Brown a star public wants to hear from
Season five of NBC’s “This Is Us” sees the Pearson family as they navigate both the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement. Sterling K. Brown, who plays Randall Pearson, says he can relate to how his character — a Black man who was adopted into a white family — feels in the aftermath of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Brown says he received “tons of phone calls from white friends saying, ‘What can I do? Let me know? Is there something I should be doing?’ and it’s like, ‘Guys, I appreciate where your heart is, I really do, but I’ve got like every other white person calling me saying this. ... You don’t realize you’re inundating me, in a very sweet way, but I’m still trying to figure out what my next step is.’ It’s hard enough to represent yourself rather than represent all of Black America,” he said.
This interview with Brown has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What does it feel like to be someone who people want to know your opinions?
A: There was this Dave Chappelle joke about how people always want to know what celebrities have to say, and MTV interviewed Ja Rule about 9/11. And I’m like, ‘Am I Ja Rule now? Is this what’s happening to me?’ But I do feel like silence in the face of inequality is complicity, and I don’t want anyone to think I think the status quo is OK. So there is some pressure to have something to say. You want to inform yourself to what’s going on in the world, have an opinion and be able to defend yourself.
Q: What was your long hiatus from “This Is Us” like?
A: It was the longest break I’ve had in six years. I was home so much to the point where my oldest son (Andrew, 9) got a little annoyed with me. ... And the baby Amare, he’s not a baby, he’s 5. But he was full of joy and sunshine. ... My wife and I had a wonderful time but in that, a wonderful, difficult time. When you’re used to going away and coming back, you have a rhythm. And when that rhythm was broken it was a little like, ‘Why are you here?’ ‘Why are YOU here?’ And then we realized ‘Oh, man. We kind of missed each other a little bit.’
Q: Let’s discuss “The West Wing” special for HBO Max. What was that experience like?
A: Tommy (Schlamme) and Aaron (Sorkin) called me and they were like, ‘We were wondering if you would play the role of Leo.’ I’m like, ‘You know I’m 44-years-old.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, OK, no problem.’ And the fact that I was even asked was a tremendous offer. Like, honestly, that was my show, you know? It’s a perfect example of the kind of art where it doesn’t necessarily show a reflection of the way life as it is, but life as it could be, you know, an idealized version or something like it. And, it’s acting crushes that I’ve had for years. I’m now sharing a space with these people. It exceeded expectations ... So everybody started rehearsing their scenes by their trailers outside with their PPE on. I didn’t have much to do in the episode, but I was like, ‘Can I just sit in the audience and watch?’ I was like a kid in a candy store.