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(The finaleaired Sunday night.)
I loved doing it, so Im glad to be talking to you about it.
Im curious: How did you settle on the voice for John Brown?
Did you try on different voices until you found the right one?I really did.
It was a riddle to me to find it.
When I was younger, none of that stuff interested me.
I was interested in some kind of simplicity and trying to be honest, whatever that word means.
McBride says in his books that John Brown sounded like high timber, like a high pine.
I dont know how and he was so funny.
He goes, Im so glad you called.
I think I got that wrong.
I hear it much lower.
When he said that, it really freed me up, and I really just started emulating my grandfather.
At least as a kid, probably because his hearing was bad, he always shouted at me.
He just always yelled.
Sometimes you run up to the wall of your gift.
There wasnt anything that I could throw at this part that it couldnt handle.
I felt a lot as if I were the first person to get to play King Lear or something.
The part was that rich, it was that dynamic.
It needed that many layers.
And also, nobody had done it before, so there was no map.
It was amazing, because our second-to-last day we did the hanging, and it was just amazing.
It was the first snow of the year, and it was so beautiful.
Why do you think John feels so strongly about Onion?
Would you?Its strange, I had that thought, yeah.
Only because sometimes we have a freedom with other peoples children to be our complete selves.
We stop putting up a mask that we put up for our own kids.
We dont have the same projections that we have.
I have my own theories about that, but yes.
What are your theories?
If youre willing to live outside of societys laws, you think a little differently.
My theory, in playing him anyway, was that hes known for a while.
So he just kind of goes along with it.
The point is, John Brown doesnt care if hes a boy or a girl.
He loves him for whoever he wants to be.
John Brown doesnt care whether he wears pants or a dress.
Whatever you want to wear.
During the raid, theres a moment where John yells, I am the sanest man youve ever seen.
You were talking earlier about the line between sanity and insanity.
Thats what they used as proof of insanity.
And his answer to that was, I live in a society thats insane.
Anyone that thinks he can buy and sell a child is insane.
Anybody thats okay with that is insane.
Im not okay with that.
Thats why hes a hero to me.
I went back and I watched that sequence in the movie with you and Robin Williams.
I dont know if youve ever thought about that.The hairs on my arm are standing up.
I know that in the background of that scene is a photograph of Walt Whitman, right?
Yes.With his big, crazy beard and his hollowed-out eyes.
There is a history of white America that has a lot more to offer than were often told.
There probably is some connection to how I came to this book and that sweaty-toothed madman.
I also see sibling relationships between some of the things inTheGood Lord Birdand what were dealing with now.
Certainly the racial issues have not gone away even though slavery has.
He thinks hes been chosen to do what hes doing.
Its called megalomania, right?
But its a lot to think that God picked you to do it.
You dont have opinions about whether theyre good or bad.
From his point of view, hes a Calvinist.
This makes sense to him.
This all makes sense.
His heroes are Samson.
His hero is David who defeated Goliath.
He saw slavery as a Goliath that must be defeated.
If God wanted to use him as David, he was happy to oblige.
But as Frederick Douglass says, I wanted to live for freedom.
John Brown wanted to die for it.
Frederick Douglass said, I dont want to be a martyr.
Thats just not my thing.
He says, What a beautiful country.
Talk to me about that line.I had a pretty powerful experience with Darnell Martin, who directedepisode three.
She is an extremely knowledgeable woman about history in our country.
Darnell really knew a lot about John Brown, and she really knew a lot about the abolitionist movement.
She continued to champion the show after she left.
She would call me and check in with me.
She called me up one day and said, I think I know how the show ends.
What a beautiful country that appeared.
He says that a lot in his life.
She was like, Imagine if those were his final words.
I called Mark Richard, whos my partner on the show.
One of the things thats fun about the show is its partly a Western.
They never deal with slavery.
Thats the one that they dont tell.
What would he imagine they would be?
This idea happened to us, and we were like, Thats it.
Do you still feel that way?
Is that conversation still happening?No, I guess that antenna went down.
This was a huge challenge.
It was a challenge on every front.
I always said if it were easy to tell John Browns story, it would have been done before.
I really invited him in.
As an actor, you build this antenna to venture to be a receiver for these ideas.
You put on the clothes; you ride the horses; you carry the pistols.
Im really grateful to have the opportunity.
Thats a conversation that Im grateful to be having with you.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
