was
05:31leaving.
05:32I just happened to be lucky enough to be a part of being able to do that.
05:35Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think you had mentioned that, that Harriet, finding Harriet's voice was, was different than, than
05:44your own singing voice.
05:45So, how were you able to kind of zero in on what Harriet's voice was?
05:51For me, music is like a second language.
05:53Yeah.
05:54And it's probably his second language too, or first, maybe.
05:57Um, and, uh, I guess knowing my voice well enough, I know where the facets of my voice are and
06:05what I have in it.
06:06And it was about looking at her, trying to see into her, figuring out where she might place her voice,
06:13where she might speak.
06:15Uh, I knew, I know I'm a soprano, but I didn't feel like that's what she was.
06:20I didn't feel like that's where her voice lived.
06:22It felt like, just because of the work she was doing and the work that I was doing, uh, for
06:27her, to bring her to life,
06:29it felt like it was deeper, more grounded.
06:35Um, so both Casey and I sort of set about trying to find out what that might sound like,
06:41and we sort of found a place in my chest, sort of like an alto sound, to tell her story.
06:48And what was it like working with Casey Lemons, um, such, yeah.
06:53She's incredible.
06:54This woman is a genius and she's extremely kind and did the work that, because I think she understands what
07:03it is to be an actor,
07:05because she is one and has been one and now has put that experience into her work as a director,
07:12I think she did the research that we would both do, if not more.
07:17I think she spent, like, 17 weeks, seven weeks, something, researching, reading everything.
07:25I think it was longer.
07:27Yeah.
07:27She had a year and then, and then, and had met every, kind of hurt.
07:31Yeah, she just did pure research.
07:34Just pure reading and research.
07:37Um, she put everything into this, and, and that first day on set, she and I, we sort of locked
07:42eyes.
07:43We just knew, um, what we were here for, uh, and I knew every day why she was here and
07:48what she wanted to do with this,
07:50and I knew that it was, she was pure of heart.
07:52I knew that she was using Harriet as her, her guiding light, her guiding force.
07:57And she, there was just a fire in her to be able to tell this story.
08:01Um, and you had mentioned that you had a spiritual experience when you filmed the freedom scene.
08:08Do you mind talking a little bit about that?
08:10Um, so, the day was terrible.
08:13It was rainy and gray.
08:17The sun did not really come out at all.
08:19It was dark the whole time.
08:20We had a lot to shoot.
08:22We had been going for a really long time, and I, I had about five different changes, uh, throughout the
08:29day.
08:30And we had gotten to maybe the second to last one.
08:33And I got a message that, that Casey wanted to shoot the, the freedom scene, the crossing over into freedom.
08:40And I was just like, there's no way we're going to get this done.
08:44We're not going to get it done.
08:45Uh, because I'm stubborn, I do the opposite to what most people would do.
08:49So, instead of slowing down, saying, we're not going to get it done, I was like, right, I'm going to
08:53get ready on time,
08:54because I know we're not going to get it done, so I'm going to be ready before everybody else,
08:57and I'm going to be right there, and I'm going to be ready to shoot this.
08:59Um, it just, everyone was under the impression that this would not happen.
09:05So, I get to the, we're on, like, this hill, and I have to pull up in a horse and
09:14carriage, like a buggy almost.
09:16And I get there, and I get out of the, the, the carriage, and the sky starts to close.
09:22I was like, okay, that's great.
09:24And then we get to the point where I jump over into freedom, and the sky literally parts.
09:31The sun comes out.
09:33It's this bright orange, yellow, red ball in the sky.
09:40The sky is, like, stripes of purple, and it's just mad.
09:44And then to my right is a double rainbow.
09:49And I was like, no one is going to believe that this is real.
09:53Everyone is going to think that this is CGI.
09:56Um, and I'm looking around.
09:58Everyone is in tears.
09:59We all were just like, okay.
10:03And I think for me, I was like, all right, good one.
10:07It's really great.
10:08Because we all just knew that it was not of us.
10:11It wasn't a normal occurrence.
10:12It felt like it was a spiritual moment.
10:14It felt like it had come from God and from her.
10:17Yeah.
10:19And I think we were all willing to admit it.
10:21Even the, even the hardest of hearts couldn't have, couldn't have escaped that.
10:25And even seeing that scene, it was picture perfect.
10:29And we shot it maybe once.
10:32Wow.
10:33Yeah, there was, we didn't, it was crazy.
10:36Now, also in this film, you have Clark Peters.
10:40Yes.
10:41Janelle Monae.
10:42Yeah.
10:42Jennifer Nettles.
10:43Joe Alwyn, who is also so incredible in this film.
10:47What was it like to be able to work with such a talented cast, and also many of them fellow
10:52musicians?
10:54You know, whenever these things happen, you know, sometimes they,
10:58they take a long time to have it.
11:00I know, you know, they've been talking about making the Harriet Tubman movie for a really long time.
11:04And, you know, whenever they happen, I just, whenever I'm lucky enough to land into these moments,
11:11I just feel, you know, blessed and lucky that it, that for whatever reason, it waited around until I could
11:20be a part of it.
11:23You know, because certainly if it had been a part, if it had been made five minutes ago, I wouldn't
11:27have been a part of it.
11:28So, yeah, it was, you know, for such a time as this, you know, it was like, it felt like
11:34those people had gathered together in front of the camera, behind the camera.
11:39I think, you know, everybody just felt lucky to be there.
11:44Yeah. Between all these musicians, did you ever have any jam sessions on set?
11:49I mean, you have to take that opportunity.
11:51I don't think we did. No, we didn't.
11:53We didn't. I did, because I remember I was like devouring Janelle's album.
11:59Right.
11:59Like during that time, so I did take the, you know, I tried not to annoy her too much,
12:03but I did take the opportunity to like talk her ear off a little bit about that record.
12:08We went to see her.
12:09We did.
12:10We went to see her whilst we were doing it, yeah.
12:12We did. It was like she hadn't even started.
12:16It was her first date. It was like her first second date.
12:19She played in Canada.
12:20Yeah.
12:21And we went.
12:22Yeah.
12:22She was awesome.
12:23But yeah.
12:24It was just before we started.
12:25Yeah.
12:26So what do you guys hope that people take away from this film?
12:31I hope that people see this film and understand that they have the power to change the world.
12:43That if a person who has very little means can find the strength and power and will and determination within
12:51themselves,
12:52even though nobody else believes that they have that in them, could risk their lives to save many people and
13:02achieve that, we don't really have any excuses.
13:07So I want people to know that they, if they put their minds to it, if they want to change
13:14things, they can.
13:16And I want to make sure that people look at this and see that we come from a past that
13:21is bitter, but the sweetness is that someone took the responsibility to move us forward.
13:33But we should look through that as a warning that we shouldn't go backwards and we should keep trying to
13:37find the sweet people in this world that will keep changing it.
13:40I love that.
13:41All right.
13:42Well, thank you guys both for being here.
13:43It was such a pleasure.
13:44Thank you, Nia.
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