Thursday, March 28, 2024

Danny Glover: ‘I Wouldn’t Be an Actor If I Wasn’t an Activist’ AND He Finally Speaks on Mel Gibson’s Racism | WATCH

*Legendary and award winning actor and activist Danny Glover sits down for an exclusive conversation with radio and TV personality Jazmyn Summers to talk about life, acting and the struggle for justice.  The iconic actor has over 42 years in the game.

When he started acting, the Lethal Weapon star says he felt awkward about being so tall, having mild dyslexia and epilepsy but he said his activism in social change gave him the fire to keep pushing as an actor.

“If I’m not involved in movements,  I don’t become an actor.”  Glover shares with EURweb.com Spotlight. “As a teenager I read what was happening in the civil rights movement.  I became a student activist as a teenager.  We were living in the housing projects and I was fortunate to have a third grade teacher who said something very critical for me.  She said I’m not simply in the business of making good students, I’m in the business of making good citizens. This was 1954 – Brown vs Board of education and the Montgomery bus boycotts.”

Glover is most recently the voice of  Red in Marvel’s  “Wastelanders Old Man Star-Lord” radio broadcast on Sirius XM.  Vanessa Williams also stars in the show.  “It’s fun doing it.  You think about the old radio broadcasts.  Its very creative when you hear the voices. You have to be creative because you create it with your voice.  It’s not the visual language you’re used to with film. All you have is audio.”

MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Said No One Told Him His ‘Pass to Use the N-Word Had Expired’ (Watch)

danny-glover-e1520438384204
Danny Glover – Getty

If you haven’t seen Danny in a movie, then you’ve been sleep under a rock. The seasoned thespian has starred in more than 50 productions including  “The Color Purple,” “To Sleep With Anger,”  “Predator 2,” “Angels in the Outfield,” “Operation Dumbo Drop,” “Death at a Funeral,” “Beyond the Lights,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “the Last Black Man in San Francisco,” and “Jumanji: The Next Level.” But he says “Beloved” written by the great late Black novelist Toni Morrison was the most meaningful.

The film explores the physical, emotional, and spiritual devastation wrought by slavery, a devastation that continues to haunt those characters who are former slaves even in freedom.

“The most important film I’ve done is “Beloved,” Danny tells Jazmyn. “It’s a story of understanding human pain and how the pain itself translates into action, the fear and the uncertainty of life which slavery was.  The journey and transformation from slavery to freedom to citizenship is an extraordinary experience that people didn’t understand. You see yourself as property and then you’re free. ‘Beloved’ encompasses the system of dehumanization and being controlled by a system of subjugation that dehumanized you and took every part of who you were as a human being and severed your human relationships whether it was with family or children, at any time,  that could be broken because you’re property not a human being.”

We are still in the throes of that legacy, the dedicated activist explains: “In the deep subconscious the police treat us as the runaway slave.”

Danny Glover -air bnb protests
Danny Glover – Getty

Danny has been engaged in the fight for social justice since high school from advancing the cause of workers to the lack of education that denies us the truth of our history.

“We must continue to  find ways to stand in front of each other and talk about the truth or we become trapped in it. And we have to listen to that truth.  The vicious system of slavery did happen.  The killing and murder and massacre of Native Americans – almost the evisceration of the people who lived on this land 15,000 years did happen.”

Mel Gibson - Danny Glover (Getty)
Mel Gibson – Danny Glover (Getty)

Danny’s co star in lethal weapon Mel Gibson was shut out from Hollywood, after the infamous Malibu DUI arrest in 2006 during which he unleashed an anti-Semitic rant. That was followed by leaked tapes in 2010 where Gibson screamed racist remarks, including using the n-word, at his then-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of one of his nine children. She later alleged Gibson was physically abusive. Even before his fall from grace, Gibson had routinely been in trouble for homophobic comments.

But Danny says he forgives Mel.

“Mel gibson is my brother. I’ve been a part of he evolution of two men: myself and Mel.  We’ve been around each other over 35 years.  That doesn’t make us the best of friends but I see the spirit of generosity that is part of who he is.  I’ve been around him enough to know that Mel is a good person, a good human being and I love Mel.”

Danny has received numerous awards from progressive and social justice organizations for his tireless work against racism and on the side of the poor and the exploited.  He says at the end of the day it is his activism and love of justice that defines him.

Check out the full interview in the video above.

jazmyn summers headshot
Jazmyn Summers

Interview/article by Jazmyn Summers. Follow her @jaztalk1 on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. And subscribe to her YouTube channel. Video editing by www.patrickhousefilms.com

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING