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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 2014)
Arts & Entertainment Nate Parker: The ‘Beyond the Lights’ Interview A ctor and humanitari- an Nate Parker first received critical attention for his starring role in The Great Debaters opposite Denzel Washing- ton and Forest Whitaker. Denzel handpicked him to play the troubled yet bril- liant Henry Lowe who overcomes his selfish ways to become the team’s leader. Nate received an honorary Doctorate from Wiley Col- lege in Marshall, Texas, the school on which The Great Debaters was based. More recently, he appeared in the action thriller Non-Stop, opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. Last year, he starred in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, opposite Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, and Ben Foster. In 2012, he was the toast of the Sundance Film Festi- val when he appeared in Arbitrage opposite Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth. That year, he also starred as the lead in Red Tails, supported by Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It told the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African- Howard, in Dirty opposite C ELEBRITY Cuba Gooding I NTERVIEW Jr., in Felon with Stephen Dorff and Sam Shep- by Kam ard, and in Williams Tunnel Rats with Michael Pare. And onstage, Nate appeared oppo- American military aviators Dustin Hoffman, in the U.S. Army Air Corps site and were some of the finest Annette Bening, Rosario and James pilots in World War II. Dawson George Lucas funded, pro- Cromwell in “American Not only did she write the perfect script, but she was so intentional about her vision coming across, that it made it easy for me to do my job duced and co-directed this feature. Earlier in his career, Nate starred opposite Alicia Keys in The Secret Life of Bees, which featured an all-star cast of Queen Latifah, Jen- nifer Hudson, Dakota Fanning and Paul Bettany. Additionally, he’s been seen in Pride alongside Terrence Voices” at the Broad Street Theater. A Norfolk, VA native, Nate studied computer pro- gramming and trained his way to become an All- American wrestler at the University of Oklahoma. He mentors twenty-four children from schools in central Los Angeles and Page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner November 12, 2014 Nate Parker in ‘Beyond the Lights’ spearheads projects and events with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He sponsors a Peace for Kids scholarship fund and works in their afterschool pro- gram. Here, Nate talks about his new movie, Beyond the Lights, while waxing romantic about his career and his life philosophy. Kam Williams: Hi Nate, thanks so much for another interview. Nate Parker: My pleas- ure, brother. project comes up that she’s a part of, you want to be a part of it. KW: I really enjoyed Beyond the Lights. What interested you in the proj- ect? NP: Before anything else, it was Gina. I think she’s one of the best directors on planet Earth. And her vision, and her work ethic, and attention to details are so inspiring that when a KW: She certainly devot- ed herself to developing and fleshing out her characters in this picture. NP: Well, she had the time. You know what they say: “Cheap, fast and good. You can only have two.” This is a woman who takes See PARKER on page 9
