Video:Charles S Dutton Interview - The Express
with Rebecca MurrayCharles S Dutton plays Ernie Davis' grandfather in the inspirational drama "The Express" starring Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid. On the red carpet at the film's LA premiere, Dutton talked about the journey taken to bring Davis' story to the big screen.
Transcript:Charles S Dutton Interview - The Express
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the Hollywood Premiere of The Express.
Charles S Dutton ('Willie Pops Davis')
Why do you think it has taken so long to tell this story? It's a story that needs to be out there.
Charles S Dutton: "Well, you know Hollywood. It doesn't mean anything about it being a black story, it's just any movie, any film takes years to get off the ground. You know what I mean? You name any movie that's coming out this week or next week or next month and you ask, they've taken five years from the time somebody pitched the idea to the time it actually comes out. In the case of the Ernie Davis story, there was a few scripts kicked around several years ago but they just weren't right. The scripts weren't there yet. And so Hollywood was interested in the story but you want to make sure that the script is good. I read a script almost five years ago and I remember saying, 'Uhhh, guys…', you know? I think Jim Brown read the script years ago and said, 'I don't want to…' He would know this is not the story. And finally when the story came out, the script got fixed and a new team of producers, new studio, then Jim and also Ernie Davis' fellow classmates who were reading the script said, 'Okay, now this is the real story.' So consequently when I got the second version of the script I said, 'Well, you know I hate being asked to play a granddad, although albeit he's a young one, but this granddad I won't mind.'"
"It was a different role for me because it was a chance to play off of a character instead of on. And what I mean by that is it wasn't visceral, it wasn't energetic. It wasn't physical. It was a guy who was reflective and passive and introspective, and they usually don't pass those my way. They usually give me a baseball bat or something and say, 'Go hit that guy.' So I got a chance to do more with silence instead of dialogue, you know? And so I appreciated that. But also knowing he was the guy who instilled in Davis, instilled in that young man his values. That was going to be the fun of it."
Did you talk to members of his family?
Charles S Dutton: "Yes. I met them at Syracuse and it was interesting. They all came to me and said, 'Oh man, when you looked at Ernie at one point, or when you looked at his cousin at one point, that was granddaddy. You shot a look that reminded us…' And I never met his granddad, of course. But they said, 'Oh man, granddaddy didn't do a lot of talking but he could look at you and make you feel awful when you disappointed him.' "
When you hear something like that, did that give you chills?
Charles S Dutton: "It definitely moved me. His family – his aunts and uncles – were just tremendous people, and so were his classmates. But the wonderful thing, the class of '59, all of them that are still alive, to hear them talk about him 47, 48 years later, they still tear up when they talk about the year they had as a team and Ernie's contributions. They still well up and weep, you know? So to hear 70 year old men, mid-70s, some are bent and broken but when they talk about him you just… We wanted to go out and do the movie again. We felt, 'Okay, we'll make it better the next time!' "