Brown \u2013 whose previous film credits include Black Panther, The Predator and Waves \u2013 is up for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his turn as Clifford \u2018Cliff\u2019 Ellison, the brother of Wright\u2019s main character Thelonious \u2018Monk\u2019 Ellison, who we find living with renewed freedom after divorcing his wife and coming out as gay.<\/p>\n
The acclaim his performance has garnered has left Brown understandably chuffed \u2013 but as he explains in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>, it\u2019s easier for him to \u201cget truly enthusiastic about my peers and the film as a whole\u201d than it is to revel in the individual accolades coming his way.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt privileged to be a part of a film that was saying something and could sort of change the perspective of stories featuring Black people and the sort of narrow purview they\u2019ve been confined to,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201c[And] I was happy to play a character who is LGBTQ and was out \u2013 and was sort of, like, messily out \u2013 because he had been confined to sort of colour within the lines for such a long time.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to be in a movie with Jeffrey Wright, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and John Ortiz? The nomination is a wonderful cherry on top of an already incredible sundae.\u201d<\/p>\n American Fiction is loosely adapted by first-time feature director Cord Jefferson from Percival Everett\u2019s 2001 novel Erasure<\/a>, and although Brown didn\u2019t know the novel \u201cat all\u201d before he was sent the script, he has since read several of the author\u2019s other works and become a big fan \u2013 in part because his work embodies something similar to Monk: a refusal to be pigeon-holed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe does not repeat himself,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of his books are necessarily Black by nature because he\u2019s a Black man who\u2019s writing them, but, like, to call them just Black literature would be to sort of minimalise the universal appeal that so many of them have. He is masterful and constantly reinventing himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, when it came to Jefferson\u2019s script \u2013 which makes several changes from the Everett novel, including a change of location from Washington, DC to Los Angeles and Boston \u2013 Brown was instantly on board.<\/p>\n He reveals that he \u201claughed out loud from page one through to the end\u201d and instantly believed that the film could be \u201cpretty special\u201d.<\/p>\n That first impression proved to be a prescient one, and his hunch has been confirmed not only by the critical appraisals and awards attention, but also the reactions he\u2019s seen from general audiences.<\/p>\n \u201c[I\u2019ve enjoyed] sitting in the audience and seeing people laugh in a mixed audience,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd folks sort of laughing at themselves at the same time was a really sort of delightful experience as well.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the counterbalancing of [the satire] with the family drama is almost like saying, \u2018You have confined us to such a narrow definition of what you think our humanity is. And then I\u2019m going to show you another example of what our humanity can be.\u2019 And having those things married in such a way one informs the other: I thought it was just masterful.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more Big RT Interviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n It was exploring the relationship between Cliff and Monk that Brown found most rewarding, especially as he has an older brother himself, and so found it easy to understand their dynamic.<\/p>\n And what he particularly enjoyed about their relationship was the tenderness with which the two brothers treated each other \u2013 even if they weren\u2019t always on the same page towards the beginning of the film.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was a level of sensitivity that you got a chance to see these two Black men treat each other with that didn\u2019t diminish their masculinity,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut it also showed that men can be gentle and caring towards one another, and express affection in a way.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife, when she saw the movie and saw me kiss Jeffrey on the forehead, said it was such a\u2026 not tender or sensual, but she used something in between those two words.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Jeffrey has a nice soft landing space on his forehead. So maybe that\u2019s why I haven\u2019t been able to hit you the same way!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut I enjoy being able to bring that representation to the landscape of how men can be with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, another thing that drew Brown to the role was the chance to play someone rather different from Randall Pearson, the character he portrayed for six seasons on the hit TV series This Is Us.<\/p>\n While he loved playing Randall, he says that having starred consistently as one person in such a well-loved show has \u201chugely\u201d impacted the decisions he makes about future roles.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s infinitely more rewarding to be recognised for a body of work than it is to be recognised for an individual character,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if someone sees me on the street, and they say, \u2018Are you Sterling Brown?\u2019 you get a much better response than if they just yell out, \u2018Randall.\u2019 So I\u2019m definitely looking for things that sort of challenge people\u2019s expectations of what they think I am \u2013 I always like to try to surprise people.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, this ties in directly to the themes of American Fiction, which explores Monk\u2019s frustration that he and his work are expected to be one thing \u2013 in this case because of his race \u2013 when he sees himself as something else.<\/p>\n And that frustration is something that Brown has himself experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there have been times early in my career when people said, you have to sort of lose this intelligent Black guy thing so that you can fit in more readily with their concept of what they considered blackness to be,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s not\u2026 I think, the film and myself, I would say there are still stories that have been told, that Hollywood has seen as being marketable, that are definitely a part of our story. [But] they aren\u2019t the totality of our story, right?<\/p>\n \u201cSo the idea of when someone meets me who\u2019s not Black and says, \u2018You\u2019re not like Black<\/em> Black, like, you\u2019re not a real Black guy,\u2019 it\u2019s because they haven\u2019t seen examples of people like me on the screen to know that this is another way of being Black that is just as valid and valued as anything else.\u201d<\/p> Brown has a number of other varied projects currently in the pipeline, including sci-fi flick Atlas, which stars Jennifer Lopez and Simu Liu and doesn\u2019t yet have an official release date.<\/p>\n He describes the project as \u201ca big old shoot \u2019em up\u201d and adds that it asks questions about how artificial intelligence and humanity can coexist with one another.<\/p>\n And then, he\u2019s reuniting with This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman on a new project, Paradise City, which begins filming next month and will reportedly follow a security service team tasked with protecting a past president.<\/p>\n Brown says he\u2019s looking forward to getting started on the show, and seems delighted to be working with Fogelman again following their fruitful collaboration in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the guy,\u201d he smiles. \u201cHe is a wonderful writer and he\u2019s a wonderful human being. And so [reuniting with him] was something that was always on the table.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I also think, just for me, in my career \u2013 as much fun as I have doing films and going all over the country and all over the world telling different stories \u2013 it\u2019s nice to know that for a certain period of time, I get a chance to be at home with my family, and do something that I know will be incredibly rewarding.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s a shorter season. It\u2019s eight episodes instead of 18 episodes, [but] at least for four or five months, I know where I would be before I start looking at other opportunities to have different kinds of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n And what about Randall \u2013 does he still miss the character after playing him for so many years?<\/p>\n \u201cI had my time, I loved my time,\u201d he responds. \u201cAnd it was great. 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