Three-time Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award nominee Sterling K. Brown, one of the most talented actors in television and film today, spoke exclusively with the AmNews about his role as “Man” and working with the cast in the Black women-led film “Is God Is,” which opened in theaters on Friday, May 15. Brown is an intellectual who was an economics major at Stanford University before falling in love with acting,
“There’s the macro and the micro,” Brown began when asked why he chose to work on “Is God Is.” “I love Black women, and I love seeing Black women win, right? I thought this was an incredibly creative script, something different and new, and I think that we, as a community, have been asking for creative and new stories … I feel like the more diverse the landscape of stories are that we get to tell, the more people will stop putting us into a box in terms of what a Black movie is, what a Black story is. We are everything, and so the opportunity to do everything is something that excites me. Aleshea [Harris] wrote a play, then she adapted the play, and she directed the play, and I think she did so brilliantly. I also love the idea that Black women get a chance to be messy in this film — hella messy. I feel like oftentimes we’re asked, in many stories, to be voices of reason — sort of the sensible side component of a larger story, and that’s not the case in this. That is exciting to me.”
Brown then discussed his character specifically as work on a “micro” level.
“I feel like people will put you in a box from time to time and think that, ‘All right, this is what Sterling does,’ and I’m always interested in … doing anything that is outside of people’s expectations. I love to surprise people as much as possible, so I felt that [this character] was an opportunity to surprise people, and then, as my cousin says, ‘Somebody has to drive the bus in the Rosa Parks story.’ Even though you’re the ‘big bad,’ I still believe that the story — the level of agency that Black women get a chance to take in determining their own futures — is something that I believe in. Even though you have to be the antagonist in that, I believe in the bigger story.”
Brown said it was wonderful to work with the Black-women-led cast. “I had just seen [Harlem native and two-time Tony Award-winner] Kara Young in ‘Purlie Victorious’ and ‘Purpose,’ and I [thought], ‘This sister is the bee’s knees,’” he said. He added that also he enjoyed Mallori Johnson in the FX on Hulu television adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 science fiction novel, “Kindred.”
“I’ve been watching Vivica [Fox] my whole life and have a big crush,” Brown exclaimed. “I got to hold her in my arms. That was pretty cool. Erika [Alexander] and I worked together on ‘American Fiction.’ Janelle [Monáe] and I got a chance to meet on this one, and in a beautiful way, and she was great [even though] we didn’t have any scenes together. The spirit and talent of the cast were second to none. We were all so excited to be in this film because we hadn’t read anything like this before, and we [felt that] ‘Oh, we’re putting something out into the world that’s new and different, and hopefully we’ll have some sort of ripples because of that.’”
“Is God Is” was written, produced, and directed by Aleshea Harris and is an adaptation of her 2018 play of the same name.