Facetime with Cress Williams
Cress Williams grew up watching television and deciding he wanted to be an actor like the ones he saw on-screen. After attending Fullerton College, where he trained in theater, and then UCLA, he embarked on a career in film and television that has included memorable roles in “Living Single,” “Er,”“friday Night Lights” and “Black Lightning.”
What You Didn’t Know About Cress Williams
COMIC HERO HE GREW UP WANTING TO BE: Superman IF HE WEREN’T ACTING, HE’D BE: Some kind of musician CAUSE HE CARES ABOUT MOST RIGHT NOW: Solving gun violence HISTORICAL FIGURE HE’D LIKE TO MEET: Jesus
Interview by DANIELLE TURCHIANO Photograph by DAVID STUDARUS When did you decide you wanted an on-screen medium rather than theater?
I got this very small independent film called “The Dogwalker.” [The director] let me improvise, and at the end of the whole thing, he was like, “Thank you for coming up with some of my best lines.” And I was like, “Wow, thank you.” When you’re doing a published play, that’s the bible — you’re not allowed to change it. Early on I was treating film and television scripts like that. It took me a little while to realize this is more movable [and] you can play with it more to really find the character. Once I realized that, it became a lot more fun.
How important to you are characters and projects that have to do with real issues?
I think it was Edward R. Murrow who said — and I think he was talking more about news media — but that its purpose should be to illuminate, educate and inspire. So I was really excited to read [“Black Lightning”] because it checked off all of those boxes.
Was it intentional that you keep taking on such characters?
Now there’s more intentionality about shaping my career. Early on, I was just a working actor who got auditions. [Still,] if something didn’t ring true for a myriad of reasons, I would say no and was fortunate enough to have people around me that were OK with that.
How much did you need to know about Black Lightning’s backstory before signing on to the role?
As an actor, I like to know as much as I can. I didn’t really know of “Black Lightning” until I got the script and started to investigate; it wasn’t a hero that I grew up with. So I didn’t know if his powers were natural or if it was the suit, but those things are, for me, very important. I really like the idea that his powers are his — that whether he has the suit or not, he has them.