Dustin Lance Black knows that you don’t talk about politics at the dinner table in Texas. That’s why the Oscar-winning “Milk” screenwriter’s excellent new television project, the ABC miniseries “When We Rise,” is a call to arms, certainly, but more than that, it’s a human story about real, flesh-and-bone characters and found families living in San Francisco.
“I thought, If I’m going to do this on ABC and I’m going to get a chance to preach beyond the choir, I better use what I learned growing up as a kid in Texas,” Black says of his series’ potential mainstream reach beyond the LGBT community and pay-cable audiences. That’s why, in addition to politics and policy, “When We Rise” follows young, empathetic heroes who give audiences someone to relate to. “If you tell a family story, you might change a heart at that dinner table. I’m telling this story using a language that my LGBT family will understand and be moved by, but so will my family in Texas.”
The eight-hour series follows San Francisco–based gay rights, women’s rights, and black civil rights activists—including real-life figures Cleve Jones, Roma Guy, and Ken Jones—from the time of the Stonewall Inn riots in 1969 through to the present day. Despite his forte of bringing LGBT history to the screen, Black wanted to show today’s viewers how in the past, these disparate movements joined forces to incite progress; division equals failure, and given the human rights issues under America’s current presidential administration, failure is something today’s marginalized cannot afford. He says it’s time to learn from the past.
“The big point of ‘When We Rise’ [is] that word in the title: we,” Black says. “I hope this show is inspiring to LGBT people, but I hope it gets them off their asses and gets them marching with other groups who need our help—and not with the hand held out saying, ‘What are you going to do for me in return?’ Doing it because we understand that we’re only strong together.”
Black couldn’t have asked for a better cast to play conduit for his message. In the latter half of the series, Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, and Michael K. Williams play that main trio of activists; they’re assisted throughout by Rachel Griffiths, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, Carrie Preston, David Hyde Pierce, and many others.
“When you find people who have these personal connections to the story and who are so incredibly talented, I mean, I felt like the luckiest guy on the planet as the cast came together,” Black says.
But the true standouts are the three young (and relatively unknown) talents who portray Cleve, Roma, and Ken in the series’ earlier decades: Austin P. McKenzie, Emily Skeggs, and Jonathan Majors.
“First and foremost, I’m always looking for authenticity,” Black says of casting these roles. “In my experience, if you want a young actor or actress who can bring a character to life with absolute authenticity, you go to Broadway.”
When cast, McKenzie was just off his acclaimed run as Melchior Gabor in Deaf West Theatre’s “Spring Awakening,” Skeggs had recently bowed out of her Tony-nominated supporting turn in “Fun Home,” and Majors was fresh out of the Yale School of Drama. It may be his first big role, but Black assures we’ll be seeing more of Majors; he has two other film projects on the way.
In the end, as tremendous as this cast is, Black hopes “When We Rise” will inspire others to act off the screen, as well—protest, march, call their representatives, and make their voices heard.
“History is not a straight line, it’s a pendulum. I think [an activist’s] job is to keep the pendulum from swinging back too far,” Black says. “I do hope this series is a guide for young activists and a call to action for older activists, because we’re not done. We’re never done. We’ve faced backlash before, and I hope the series is a recipe for how you beat back the backlash we’re in right now.”
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