Boxoffice Pro - January 2020

JUST MERCY DIRECTOR DESTIN DANIEL CRETTON WITH MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX
are also many Southerners like Eva Ansley
[played by Brie Larson], who are fighting
for those who are the most vulnerable,
whether they are black or white. There
are extremely loving, kind, open-minded
people all throughout the South. That’s
the thing that really gives me hope.
There are a lot of movies about racism
in the South in which people are doing
overtly racist things, like waving around
Confederate flags. And that’s accurate.
People still do that. But you run the risk of
people seeing those movies and thinking,
“Well, I’d never do something like that.
So I’m not the problem.” And then they
don’t have go through the uncomfortable
process of examining their biases.
I think one of the scary realizations
about watching a movie like this is the
moment when you think, “Oh, if I saw
that mug shot of Walter McMillian and
the news broadcast that they finally
caught the killer of this young, white girl,
I probably would not have thought twice
about it at that time.” I hope this movie
and movies like this make all of us think
twice. Every time we see a mug shot and a
little blurb, “They caught the guy!” I hope
we don’t go immediately to the sense of
relief. And we start to question it.
There’s a horrible narrative whenever
there’s an instance of police brutality,
and people start to examine the victim’s
character. Walter McMillian wasn’t a
perfect person, but he doesn’t need to
be faultless and saintly for his story to
be seen as a miscarriage of justice.
Yeah, 100 percent. Bryan Stevenson
says there are no rich people on death row.
He says that our system treats you better
if you are rich and guilty than if you are
poor and innocent. And you definitely
see that play out in this movie. You see
how the poor and vulnerable are taken
advantage of by a system that can easily
sweep them under the rug or put them on
death row because it benefits them. And
it’s also interesting to see the way that Tim
Blake Nelson’s character, Ralph Myers,
gets wrapped up in it and is used as a tool
by the people in power to get what they
want. [Myers, a career criminal from an
impoverished background, was pressured
by law enforcement officers to offer a false
testimony against McMillian.]
How did Michael B. Jordan come to be
involved in the film?
Michael B. was the first person who
came on. He was the first person we attached,
even before we started writing the
script. We sent the book to him, and he
was passionate about the project from the
start. So he came on both as an actor and
as a producer very early in the project.
He’s perfect for the role.
Bryan Stevenson is one of the most
compassionate, empathetic people I’ve
ever met. And he’s also one of the smartest
and most strategic people I’ve ever
met. I do think that Michael B. Jordan
shares a lot of those same qualities. In
order to do the types of performances
that Michael B. does, it’s all about his
ability to empathize with the characters
he’s playing. He is able to connect with
Bryan Stevenson on so many levels. It was
exciting to watch him do that.
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12/18/19 2:36 PM