DANIEL KALUUYA
Talking real-life Black Panthers with the Brit star.
GET OUT STAR DANIEL KALUUYA CONTINUES HIS ELECTRIFYING ASCENT WITH JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH, PLAYING BLACK PANTHER PARTY CHAIRMAN FRED HAMPTON IN A POWERHOUSE PERFORMANCE THAT COULD EARN HIS NEXT OSCAR NOMINATION. BUT, AS HE EXPLAINS TO TOTAL FILM, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO SACRIFICE ACCESSIBILITY JUST BECAUSE YOU PURSUE EXCELLENCE…”
You’re still working, but you don’t feel like you’re going to work,” says Daniel Kaluuya of promoting his latest movie during the UK’s third Covid-19 lockdown. That’ll be a hard relate for many. “It’s just a strange kind of situation. But it’s cool. It’s mostly having interviews with my top half completely looking different to my bottom half…”
As well as exchanging Zoom etiquette tips, Kaluuya and Total Film are speaking in January 2021 to discuss the release of Judas And The Black Messiah, a biographical drama about the tragically short run of Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), and the informant who’ll aid the FBI against him, William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield). It’s certain to be a key player in the awards conversation this year, not least for the stars.
But don’t let that lead you to expect a stuffy, Academybaiting biopic. Judas And The Black Messiah is electrifying viewing in the mould of Scorsese’s epic rise-and-fall crime dramas, with the added emotional urgency of subject matter that’s, unfortunately, as relevant as it’s ever been. The idea of serving hard-hitting truths under entertaining icing puts it firmly in Kaluuya’s wheelhouse. The Get Out star has recently excelled in the likes of Marvel’s Black Panther, Widows and Queen & Slim – all of which grappled with pertinent social issues without sacrificing the engagement factor.
When we chat, Kaluuya’s on his home turf of London (“Londonium… I’m in the land of the sterling”), and it’s a rare opportunity to hear him speak, energetically, in his own accent. Since his 2017 breakout Get Out – and even before that, in 2015’s Sicario – Kaluuya has played American on screen in all his most notable roles. Not that seeking US-centric material has been a cynical career ploy. “I know people kind of go, ‘UK or US?’” he considers. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I hear that, but I’m not strategic like that.’”
Of course, an ability with transatlantic accents hasn’t harmed Kaluuya’s ubiquity across the pond, and the 31-year-old Brit continues his run of Statside roles playing historical US icon Hampton. In the late ’60s, Hampton became the Chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter. Amassing a growing following thanks to his oratory skills, activism and diplomacy, he became seen as a threat by the FBI, who employed O’Neal as an informant to help bring him down.
Kaluuya first became aware of the project via Black Panther director Ryan Coogler (who produces Judas). “I was doing a reshoot for Black Panther, and he pulled me to the side, and spoke about this film,” explains Kaluuya. “I had a vague knowledge [of Hampton] from post-school, and living in London. Just hearing his name here and there, and not digging too deep into it. But I would hear stories about him, and his name would be mentioned.”
Kaluuya didn’t get a chance to read the screenplay until after he’d fulfilled his award circuit duties on Get Out (for which he was Oscar-nominated for Best Actor), and he also had a number of conversations with director and co-writer Shaka King (up to this point best known for Newlyweeds).
“I was just getting to know the man, and understanding his reasons, and understanding where he’s coming from,” says Kaluuya. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a really special work, and an interpretation of an incredible story.’”
To prepare, Kaluuya got the Black Panther reading list via King. “Basically, you needed six weeks’ worth of political education before you become a fully fledged Panther,” he continues. “So I read the majority of the books on that reading list. What is fascinating about this film is that there’s a lot of information about Chairman Fred Hampton’s death out there, and this is a film that aims to show how incredibly he lived, as opposed to how tragically he died.”
Putting in the work himself, Kaluuya set off to meet Hampton’s family, and immerse himself in his background. “I went to his childhood home, his childhood school, and I kind of just followed my nose,” he says. “I took myself to Chicago, by myself, on my own dime, and I was like, ‘Yo, I’m here to kind of meet the family before we start.’ I didn’t feel comfortable continuing the process without talking to the family, or seeing them.”
While he wasn’t able to connect on his initial visit, he later went back with King, co-screenwriter Will Berson, co-star Dominique Fishback (see page 20), and the producers to meet with Mama Akua (formerly Deborah Johnson) and her son Fred Hampton Jr. (who is himself now the chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs). “It was a seven-hour, eight-hour sit-down,” exhales Kaluuya. “It was intense.”
With Chairman Fred Jr. often on set, Kaluuya had a tangible reminder of the weight of the responsibility that came with this role. “The responsibility is in the room. The culpability is in the room. But that’s not something that I’m devoid of on other projects when that isn’t manifested in someone’s son. I do always keep in mind: who do I feel this film is for? Who is it speaking to? Who is it connecting to?”
We’re speaking just days after the Capitol rioters provided a stark reminder of how different races are treated when it comes to public protest. “Chairman Fred Hampton was articulating the truth, and he was articulating the struggles that the Black community were going through, and are going through, to end that systematic oppression that people deny,” says Kaluuya. “The events of this week show that it’s very prevalent. You’re tapping into truth. We are here to tell the truth. That’s what it is.”
While it seems like Kaluuya has been seeking out politically charged, socially conscious material, the way he describes it sounds more like he’s simply going with the flow. “It’s gravitated towards me; I’ve gravitated towards it,” he muses. “It’s just where I’m at in this moment of my life. Instead of questioning it, I just accept it, and I go with it. I haven’t figured out what that means to me in that time of my life.” It’s also crucial to him that any important message is delivered in an entertaining package. “They have social consciousness and a political edge, but my aspirations are that they’re entertaining as well, as cinematic works. You don’t have to sacrifice accessibility just because you pursue excellence. That’s how I feel.”
In his short but remarkable career thus far, Kaluuya’s instinct of going with the flow has served him remarkably well. He started out in theatre, and improv honed his ability to live in the moment. “I remember, two years into doing improv, I was doing it after school, and I’ve got this saying: once you’re in your head, you’re dead. When you start overthinking this shit, the improvisation is dead. You just have to react. You have to respond, and you have to feel it, and you have to go. So I think I took that mindset to my career. I can’t really answer the strategic questions, because I’m like, ‘No, I felt it. It felt true.’ You don’t question your line after the improv and go, ‘Why did I say that line?’ You just felt it.”
His TV breakout came in Skins, that springboard for talent that also helped to launch the careers of Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult, Kaya Scodelario, Jack O’Connell and more. Kaluuya even wrote a couple of episodes. “Even if we’re 17 and 18, you did feel like, ‘This is really something quite special,’” Kaluuya remembers. Further smart moves saw him show up in ace Doctor Who episode ‘Planet Of The Dead’, and he also appeared in the first series of Black Mirror. His episode, ‘15 Million Merits’, would later catch the attention of Jordan Peele, who cast him in the careerchanging Get Out, making him a recognisable name and an Oscar nominee.
But even that experience began with limited expectations. “Because it was like $4m [budget]. And remember, Jordan was fresh off Key & Peele… he’d never directed a film before. It was Blumhouse. I was like, ‘Yeah, man, this is going to be a cool thing that has something to say.’
“And I just did it. Like I said, it’s not like, ‘We’re doing this, and this is going to lead to that.’ No, you just tell the truth. If you tell the truth, everything else will figure itself out, good or bad. It’s out of my control.”
He describes the Oscar nom as “a ‘whoa’ moment” that he’s only now processing, having been so busy at the time with Black Panther promo. He stayed relentlessly busy after that, and the Covid lockdowns of the past 12 months have provided a much needed opportunity to take stock and slow down. “I needed a break,” he admits. “I was properly exhausted… because I haven’t stopped since I shot Get Out, which was basically 2016. It was non-stop since then. So I kind of just took some time. I caught up with myself, and caught up with what’s happening with me.”
As for what’s next, Kaluuya’s written a screenplay, rumours suggest he might be working with Jordan Peele again, and his name’s never too far down the internet’s prospective James Bond casting lists. Plus, he might just have to get back on the awards circuit for his turn in Judas.
Whatever the next phase of his career holds, Kaluuya ain’t rushing. Even after this time he’s had for reflection, he’s still confident enough to pace himself. “I’m still chill, bro,” he laughs. “I’m still chill. When it comes, it comes, you know? I’m not like, ‘I need to do this now! I need to do this now!’ If you’re trying to do that, then you’re not listening to what you’re supposed to be doing. So I just let it flow, bro…”
“IT’S JUST WHERE I’M AT IN THIS MOMENT OF MY LIFE. INSTEAD OF QUESTIONING IT, I JUST ACCEPT IT, AND I GO WITH IT.”