Nate Parker Respects His Roots While Forging His Future

Nate Parker recently took the opportunity to test his DNA and determine his heritage. " 'Cause you know Africa's a continent," he says. "To say I'm African is not the same as saying I grew up in a village outside of Switzerland. So I jumped at the opportunity, and the results came back and said that my ancestors were from Cameroon." Parker is taking his affiliation seriously, proudly wearing a cap that bears a "C" and the Cameroonian flag and learning French in advance of traveling to his ancestors' homeland.

Parker has built his career just as seriously. He currently plays the flight leader in "Red Tails," Anthony Hemingway's feature-directing debut about the African-American pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen who fought in World War II. Simultaneously, two of Parker's other films are at Sundance: "Arbitrage" with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, and Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer." Parker also pays his bills by writing—taking commissions, doctoring scripts, or pitching his ideas. But his first break came with a commercial for Tide with Febreze, in which he famously asked, "Mom, what smells so good?"

Here are five more things to know about Parker.

1. Early Breaks and Early Smarts.

Parker was an all-American wrestler at University of Oklahoma, whence he graduated with honors in 2003 with a degree in management science information systems and graphic design, planning to be a computer programmer. His girlfriend at the time needed a ride into Texas to pursue a modeling opportunity. "I came inside and walked around while waiting for her to get done," Parker recalls. "A guy approached me and was like, 'Are you an actor or a model?' I'm like, 'Dude, I'm just here with my girlfriend.' And he said, 'Well, you should be. I want you to read this monologue.' So I read it. And he said, 'You need to move to L.A. immediately.' I said, 'Okay.' And in seven days I lived in L.A. and had an agent my third day here." That "guy" was manager Jon Simmons, who continued to coach Parker. Within three months, Parker booked his first job—a commercial—and filmed "Cruel World" a few months after that.

2. There's No Such Thing as Rejection.

"We all serve a purpose. My purpose isn't to be rejected," says Parker. "My purpose isn't to think small or to be introverted. This door closed is literally pushing me to the next door. So when people say, 'How do you deal with the rejection?' I say, 'I've never been rejected.' I always give the analogy of mail. If you're waiting for a very important package, and you're looking out your window, and the mailman walks by, and he has this huge package, and he goes to your neighbor's house, you're not going to be mad at your neighbor for getting a package, because it wasn't for you. And if you were to get it and open it, and it's not your name on it, it could be anything. I want what's for me. I don't want another man's mail."

3. Acting Is a Huge Responsibility.

An actor is always telling someone's story, says Parker. "They're going to need you to be their voice, because a lot of them don't have a voice. The first acting job I got, outside of commercials, was 'Cold Case.' I played a kid who had been molested as a child on the swim team. When he got older, he killed his coach. How do I really internalize and go to that place. I have to really write and study and research it, 'cause there's a kid somewhere, sitting beside his victimizer, who's going to watch this and never have been able to say a word, but they're going to be looking out of the corner of their eye at this person as this person hears me tell them what they've always wanted to tell them. It has to be right. If not, I let that kid down. If I fail because I wanted to hang out really late one night, or I just didn't feel like doing the work, or whatever the case, that person can hold me accountable one day."

4. Boot Camp Makes Perfect.

To prepare for "Red Tails," Parker submitted to boot camp, "a real boot camp that lasted almost two weeks," he says. The trainees slept in a tent in the freezing cold. They ate rations and military food. "We marched and marched for miles and miles, through mud," Parker says. "It was extremely difficult. But when it was all said and done, for one we were brothers, for two we understood the physicality. We understood the shape they had to be in. We understood that it was bigger than getting onscreen playing make-believe." The real Tuskegee Airmen of course had their own boot camp, but it was segregated.

"They had to segregate—not saying it was right—because if they didn't, then those African-American officers, just by virtue of being around white soldiers that weren't officers, would be able to give them orders," Parker says. "They did everything segregated until it was in the air. And then they protected those white men. And they went from losing 70 percent of the bombers to never losing a bomber to enemy fire. They gave up the glory and turned the tide of the war."

Parker also interviewed surviving airmen and watched them demonstrate how to guide aircraft, sitting behind the real-life heroes and following along with the maneuvers.

5. Words to Live By.

"Identify your niche and dominate it," says Parker by way of words of wisdom. "And when I say dominate, I just mean work harder than anyone else could possibly work at it." He also quotes Denzel Washington: "Fame is what they give you; success is what you give yourself." Finally, advises Parker, balance mind, body, and spirit. Be reading or researching, keep the endurance up, and work on your faith, whatever it may be.