Nate Parker
Nate Parker
Nate Parkeris an American actor, director, producer, writer and musical performer who has appeared in Beyond the Lights, Red Tails, The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, Arbitrage, Non-Stop, Felon and Pride. He was an All-American wrestler at both Great Bridge High School and the University of Oklahoma. Parker has been active in charitable work, donating his time both as a volunteer wrestling coach and a political activist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth18 November 1979
CityNorfolk, VA
CountryUnited States of America
I think there is having a behavior that is disrespectful to women that goes unchecked, where your manhood is defined by sexual conquests, where you trade stories with your friends and no one checks anyone. At 19, that was normal.
I recognize as a man there's a lot of things that I don't have to think about. But I'm thinking about them now.
Trying to convince someone that they are a racist or they have White Privilege - if it's in the air they breathe and the culture supports them, sometimes they never have to think about it at all.
All I can do is seek the information that'll make me stronger, that'll help me overcome my toxic masculinity, my male privilege, because that's something you never think about.
If a person was accused of being a racist when he was young - he said some racially insensitive thing or someone had him on tape calling someone the n-word or whatever - and then you fast forward and he feels, Oh, back then I didn't say this or that. He's not thinking about the person that he hurt when he said what he said, or however it came out, or the effects that it could have had. He's not thinking about it. He's thinking about his own self and how he feels.
When I walk home at night I don't have to worry about anything. But when a woman walks home at night she gotta think about a lot of different things.
Some people think racism is if you say the n-word, so homophobia is if you call someone...
If I can use my platform to affect change in gender, as I can in race, then I think I can have an impact.
When I think about 1999, I think about being a 19-year-old kid, and I think about my attitude and behavior just toward women with respect objectifying them.
I think Jesse [Zwick] is part of a new generation of director, because we'd be kidding ourselves if we did not acknowledge that there is this unsaid rule that the hero looks a certain way.
I think chemistry and great acting go hand-in-hand.
Self-esteem and identity are very fragile things. I think a lot of times, those are the motivations for why people do take their own lives - not being seen, not being recognized, not being loved, not feeling supported, not feeling understood.
I think it takes a lot of courage to be able to direct a film. If you have that courage and that vision together, and you pick the cast that you believe will achieve your vision, you win.
I think it's like the '60s - we're going to see another revolution in film where these new filmmakers stand up and take ownership of what film is and mould it into what they want.