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Exclusive: MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM Stars Open Up About the Genius of August Wilson & More!
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Oct 27, 2022
The genius of August Wilson is brought to the screen this holiday season with Netflix's star-studded adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Led by Tony, Emmy, and Academy Award winner Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, the film arrives on December 18.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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August Wilson's groundbreaking play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, has been adapted for the screen, starring Viola Davis
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and is directed by George C. Wolfe. And it is streaming on Netflix
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And I caught up with three of the film's co-stars, Michael Potts, Coleman Domingo, and Glenn Turman
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to find out what made the experience so special for each of them
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Welcome, gentlemen. Happy holidays. I adored the film. My first question is for all of you
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but I'll start with Coleman first. What made being a part of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
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so special for you? Every ounce of it. First, you have George C. Wolfe at the helm
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You have Denzel Washington producing. You are starring alongside Michael Potts, Glenn Turman, Chadwick Boseman, and Viola Davis
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I think you've hit the jackpot. You feel like you have your shot, honestly
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to be in the ring with some heavyweights. And you feel like everyone was just fighting in there
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for the fight to create something that was special, that was a really great examination
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of African-American culture and the blues. I feel like I hit the jackpot
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Michael, for you. Yeah, I mean, ditto. I can't add much more
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Coleman, Nick Boone, hit the nail on the head. Anytime, you know, the only thing I will add to that is that anytime you get an opportunity
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to do August Wilson, you feel, I certainly feel as if I hit the jackpot
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and then to get to do it with these, you know I always call them the Titans All of these Titans to get in the ring with them Yeah I hit the jackpot big time big time Same here you know this is exactly what the guys are saying you know
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And we have the exposure available. Knowing that not only are you doing a monster piece of work with monster people involved
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but that is going to be seen all over the world. You know, this is going to be seen all over the world
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And you've got to count your lucky stars for that exposure of August Wilson's work
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which deserves nothing less than to be seen all over the world
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What was the biggest pinch me moment for each of you on the set
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Glenn, I'll start with you. The biggest pinch me moment? Pinch me
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Well, you know, I had the opportunity to do the play in Los Angeles, create the same
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role in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum on stage. So to be able to be among those who are able to do the film and the stage play or the stage
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play and the film is like, that's a pinch me moment. like, whoa, I got to do both of these
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That's fantastic. You know, that's really unbelievable. That's good. Michael for you Uh when I got the offer and they told me who was going to be in it Even before we started you know my response was this can be true
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That's like, who else? Who else is in it? So that was my moment
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It was like, wow. Okay. Okay. Get ready. I think there were pinch me moments after pinch me moments
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You go into your costume fitting and you're being fitted by the greatest costume designer that ever lived, Anne Roth, you know, who is fitting you and giving you such detail and story, even with the way you hold your hands on your jacket
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And I feel like we all did that, too. And then you pinch me moments when you walk in for your music rehearsal with Bradford Marsalis
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So you're with masters everywhere you look. So you're just like, I can't believe that it's this incredible
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So you just wanted to eat up everything. I was pinching myself every single day
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a one a two a you know what to do it's be an empty world without the blues
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i try to take that emptiness and fill it up with salt No
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If they wanna call me Mother of Blues, that's all right with me. It don't hurt none
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Where's the horn player? I got a friend. Come on, Levy. You rehearse like everybody else I gonna get me a band and make me some records I know how to play real music not this jug band shit We call it playing music I know what I doing
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No one will fire me. I don't care. When I got there, they began to say..
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That's to get the people's attention. That's when you and Slow Drag
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come in with the rhythm part, me and Cutler play on the break. Levy, the sooner you understand it
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and what you say is what my say to count. We'll be ready to go in 15 minutes
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We'll be ready to go, and Madam says we're ready to go. And that's the way it go around here. These records are going to be hits
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Every colored man in the world got to do his part. Tell the white man just what he can do
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They don't care nothing about me. All they want is my voice
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About them songs I give you. They're not the right songs. I don't take them off your hands for you
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I got my time coming to me. You don't know nothing about what kind of blood I got
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what kind of heart I got beat here. Come on. Come on
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Come on! Hunker Paul, we got that voice
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