LOS ANGELES ā The stars of āJudas and the Black Messiahā found their own lives transformed as they immersed themselves in the story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
Daniel Kaluuya said āa different me showed upā to the set when he was playing the magnetic Chicago-based activist, who was just 21 when he was killed by police in a 1969 raid. Dominique Fishbackās conversations with Hamptonās then-fiancee Akua Njeri taught her āwho I wanted to be the most.ā And LaKeith Stanfield said he struggled through self-doubt and panic attacks while portraying an FBI informant who betrayed Hampton.
The film, co-written and directed by Shaka King and premiering in
The movie marks the first time the 31-year-old Kaluuya, star of āGet Outā and āQueen & Slim,ā has portrayed a real person on screen.
āReading the script and hearing his words stirred me, they moved me. ... It was almost like a call to action. I was like, yo, Iām here in the ring,ā Kaluuya said. āWhen I really understood the stakes, the cultural stakes ... I think a different me showed up.ā
Stanfield, who appeared alongside Kaluuya in āGet Out,ā delivers a twitchy performance as OāNeal, who rose to be the Panthersā head of security and took his own life in 1990. The informant had helped the FBI sketch a floor plan of Hamptonās apartment, including where Hampton slept, before agents raided it, killing Hampton and another man, Mark Clark.
āThe whole time I was kind of in conflict, the whole shoot ā wondering if I was doing the right thing and if I was playing this character the right way because I wanted to give humanity. But I also didnāt want to give him too much,ā the 29-year-old actor said. āI was having panic attacks on set ā hands going numb just because of the level of, I guess internal contention and struggle I was going through.ā
Fishback said she was āso nervousā about the responsibility of carrying on Hamptonās legacy but found a new role model in Njeri. āI learned who I wanted to be the most,ā she said. āI feel like I was on the threshold of some kind of womanhood and I didnāt know how to cross it.ā
Fishback leaned into journaling and writing poetry as hobbies during the project, and requested to write a poem her character reads to Hampton in a key scene. It begins: āLike the masses, I was in awe when I first laid eyes on all the things you are.ā
Seeking historical accuracy, King consulted with Hamptonās son Fred Hampton Jr. and Njeri, portrayed by Fishback in the film.
āI canāt imagine the errors and the pitfalls we would have made had they not been involved,ā the director said.
Stanfield said that despite his mixed emotions while playing the character, heās glad the film can spotlight Hamptonās story.
āBeing Black in America means that your history is, by and large, misrepresented or not represented at all,ā he said. āSo the only way that weāre able to pass down our stories oftentimes is through storytelling. Iām grateful for that.ā
Jamia Pugh, The Associated Press
