Did you get a chance to meet her before her death?

did a ton of research into the Black Panthers and all these people who don’t get celebrated.

Unfortunately, I did not, but I tried desperately. I learned later it was because she was in the last few months of her life.

Was it difficult taking on a role of a real-life woman, especially with a script that didn’t aim to sanitize her complicated life?

In many ways, no. It’s all about the “how” to me and the spirit of the thing. Are you trying to allow a person to be a full human being or are you trying to degrade them? Her life has redemption in it, and storytelling is about that, allowing a story to be complex. To me, it’s actually damaging to try to sanitize a story. If you tell my story one day, let it have all my issues in it. It is deeply important to step into the uncomfortable, because then is when we give it truth. That is my job. Benny and L.T. were very keen on making it something truthful but not disrespectful.

Playing your son was firsttimer and Tupac doppelganger Demetrius Shipp Jr. How was that?

I think he was amazing and does an astounding job. I was really impressed with how he was embodying this man, and coming on as a first-time actor, that is no small thing.

Why do you think Tupac and his story are still relevant 21 years after his death?

There was something so powerful growing up in Zimbabwe and seeing the impact of this man across the world, and I saw it when I researched his mother too. It was an era where people spoke what was true, whether or not it was safe to say it. That’s something he got from his mother and the Panthers. That is something very powerful that we need to remember: We need to speak the truth about what’s happening in our societies. What’s scary to me in our world and country is that we’re starting to have an odd relationship with the truth sometimes. There’s an integrity (issue), and facts could be getting compromised if we’re not careful.