AWARDS SEASON KICKOFF

OCT Nº4

JUSTICE LEAGUE

MICHAEL B. JORDAN, DRAMATIZE ACTIVIST AND ATTORNEY ’S FIGHT FOR THE WRONGLY ACCUSED IN ‘’

By Brent Lang P.38 FILM AWARDS SEASON KICKOFF

IN ‘JUST MERCY,’ MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX LEAD A DIVERSE TEAM TO TELL THE

STORY OF ATTORNEY BRYAN STEVENSON’S FIGHT TO FREE AN INNOCENT MAN FROM DEATH ROW

By Brent Lang Photographs by Caitlin Cronenberg FREEDOM RIDERS FILM AWARDS SEASON KICKOFF

I hope together we can actually create a more just world.” SOCIAL JUSTICE It was a rousing, goose-bump-inducing call to arms, one fueled by a galvanizing belief in the capacity of individuals to effect change, but also the kind of speech that few orators could pull off without seem- ACTIVIST AND ing hectoring or maudlin. “Everybody should know him,” says Foxx. “It reminds me of when came along. You went, ‘Everybody should know him.’” It demonstrates that Stevenson is the best ambassador for a movie ATTORNEY BRYAN about a difficult subject — a film that faces challenging commercial headwinds when it opens it opens in limited release on Dec. 25. before expanding in January. In an age of high-flying superhero adventures, STEVENSON HAS “Just Mercy” is an earthbound story about real people trying to do right. In short, it’s the kind of movie they just don’t make much these days. “This was an important story, a moving story and one that we felt could draw a mainstream audience,” says Toby Emmerich, chairman DONE A LOT IN of Warner Bros. Picture Group, the studio behind the roughly $25 mil- lion production. “The filmmakers had a plan to make it at a responsi- ble price, so there was managed risk, and you know sometimes you’ve HIS 59 YEARS just got to take a shot on something you believe in.” Warner Bros. is betting that “Just Mercy” will become a major awards season player, with Jordan and Foxx vying in the lead and supporting actor categories and the film duking it out with front-run- ON THIS EARTH. ners like “Marriage Story” and “The Irishman” in the best picture battle. Even if it falls short of those ambitions and becomes an Oscars also- He’s argued and won cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He created ran, “Just Mercy” will have made history. It’s the first major studio film a museum on the history of lynching, and racial discrimina- to adopt the idea of an inclusion rider, a contractual provision that tion and a memorial to peace and justice. He’s authored a best-selling mandates women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community memoir and been featured in a TED Talk on mass incarceration that and other underrepresented groups be considered for key on-screen went viral. He’s received a MacArthur “genius” grant. But until last Sep- and behind-the-scenes jobs. Jordan got the idea to include the man- tember, on a rain-streaked afternoon at the Toronto Intl. Film Festi- date in his contracts after watching Frances McDormand name-check val, Stevenson had never walked the red carpet at a movie premiere. the initiative while accepting her Oscar in 2018 for “Three Billboards It was, Stevenson admits, a “surreal experience,” one made even Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” more unusual because the film in question, “Just Mercy,” recounts his “We’re always coming from a place of not having power,” says Jor- fight to free Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted man whose story dan. “I was like, man, I want my environment to be a reflection of the serves as a fiercely urgent reminder of the inequities in our criminal world I’m living in. We started figuring out a way to do this, so now if justice system. McMillian is portrayed by Jamie Foxx and Stevenson is you want to do this project with me, you’ve got to accept these terms.” played by Michael B. Jordan, the “Black Panther” star who has used his True to form, the overarching production diversity policy didn’t considerable leverage to bring the story to the screen. just stop with the production of “Just Mercy.” Jordan, whose production “Michael has been a great conversation partner throughout this shingle Outlier Society has a first-look deal with Warner Bros., helped whole experience,” says Stevenson. “I can talk to him a little bit about convince the studio’s parent company, WarnerMedia, to embrace the how to move through a courtroom, and he can definitely show me how rider across all of its divisions. In the case of “Just Mercy,” the produc- to move on a red carpet.” Jordan isn’t having it. “Sometimes I think, tion team was able to hire women or people of color to head such ‘What can I tell this guy?’” he says. “Because I look up to him.” major departments as casting, costume design, production design, hair, Despite being new to the world of moviemaking, Stevenson argu- makeup and stunts. It also empowered the various department chiefs ably outshone the A-list stars in attendance at last month’s gala screen- to find people from underrepresented groups to staff other pivotal ing. Premieres tend to be celebratory affairs, filled with shout-outs to roles. , the film’s director, says that many of the production teams and studios executives. Yet it was Stevenson who people who got to oversee departments had worked in the business for spoke to the seriousness of what was about to unspool on screen, decades but had never been given a chance to run their own shop. By a searing look at the lives of dispossessed individuals whose reality embracing the inclusion rider, Cretton argues, the production forced could not be further removed from that of the well-heeled festival- staffers to broaden job searches beyond networks of people they’d goers. But it was a world that Stevenson knew intimately, having spent worked with in the past. 35 years with people on death row — people who, he noted have often “They did a kickass job,” says Cretton. “That’s the thing. These aren’t been told their lives have no value and who are ignored or shunted favors that we’re giving out. This is us getting to a point where we’re aside by society. finally giving people what they deserve.” Despite the darkness of the subject matter, Stevenson sounded a Those who worked on “Just Mercy” maintain that having a more hopeful note. “We can change things,” he said as the packed audito- diverse cast and crew fostered an important creative environment, one rium erupted in applause. “We can expect more. We can do more. ... that was crucial to maintain as they told a story about racial injustice.

“HAVE WE CREATED A SYSTEM WITH THE KIND OF FAIRNESS AND RELIABILITY AND JUSTICE

THAT WE CAN ENGAGE IN A PUNISHMENT THAT HAS TO BE PERFECT? BECAUSE IF WE KILL SOMEONE

WHO DIDN’T DO SOMETHING, WE DON’T HAVE THE ABILITY TO FIX THAT.”

— Bryan Stevenson

40 VARIETY GUTTER CREDIT VARIETY 41 FILM AWARDS SEASON KICKOFF

“What I remember most is sitting as a group — cast, filmmakers, thought it had big-screen potential. crew — and having these incredibly open, vulnerable conversations “I only make movies that put good in the world,” says Netter. “I always when the cameras weren’t rolling,” says Oscar-winning actress Brie Lar- feel that if a story moves me, hopefully it will move everybody else.” son, who plays one of Stevenson’s colleagues, Eva Ansley. “Conversations Netter enlisted Cretton, a director best known for making “Short that ultimately shaped the course of the filmmaking process in a power- Term 12,” a drama about a group home for troubled teens. In turn, ful way. It wouldn’t have been possible in a less inclusive environment.” Cretton reached out to Jordan through , the “Black Pan- “Just Mercy” doesn’t just grapple with knotty moral and legal issues. ther” and “Fruitvale Station” filmmaker who was a friend from their It holds an important place in an ongoing fight to make the enter- days working the indie festival circuit. tainment industry a more open and diverse business. It’s a movie “I called Ryan and said I thought this project would be perfect for that gives two leading black actors roles that are equal to their for- Michael B., and 30 seconds later he’s patched him in and we’re on a midable talent, a production directed by a person of color and a film three-way call,” recalls Cretton. “I believe Michael B. was in Vegas at the that deals frankly with issues of racial injustice. It is, in short, a sign time because there was a lot of thumping in the background.” of the new direction being charted in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite Jordan’s commitment helped the film secure backing, but the show- and the social activism that sprang up with a rising awareness that case role belongs to Foxx, who digs deep as McMillian, a man who underrepresented groups were being left out of the frame. In 2018, a knows all too well that in Alabama, justice is anything but color blind. record number of movies featured women or people of color as leads With a bushy mustache in initial scenes and a thick Southern accent, or co-leads. Of course, the overwhelming majority of films are still Foxx so transforms himself that Stevenson says he almost felt as if centered on stories of white men, but Jordan and Foxx believe that McMillian, who died in 2013, was reenacting his life on screen. To play momentum is on their side. They point to the success of films such as the role, Foxx drew on his experiences growing up in Texas. “It allowed “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians” as evidence that is me to understand that when they’re saying ‘nigger,’ it’s sort of like very getting the message: Diversity can be good for business too. matter of fact,” says Foxx. “It’s just another Tuesday. You have to have “Our industry is very reactive,” says Jordan. “Take ‘Black Panther.’ that sensibility to understand who this character is.” Before it came out, it was black films don’t travel. They don’t sell inter- There’s a scene early in “Just Mercy” in which McMillian is pulled nationally. Nobody will come and see an all-black cast. Marvel said, over by a racist sheriff who is eager to find a patsy for the murder. ‘All right, we’re going to put this up.’ Now watch how many black sci-fi McMillian has landed on the policeman’s radar for having an affair projects are coming out. Everybody sees they’re profitable, and they’re with a white woman, an unforgivable sin in his eyes. Foxx expertly all saying, ‘I want some of that too.’” shows his character’s dawning realization that he is powerless to mount any kind of defense in the face of such deeply ingrained prejudice. SHORTLY AFTER TAKING THE STAGE at Toronto, Stevenson, Jor- “Jamie knows that you have to live in two worlds when you live in dan and Foxx sit down with Variety to talk about their hopes for the the South,” says Stevenson. “You have to have a way of managing con- film. They’re clearly pumped by the response from the opening-night flict with people who distrust you and hate you and presume you’re crowd, which gave the movie a spirited standing ovation. dangerous and guilty, and still be open with your family and the peo- Stevenson believes that “Just Mercy” can shine an important light ple you care about.” on the issues that he’s devoted his career to combating, but he admits For Jordan, “Just Mercy” represented a chance to work alongside that he was reluctant to become the public face of a larger movement. Foxx, a longtime friend and mentor. The “” star, recognizing Jor- He began to raise his profile after growing alarmed by the rightward dan as an actor on the rise, reached out to him when he moved out tilt in the country’s court system. He was worried that if Brown v. to Los Angeles as a teenager, and they bonded over basketball games, Board of Education, the landmark case that banned racial segregation with Foxx offering his take on the best way to navigate the entertain- in public schools, were decided today, the outcome would be mark- ment business. edly different. “Jamie was one of those people who, in my head, I was always like, “I became persuaded that we probably couldn’t win it,” says Steven- ‘I can’t wait to repay him,’” says Jordan. “My parents would hear sto- son. “I was persuaded that our court today would not be willing to do ries about Hollywood, and there were a lot of reservations on their something that disruptive on behalf of disenfranchised and marginal- part about letting me go out there. But what met me on the other side ized people. It was a scary thought. That’s when I realized we have to in Los Angeles was this community of people like Jamie that genu- get outside the courtroom to create a different environment in which inely cared about me. It made all the difference in the world. Mistakes these legal decisions are being made.” that I could easily have made, they made sure I didn’t or scared me So Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit away from it.” law office in Alabama, began to seek the spotlight. First he appeared at the Ted2012 conference in Long Beach, Calif., where he enthralled audi- “JUST MERCY” HAS BEEN BILLED as a courtroom drama, but Cretton ences with a lecture that outlined the ways in which the criminal jus- didn’t look to “A Few Good Men” or “… And Justice for All” when it tice system is stacked against people of color. He went a step further to came to shaping the movie. He found inspiration in 2015 best picture demonstrate the ways this contributes to larger divisions in society: He Oscar winner “Spotlight,” particularly the way that the true-life story not only highlighted statistics, such as the fact that black defendants about a crusading team of newspaper reporters who expose the sys- are 11 times more likely to get the death penalty than white ones; he temic cover-up of child abuse by the Catholic Church in Boston dialed also linked institutional racism to the legacy of slavery and the fail- down the dramatics. ure of reconstruction. His speech drew more than 5.8 million views. Capitalizing on the momentum, Stevenson went on to write “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” a 2014 memoir that expanded on the Ted Talk by drilling into one of the lawyer’s forma- “I WANT MY ENVIRONMENT TO BE A tive early cases, his 1988 defense of Walter McMillian, a 47-year-old African American pulpwood worker who was falsely convicted of mur- REFLECTION OF THE WORLD I’M LIVING IN. der and sentenced to death. McMillian’s railroading was so egregious it almost defies belief. He was prosecuted for the killing of a white IF YOU WANT TO DO THIS PROJECT WITH ME, teenager despite that multiple witnesses testified he was at a church YOU’VE GOT TO ACCEPT THESE TERMS.” fish fry at the time of the murder. In the manuscript stage, Stevenson’s book found its way to Gil Netter, the producer of “The Blind Side,” who — Michael B. Jordan

42 VARIETY JAKE GILES NETTER/ WARNER BROS. (2) in prison; Jordan asBryan Jamie Foxxas and MichaelB. discuss strategy inspire audience to members take action. Stevenson says heisbracing don’t have theability to fixthat.” ifwe Because who perfect? killsomeone be didn’t dosomething, we reliability andjustice thatwe can engage inapunishment thathasto deserve to kill?Have we created asystem withthekindoffairness and to diefor thecrimesthey’ve committed,” says Stevenson. “It’s dowe nine planescrashed, noonewould fly. As Stevenson notes ofthatjaw-dropping rate oferror, ifoneofevery executed inthiscountry, exonerated. hasbeen person oneinnocent cacy. “Just Mercy” statistic. closeswithasobering For every ninepeople notonlytions about themorality ofthedeath penalty but alsoits effi- drama, dares to wade into adivisive issue. political Itasks tough ques- string oreven section a really shot, slo-mo cool itstarted to feel fake.” are sohighthatifwe to tried push itany withabigswelling further feel,” says Cretton. “With thismovie, thescenariosand theemotions Cretton confabs Stevenson Destin Daniel with theactors. below, director FREEDOM PLANS Walter McMillian The isthat hope “Just Mercy” willdomore thanentertain. Itwill “For me, thethreshold question deserve isnotwhether people It may admirably be restrained, but thefilm, like any great social “It’s the classicthingofnotwanting amovie telling you how to itatum q solorit praepud hillupt aturio. Tem voloribus et esequias quatia Ciatur Quicon HEADLINE CAPTION the rightdirection. universe may toward bend justice, apush but sometimes itneeds in make theirworlds fairer andmore equitable. The arc ofthemoral with hisembrace menare oftheinclusionrider—both striving to and eightmoves later thegame isover.” not understand thefirst couple ofplays, but you down thefield, look “He loves to thinkahead. Ithink ofmyself thesame way. You might have alotincommon. have risento thetop oftheirrespective fields, men say but both they not truefor massincarceration.” not truefor slavery. That’s nottruefor segregation. Andit’s certainly we allhave aknowledge ofthat. That’s nottruefor lynching. That’s totally unaware duringthattimeperiod. ofwhat happened Ithink the Holocaust,”says. he “That means thatnobody onthe planetis they can helpto level theplaying field. success, Stevenson believes itcould encourage to out ways seek people are projected to go to jail orprisonintheirlifetimes. Ifthemovie isa offenders. Currently, oneinthreeboysboys black Latino andoneinsix share andface oftheprisonpopulation stricter sentencing thanwhite tice reform. ofcolor comprise Henotes adisproportionate thatpeople means thatmore willengage people withthecause ofcriminaljus- loved onesdidn’t get thehelpthey needed.” he says. “There are somany mothers andsiblings whose andspouses debuts. “What Ihave to figure out ishow we’re going to theneed,” meet 500 weekly requests, andhefully itto expects double after thefilm was published andtheTed Talk got attention, to jumped thenumber tiative gets 100emailsaweek for looking legal help.book After his for amajoruptickinrequests for aid. Normally, theEqualJustice Ini- In theirown lives —Stevenson through hislegal work, Jordan “What Ireally Bryan ishe’s learned about astrategist,” says Jordan. Stevenson andJordan have charted very different paths asthey atthe canon ofamazingfilmsthathave“Look madeabout been Stevenson isprepared to surrender more ofhisanonymity ifit VARIETY 43