Nate Parker at 'The Birth of a Nation' Press Conference in Toronto: 'This Is a Forum for the Film'
Nate Parker’s directorial debut, The Birth of a Nation, which tells the story of the 1831 slave uprising led by Nat Turner, has traveled a difficult path from Sundance darling to lightning rod for controversy after new details about a 1999 rape accusation against the director-star, for which he was acquitted at trial, came to light. The re-emergence of that part of Parker’s history has spurred much discussion around the movie’s roll-out prior to its Oct. 7 general release, leading to some high-profile screening cancellations.
But Fox Searchlight kept the film’s fall launch at the Toronto International Film Festival on the schedule, and the entire cast — including Gabrielle Union, who penned a widely circulated op-ed in the Los Angeles Times directly addressing her director’s past — took the stage at a press conference in a show of solidarity for the movie. “There is the art and there is the artist,” remarked Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Turner’s mother, Nancy. “They are two different things.”
Related: Despite Rape Controversy, Nate Parker’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ Publicity Tour Moving Forward
In this case, of course, questions about the artist couldn’t be avoided. The subject of the rape allegations against Parker was raised by several journalists, most directly by the New York Times’ Cara Buckley, who asked the director: “Since it is a film about moral accountability, a lot of people felt you should have apologized for what happened 17 years ago to the victim and her family. Why haven’t you and will you now?”
Parker responded by emphasizing that the film is about more than him. “This is a forum for the film, and a forum for the people sitting on this stage,” Parker said. “It’s not mine, I don’t own it. I definitely don’t want to hijack this [forum].” That echoed sentiments he expressed earlier in the conference, citing the fact that more than 400 people were involved with The Birth of a Nation. “The reality is that there’s no one person who makes a film. I feel it’s equally important that everyone who sweat and bled and cried for this film have the opportunity to get any award that would come for their work.”
Parker remarked that he and Union have had conversations since she published her op-ed. The actress addressed her piece, and the response to it, at the press conference: “Ever since I was 19 and I was raped at gunpoint, I decided ‘Never again.’ I decided I was going to use my celebrity and platform to talk about the horrors of sexual violence, and what it does to your soul and psyche and sanity. I’ve heard from people I didn’t think knew I existed; people hugging me and high-fiving me. I think we’re all craving acknowledgment that we’re real and we exist. There are always people that will love you and that is what I have received from 90% of Hollywood. About 5% feel I threw Nate under the bus and 5% feel that I’m a rape apologist. I strongly encourage those two five percents to talk to each other.”
Union also revealed that she made the decision that her character, Esther, a slave who is a victim of sexual assault, be silent rather than speak the dialogue that was in Parker’s initial version of the script. “We made the decision for her to not have any lines,” she said. “I thought it was more powerful for her to be more symbolic of the voicelessness that sexual violence leaves us with.”
With the debate over Parker’s history likely to continue throughout awards season, Ellis made a point of addressing viewers who have expressed uncertainty about supporting The Birth of a Nation in theaters. “What I would say to anyone who says, ‘I want to stay home,’ whatever issue or apprehension that you have, bring it with you to the theater. If you have a problem or an issue, you are right to have all of that. Bring that and then let’s talk about it.”
‘The Birth of a Nation’: Watch a trailer:
