The cast of The Underground Railroad talks the challenges America is still facing

The Underground Railroad challenges America to confront what has been happening in the past and still is today.

Video transcript

- Hold on.

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- What belongs to you?

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I'll admit right off the bat, I'm only two episodes in. The first episode had me piqued. And second episode just had me hooked. I can't wait to get back to the rest of it.

The premise is so smart because I remember when I was the kid and first hearing the term Underground Railroad, that's exactly what I pictured, literally, an actual train underground. Have you guys found that that's a common experience since working on this?

BARRY JENKINS: I can't say it's common. But because I had the same thing when I was a kid, I thought the Underground Railroad was a real thing. I knew the Underground Railroad was a real thing. I can't say it's common, but it does exist. And I don't know if the show is going to help vanquish that thought. But anything that drives people to consider my ancestors, I think, is worth creating.

AARON PIERRE: I remember so vividly the first day that I saw the Underground Railroad on set. And that moment of seeing actualised was a moment of wonder and a moment of real excitement because I think that is what so many people envision when they hear the Underground Railroad. And I think that's such a crucial part of this story. And I hope it will resonate with audiences.

SHEILA ATIM: The first time I heard about it, I thought it was a train. And I thought it was tunnels underground. And it was much later on in my life. I learned that it was just a network of people. And I think it was probably later than maybe the average American because, obviously, I'm British. So that's not a direct history that we're being taught. But yeah, I think that's probably a common experience for a lot of people.

- You came all this way on the railroad?

- Yeah. Left behind all those peoples.

KEVIN POLOWY: There's not been a time in 400 years when a story like this has not been relevant, sadly. But what kind of impact do you think revisiting slavery and the history of the African-American struggle can have in 2021, especially given the events of the past year and the racial reckoning we've had, not only in the US but around the globe?

BARRY JENKINS: Yeah, I think the past year-- and also for me, just with the journey of the show, the past four years, Make America Great Again has been a thing that has been on the cover of the newspapers, on the sidewalk. And we filmed this entirely in the state of Georgia. So we saw quite a few red hats in our time down there.

I think in that word, there's this cavernous vacuum in the historical record, or this failure to acknowledge what America, as you said, has always been, an exception. And if we don't acknowledge those things, then slogans like this and, even worse, actions like the ones we've seen play out over the last year-- hell, over the last 100 years, will continue to proliferate. And so I think it's important to fill in those cavities and to acknowledge the truth of what this country is.

THUSO MBEDU: For so quick to be told that it happened such a long time ago and whatever pain, frustration, and trauma you are living in today is kind of unvalidated. And so I think it's important that people who are still suffering the consequences of what happened 400 years ago do feel seen.

SHEILA ATIM: I think it's really time to see a story about slavery and about race-based oppression. I feel like this story is a call to arms, in a way, because there's so much hope. There's so much about the future. There's so much about what can be achieved by human will, whilst also still putting that up against the brutality and putting that up against the absolute worst parts of humanity and saying, look, we can be better. We can do better than this.

And to be reminded of these things, it can be really painful. It can be really difficult to be confronted with those images. But we cannot shy away from that history. We can't bury it. We cannot ignore it.

WILLIAM JACKSON HARPER: Well, I'm hoping that this is one of those pieces that makes people question themselves. And I'm hoping that it makes people question the folks that they have surrounded themselves with.

I think we all like to think that when it comes to the fight for freedom and equality, that we all would have been on the right side of history. And the fact of the matter is, a lot of us would not have been. I think we see a lot of injustices. And we may have feelings on it, but we're not going to do anything about it.

And I say that as a person who sees things that I don't like, and I'm sometimes complacent. And I'm just like, someone should do something about that.

And then there's also people who are just like, the law is the law, the rules are the rules. It may not be fair, but that's the way it is. And so I'm hoping that this piece sort of shakes people a little bit and starts some really interesting conversations about who they would have been and who they are now in a moment where we are seeing a lot of upheaval and people are taking sides and some people are not.

- The girl in that bulletin is wanted for the murder of a child.

KEVIN POLOWY: I think more times than not, you play very likeable guys that we want to root for. Here, not the case at all. You're someone who hunts people who've escaped enslavement. Is that a tough role to sign up for? And also, how do you find the humanity in a guy like this?

JOEL EDGERTON: Yeah, it was tough. I mean, look, I've spent my years kind of saying, oh, it always more fun to play a villain than a hero. And that's because villains often have more of a complicated psychology or skewed moral line than heroes do.

But this was one time that I really thought twice about whether I really wanted to play a bad guy. But what really enticed me was that we caught a bid more of an insight into Ridgeway. I think Ridgeway has this deep wounded pride that his father disregarded him. And that damage, plus his position of power, makes him a really dangerous person because he knows that his mind is misshapen in terms of its opinion.

And what I love is we catch a sense that he's filled with pain, this guy, for all the things that he's done. And I think you'll probably see that in about three episodes. One's just a bad guy. And I think it's important for us to ask the question, how do these people who have these terrible opinions in the world, how do we get to those opinions?

We're not born with them. We learn them. And we shape ourselves.

KEVIN POLOWY: I've heard that Barry took the measure of having counselors on set. How harrowing was the experience of being on some of those sets, especially early on, recreating the horribleness, the inhumanity of slavery and plantation life?

AARON PIERRE: Yeah. It was extremely harrowing. And it was extremely unsettling and deeply saddening, particularly when you reflect on the fact that these were the realities for so many individuals, against their will.

I think as a global community and as a human race, we have an extremely long way to go in regards to empathy, understanding, and unity. And my hope is that this series will contribute to that conversation and hopefully allow audiences to take the opportunity to reflect and say, what can I do that is conducive to progress?

- Free, runaway?

- I'm not sure.

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