03 September 2014
Newsdesk
Kevin Costner admits it is challenging to watch “ugly” scenes in his new film Black and White.
The two-time Academy Award-winning actor stars alongside fellow Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer in the forthcoming drama, which tells the story of a white grandfather’s custody battle over his mixed race grandchild with the family of the tot’s black father Reggie, played by Anthony Mackie.
During a pivotal courtroom scene Kevin’s character Elliott says “n****r” and the star admits it’s difficult hearing that racial slur coming out of his mouth.
“It’s tough. It’s ugly. It’s all those things that go with it. But [director Mike Binder] salvaged it in a way that was so unpredictable that even on the witness stand, [Elliott] goes, ‘It’s the word [Reggie] used to describe himself.’ I just think Mike did an amazing job,” Kevin told Entertainment Weekly. “Even having Octavia slap Reggie… three times. Really important, the third slap. She says, ‘Pull yourself together.’”
Octavia portrays Reggie’s mother in the indie picture, which has a complex storyline.
Kevin’s character Elliott is an attorney who is raising his grandchild because his daughter died while giving birth to the baby. The man who impregnated Elliott’s daughter, Reggie, is a drug addict and Octavia’s persona has convinced her troubled son to seek primary custody over his child.
Speaking of the clip in which his character Elliott says “n****r” while testifying in family court, Kevin says although he believes the world is “better off” without the use of that word, he was shocked by how the message of the scene ultimately resonated with viewers.
“We’ve screened it at exclusively black communities and then white communities, and surprisingly, even in the black community, when I finished that final summation, people clapped,” he recalled. “They clapped. They get it. Because they do feel that it was evenhanded.”
Black and White debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6.
