Sterling K Brown on Black Panther, taping up his basketball shoes and Paradise
Sterling K Brown says being part of Black Panther was a “cultural moment” that allowed him to be “part of history” – and he’d jump at the chance to become part of the Marvel world again.
The 48-year-old actor, who’s currently starring in the mind-bending drama Paradise, told Sky News: “I remember reading that script – they don’t give it to you – you have to read it and then turn it back or your hands burn off or something like that…
“I remember thinking, this is a cultural moment. This is so big, not only for black America but for black people across the globe to see themselves front and centre in the largest, most zeitgeisty pop cultural machine in the world right now, the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe].
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Pic: Marvel Studios
The superhero movie won three Oscars – Marvel’s first ever Academy Awards – including a win for costume design and best production design, the first in both categories for women of colour.
Brown goes on: “I just want to be a part of history. It was history. It was awesome.”
The Missouri-born star’s career trajectory has been impressive, from “living beneath the poverty line” to being nominated for an Oscar, he’s always been single-minded in his pursuit of acting.
He explains: “I didn’t have a hard knock life. We grew up in a house. My mom was a schoolteacher. My dad was a grocery clerk. All our needs were met.
“But I would tape my basketball shoes up if the sole came apart because that fixed them. And my mom got mad at me one time, she’s like, ‘You know, we can buy you shoes?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but I fixed them. What’s the big deal?'”
He says making his living through his craft was always his focus, adding, “I know that’s a luxury that’s not afforded to a lot of people. The fact that it’s gone my way, I’m incredibly thankful for.”
This Is Us. Pic: Disney+
A three-time Emmy winner, The People V O J Simpson: American Crime Story saw him gain public attention, followed by a season in The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the multi-award-winning This Is Us.
‘I’ve got good taste’
When his role in American Fiction earned him an Oscar nomination, he insists he didn’t see it coming, saying: “I just knew it was a great story, a great script, and I wanted to be a part of it.”
He goes on: “They’re all sort of game-changers. People will give me credit. I’ll take credit for having good taste, but you never know when lightning is going to strike, right?”
A fatalist, he says: “I leave it in the hands of the universe and just say, ‘If you want me to step here, I’ll step there and whatever happens, happens’.”
Now he’s leading the cast of Disney+ drama Paradise, playing Agent Xavier Collins, a man charged with protecting a second-term president – played by James Marsden – in a serene community of high-net-worth individuals.
Brown admits the role came with obligations: “There is a different level of responsibility when you’re one on the call sheet. I think people do look to you to help set the tone of what the environment is going to be like, and I don’t mind that.”
Pic: Disney+
The brainchild of Dan Fogelman, best known for his work on This Is Us and Only Murders In The Building, Paradise is a murder mystery with something much bigger underneath.
‘Billionaires on camera’
Impossible to elaborate on further without giving away spoilers, it’s enough to say the first episode throws up a twist few will see coming.
Despite various parallels with the current political climate, Fogelman says he came up with the idea over a decade ago, but concedes the timing is “certainly unusual”.
Fogelman tells Sky News: “We’re openly seeing billionaires on camera having a big hand in government. And while money and wealth have always been a factor in things behind the scenes, it’s very out front and centre right now in a way that the show openly discusses [and] things about the environment and climate change.”
Brown too says the themes are prescient: “The world is unpredictable and a little bit nutty and a lot of people are on edge as to what is next. I don’t know if it’s across the world. I definitely know that it’s in the United States for certain.
“I think the show in a very strange way, is sort of asking the same questions like, ‘All right, we’re in new territory right now. I have no idea what happens next. I’m a little scared about that.'”
He goes on: “People are going to draw all sorts of conclusions and inferences and comparisons. I will leave them to draw whatever they wish because if I was an audience member, I would too.”
The first three episodes of Paradise are available on Disney+ now, with new episodes dropping each Tuesday.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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