Hornsby stands out in timely film
The Oakland-born actor feels a strong connection to his role
“The Hate U Give,” an achingly topical film about a police shooting and racial strife, begins with Oakland-born actor Russell Hornsby giving what he calls “The Talk” to his three on-screen children.
It’s a parental speech that has nothing to do with the birds and the bees, or getting good grades in school. Instead, his character, Maverick Carter, drills into the kids how not to get killed when confronted by a cop. The core message: Stay calm. Cooperate. Know your rights. Keep your hands where they can see them.
For Hornsby, the chilling scene “resonated painfully” — so much, that he struggled to get through it.
“I started saying those words and broke down and cried,” he recalled. “I have two young boys at home and it hit me in that moment what I will have to do one day. It took on a different meaning for me. … Audiences are going to bear witness to a father saying to his children, ‘You better heed what I’m telling you because it can save your life.’ ”
Based on a popular young adult novel by Angie Thomas, “The Hate U Give” is a fictional story that taps into the very real tragedies at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement. It follows Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg), a teen girl
who swivels between two worlds — the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives, and the wealthy, mostly white, prep school she attends.
Those worlds collide when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend at the hands of a white police officer during a routine traffic stop. It’s an incident that prompts her to become an activist in her community.
“The Hate U Give” started out as a short story written by Thomas, who was hurt and angry after the fatal 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant by a transit officer at an Oakland BART station. But as the deaths of more young black men made headlines, she expanded the story into a novel that was published in 2017.
“While we were filming, we were constantly thinking about Oscar Grant, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and the list goes on …,” said Hornsby, who along with Stenberg and director George Tillman Jr. made a recent stop in San Francisco to promote the film. “They never go out of your mind, your heart and your spirit.”
“The Hate U Give,” which debuted last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, is generating critical raves and solid early box-office totals. Most of the praise justifiably has been directed at Stenberg, who delivers a stunning, award-worthy performance.
But the veteran Hornsby, 44, is also getting plenty of attention. New York Magazine called his performance “mighty and heartfelt,” while The Hollywood Reporter wrote that he has the film’s “richest supporting role by far.”
“I feel like I’ve been preparing for this role for 20 years, just being black in America,” Hornsby says. “I was ready.”
And patient. Hornsby was bitten by the acting bug while attending St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley, where he tried out for the school’s production of “The Wiz” on a dare. After studying acting at Boston University and Oxford University in England, he went on to accumulate solid credits in movies such as “Fences” and TV shows such as “Grimm” and “In Treatment.” Yet, when it comes to his Hollywood profile, he has been relegated to a vague, I’ve-seen-that-face-somewhere level of familiarity.
“The Hate U Give” just might be his breakout moment.
“I feel like this is where my career is now reset,” he says. “If people don’t know me after this one, then I’m (screwed). It ain’t gonna happen.”
To land the role of Maverick, Hornsby submitted an audition tape featuring a monologue from August Wilson’s “King Hedley II,” which he had performed on Broadway in 2007. It impressed Tillman, who already was a fan of Hornsby’s work in “Lincoln Heights,” an ABC Family drama that aired from 2007 to 2009.
It also didn’t hurt that he deeply identified with his character. At one point in the film, Maverick, a staunch believer in Black Panther principles, is seen going over parts of the organization’s 10-point program. Hornsby could relate.
“Growing up, my friends and I used to talk about living in ISP — ‘In the spirit of Panther,’ ” he recalled. “All of our parents were either part of, or affected, by the Black Panthers in Oakland. They were constantly instilling in us those messages: ‘Know who you are. Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself. Don’t be afraid to fight.’ … We learned about Huey Newton and Stokely Carmichael, and (the Eldridge Cleaver memoir) ‘Soul on Ice.’ … That was all part of my rearing.”
“The Hate U Give” joins a number of critically acclaimed movies this year by filmmakers of color that have explored racial tensions and civil rights issues. The list includes two Oakland-based movies: “Sorry to Bother You” and “Blind spotting.”
Hornsby is proud to be part of the trend.
“This is a byproduct of us being able to tell our stories our way,” he says. “People are now seeing us in our true form. That’s because we can finally tell these stories unapologetically — without a filter. And that’s what’s blowing people away: Our stories are interesting. We’re interesting.”