TALES of slavery require infinite knowledge to ensure the story is executed with the profundity it merits and remains impactful.
In 1977, David L Wolper undertook to tell such a story, based on Alex Haley’s novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. And he cast LeVar Burton in the life-changing lead role of Kunta Kinte. Almost 40 years later, Wolper’s filmmaker son, Mark, decided it was time to revisit the story and got Burton on board as the co-executive producer.
Sentimental feelings aside, he wanted to ensure that people never forgot this story and, to achieve this, he decided to make it more relatable to today’s discerning TV audience.
He has secured an A-list cast in Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Tom Lea), Anika Noni Rose (Kizzy), Forest Whitaker (Fiddler), Laurence Fishburne (Alex Haley), Mekhi Phifer (Jerusalem), James Purefoy (John Walker), Sam Malone (Ashford) and Anna Paquin (Nancy Holt).
The drawcards of this series are British actor, Malachi Kirby, in the role of Kunta Kinte and Regé-Jean Page as Chicken George.
THE PLANTATION MASTER
DUE to his tight schedule, Rhys Meyers was first on the interview line-up. Dressed down in jeans, his specs lent gravitas to his intensity as an actor. He always took a few seconds to ponder over the question before offering a meticulously thought-out response.
He starts by offering a comparative understanding of the difference between the remake and the original: “When A+E decided to do this, the conversation that I had with them was that they weren’t making a television show, they were making a cinema movie that was going to be presented on television. So when you compare this to the original limitations that the 1977 production had, those limitations don’t exist anymore.
“We have the great advances that people have made in technology to allow the brutality and the sense of atmosphere to really be brought to the screen in a way that it wasn’t in 1977. This is a far more advanced, grown-up version of Roots.”
For the role of Tom Lea, he relied on his six-year-old memory of having watched the original series and the script, of course.
He adds: “He has no redeeming qualities; he’s the worst of men. And, of course, when you are cast to play the worst of man, you have to, kind of, think for a second, ‘why would they cast me in this role?’ And I was nervous of that. But I was also really honoured and I approached it with absolute brutality because anything less would be a disservice to the role.
“So even when I had to go on set every day (with everything that was wrong with 19th- century America), I had to present myself to these wonderful actors and treat them in such a harsh way on screen and, of course, that’s complicated. But that’s what I do. It’s my job. If I didn’t think I could play the role, I would have said, ‘No.’”
On the relevance of revisiting this dark chapter in human history, he says: “I think people are very, very aware of it, but nobody wants to be reminded. We live in a time when we are under slavery of another name. It’s a very precarious time in the world, a precarious time in the US. But that is exactly the time when you need to address it – while it’s facing you every day.”
Although the actor in him steers clear of having any expectations, he hints: “We have done the absolute best we can, there are some wonderful actors. You are going to be introduced to two of the most magnificent actors, Malachi, who is simply extraordinary as Kunta Kinte, and Regé-Jean Page as Chicken George. These guys are a revelation. I learnt so much, really, from working with somebody as young, confident and intelligent as Regé-Jean. He plays my son and I’m the only character in it who has an African-American son. So there’s this element of father-owner the whole way through and it’s very complicated.
“It’s not a love child; it’s a child of forced rape. In my role, I’m the worst of white society at that time.”
This four-part mini-series follows the story in chronological order. And through the narrative, Tom’s penchant for gambling, boozing and his relationship with Kizzy leaves him reluctantly grappling with issues he never thought he ever would.
THE SLAVE MAID
THE casting gods could not have selected a better actress than Anika Noni Rose to play Kizzy. She’s a tour de force in this tale of inhumanity offset by spirited determination to break free of the shackles of enslavement.
Her youthful appearance – and svelte figure – belie her age – she’s 43 years old.
In her illustrious career, she has done theatre, big screen and television work.
Her discipline as an actress was evident in her posture and how she articulated her words with clarity and resonance.
In playing this character, she admitted to revisiting the struggles of her ancestors.
She explains: “I think that every day that I went to set, I thought of the people who came before me. I thought of my grandmother, who was an amazing woman and accomplished so many firsts. I thought, ‘she was one of 16; she was the baby’. Her oldest sister cooked and kept house for white people in Florida and put every one of her sisters through college. I thought of these people and I thought, ‘this is about me, but it’s for them, and it’s only me because of them’. I thought that what was most important to me was not to be as dramatic as possible, because slavery in itself, the institution, is dramatic, but to be as honest as possible.
“When you think about living a life in these circumstances, there’s really no room for tears every day; there’s not a lot of space for a lot of, I think, naturally emotional things that we have the freedom to go through and indulge in every day, all day. I was interested in how she held on, day to day,” she adds.
Although Kizzy finds herself vulnerable and powerless at times, her indomitable fighting spirit never abandons her.
On her most difficult scene, the actress says: “There’s a scene towards the end and I wouldn’t say that ‘difficult’ is necessarily the word I would use. But I would say that it was very intense. I’m trying to stop Chicken George from going to kill someone. That was very intense and could have quickly drowned in melodrama.
“We have very many scenes that were on the edge of something, so I was always skating on edges and trying to make sure that I was able to balance before I tipped one way or the other.”
COMMENT FROM THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
FOR this mini-series, Bruce Beresford, Thomas Carter, Phillip Noyce and Mario Van Peebles were brought on board as directors.
And there were several writers, including the author of the novel, developing the characters and story. In fact, there were characters added who were not in the original series.
Mark Wolper, executive producer of this contemporary undertaking, says: “When we started developing this, we got a group of historians together – anthropologists, sociologists, historians – to tell us things. We asked them: ‘Tell us 10 things we don’t know about Africa, Middle Passage and America’s slave story’. They did. The line of the story of the families there, that doesn’t change.
“The history of the world around them has been articulated in a more accurate way than Alex Haley and the original producers of the mini-series could do, because they didn’t have the information. Characters like Nancy Holt are new. The style in which we filmed is new and in the style of film today. We’ve made a lot of changes to connect with a new generation and how they watch TV, which is different to the way they watched it in the ’70s.”
Roots airs on History (DStv channel 186) on Wednesday, June 15 at 8.30pm.