Press Conference
December 8, 2007

WARNING!
...spoilers ahead...

MD = Michael Dequina; Q = Other press;
DWa = Denzel Washington; NP = Nate Parker;
JS = Jurnee Smollett; DWh = Denzel Whitaker

Q: What's the best thing about directing?

DWa: The best thing about it is getting the opportunity to do it. In this case, it's just seeing these three young people do what they studied hard and worked hard to do. I know as an actor how difficult it is to get in this position, to get the opportunity to get good parts. Many times people talk about Academy Awards and this and that, and I always say you can't be considered unless you have a good role, and good roles are hard to come by. So all three of them have great roles, great opportunities.

Q: You have a lot of new talent showcased in this film. What is your philosophy behind giving new talent opportunities?

DWa: There's no philosophy. If the movie had been about three 70-year-olds, I don't think they would've been new actors; they might've been. [laughs] These were the roles, and these were the actors that won the roles. I didn't decide to do this film solely because I saw a great opportunity for young actors. I read a piece of material that interested me and that I was moved by, and these are the young people that won the parts.

Q: What is the importance of grounded speech and debate in the upcoming presidential election?

DWh: Debate is all about relating your topics and being sincere as well as getting across the facts. To have a grounded debate or speech, say if you're Barack Obama, I think it relates him to the people because democracy is all about the people. For him to relate to the people that makes us feel that he's a better candidate.

JS: I would just have to agree with Little Denzel. [laughs]

DWa: Because I'm Big Denzel. [laughs]

JS: I'll try to minimize the confusion. [laughs] Debate is about you believing what you say and saying what you believe. In shutting down your opponent with words, the key to it is being passionate. That was one of the things that [Washington] said to us when we went to debate camp. He was saying that we, technically, should be better debaters--he said "Y'all better win" because you're actors, and you should be able to believe what you say and be sincere. I think that's what we were able to do at debate camp.

DWa: We set up a camp for the kids. I met Dr. [Thomas F.] Freeman, who's the debating coach at Texas Southern, which is one of the top debating schools in the country. So I interviewed him and actually put him on film. I asked him if we could set up a little mini-camp for the young actors, and he put them through their paces.

NP: We arrived, and we learned all about parliamentary and impromptu debate. [Washington] was very adamant about us researching and us knowing what we were talking about and being well-versed in debate and the process of debate. We got with the Texas Southern University team, and they took us through and gave us a crash course. Like Denzel said, we should be more persuasive being that we're actors. So in the first day we learned debate, and the second day we broke into teams, and we debated. The morning of, we were watching CNN, MSNBC, and reading The Wall Street Journal--you could see us in our van driving over and Little Denzel has the paper over his head. [laughs] So we took it very seriously, and we defeated their freshman/sophomore team. So it paid off, and it's a testament to research and preparation. Anytime you're going to be able to stand up in front of people and speak passionately about something, it helps for you to know what you're talking about. And that is what helped us in the film. You see the film, and you see these speeches that were, of course, written by someone else, but we studied, and we researched all the details behind those speeches, so we could be passionate--so they meant something to us so we could be believable to watch.

Q: Did you win?

NP: Yes, we did.

DWh: Oh yes, we won.

[DWa laughs]

Q: Has making this movie sparked more interest in making more movies about untold stories in African-American history?

DWa: I was already doing that, so no, it didn't spark it.

Q: But did it spark any more?

DWa: I don't know what I'm going to do next. I like to keep it close to the vest. [laughs] This was just a really good story. I call it a sports movie. In those days, that's what they considered it: a spectator sport. It was a very popular event to go to. That was interesting--the fact that there were only 360 students at this college, and they were going up against these big schools. That was very fascinating. When I interviewed Mel Tolson's son and Henrietta Wells--the character that Jurnee played was loosely based on her; she actually debated in 1931--what they talked about was how prepared they were. They weren't intimidated; they were prepared. It was sort of a cocoon, if you will. It's a movie, so there's big dramatic strokes in it that didn't necessarily happen in two hours in their life; maybe it happened over the course of 20 or 30 years or in five or ten years. But the fact of the matter was, when they got up on that stage, and when they got up against anyone, they were not inimidated by anyone. In our film, we changed it. I wanted it to be Harvard; in actual fact, the national champions were USC. But there's no question that everybody they went against, they beat, so it didn't matter who it was--Oxford, Harvard, USC, Cambridge.

Q: For Big Denzel, who would you like to debate personally?

DWa: I don't need to debate. [laughs] Talk is cheap. That's my philosophy. I'm about doing, so I don't need to talk about it. I'd rather do it.

Q: And for the young actors, what about Big Denzel inspires you?

NP: What inspires me the most about Denzel is his integrity. It wasn't even so much as watching him act or watching him act, but in watching him in every other detail of his life. As a young actor, being in this business, sometimes it's difficult. You see what Hollywood has done to certain people that have gone about it the wrong way. You say to yourself, is it possible for me to be in this business for 35 years--

DWa: Watch it. Watch it.

[Everyone laughs]

NP: --but hold on to my integrity. If in 35 years I can look back on my career and say that I've walked around with a sense of morality and integrity, then I'll be happy. So it was important for me in watching him every day to see if that is who he was. And he didn't let me down. In every moment, whether if it was on set or it was on the phone, he carried himself in a way that inspired me to be more like him.

DWa: Wow. So there.

[Everyone laughs]

JS: What I would just add to what Nate was saying is his humility and his devotion to the project. At the end of the day, he was able to really just check his ego at the door and was so devoted to making the project honest and being the ultimate collaborator. He was our leader; it was his vision, but at the end of the day, we were all doing this together. Whether you were the propmaster, whether you were in the background, whether you were doing wardrobe, or whether you were in front of the camera--we were all making a film together; it was a team effort. For him to be our leader, and for him to be the one with the most awards, for him to be able to check his ego and ask sometimes what we thought was so amazing to me. It spoke volumes about his character.

DWh: For me, personally I've always looked up to him from the beginning of my acting career. I'd just like to add that he's humble. In everything he does, he's so intelligent.

DWa: [laughs] He's a good actor.

[Everyone laughs]

DWh: Seriously. True thing--I'd write down quotes; everything he's told me I have them on my computer right now, and I look at them before I go to auditions. Just sitting behind his chair when he was filming, just seeing how he came on set--I remember I was talking to producers Todd [Black] and Molly [Allen] about this--he was passionate. You could see he loved what he does every day. He still has a love for being in the game--I just love that; I'd love to be where he is at right now years later and have the same passion and do roles that are inpiring to other people.

DWa: 35 years later. [laughs]

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