An FBI informant finds his loyalties tested in Director Shaka King’s biographical drama, Judas and the Black Messiah.
King’s film tells the true story of William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), a career thief who infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party on orders from the FBI and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). As Hampton's political prowess grows, O’Neal finds himself falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback) and a battle for his soul ensues.
On February 19, King discussed the making of Judas and the Black Messiah in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by DGA Past President Taylor Hackford (The Comedian).
During the conversation, King spoke about guiding actor Daniel Kaluuya’s accent as Fred Hampton, by studying what Director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington accomplished in Malcolm X. “Let’s look at Denzel in Malcolm X where it’s an interpretation. It’s not exactly like Malcolm X but there’s something to it… Then it came down to dialect coach Audrey LeCrone really just working that material. Daniel took opera lessons because he knew he was gonna’ have to do some of these really big speeches. He was gonna’ have to sing the words from his diaphragm.”
King’s other directorial credits include the feature film Newlyweeds and episodes of Shrill, High Maintenance and People of Earth.
King has been a DGA member since 2016.
You can listen to King's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.