'Clemency' Stars Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge and Director Chinonye Chukwu

Clemency is one of the last films to be released in 2019, and it's one of the best films of 2019. This week we talk to the film's director, Chinonye Chukwu, and the film's stars, Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge.You know all the cliches of death-row movies: the cruel warden, the Jesus imagery, the lawyers who clear their client at the last second. Clemency knows them too, and subverts them in favor of a nuanced and honest look at the fundamental problem with the death penalty. It doesn't preach. It doesn't need to.Woodard plays a warden completely different from every other we've seen on film, and Hodge plays a condemned man who makes us feel every agonizing moment of his countdown. But please skip the Hodge interview, which comes last, if you haven't yet seen "Clemency." The film is in theaters December 27.Here are highlights of the episode, with timestamps:1:15: Alfre Woodard interview begins1:27: She explains why so many wardens come from the fields of mental health or social work.4:15: "Every time we do it, it puts a stain on our soul as a culture, as a nation. Especially a nation where we call ourselves a nation of faith. ... It's a breach for everybody."8:25: Alfre Woodard on meeting death row inmates in her research for the film: "It was the most humbling experience I've ever had in my life."11:01: "You just have to kiss yourself up to God. Anything can happen."15:48: Chinonye Chukwu interview begins.16:30: "Regardless of innocence or guilt, do we as a society have a right to kill?"18:03: "I don't need to justify his humanity. ... I really tasked myself to craft a narrative where we don't really know if this person's innocent or guilty and we don't know very much about his past. We are just staying with him in the present." 20:15: Why she chose to cast black actors as both the warden and the inmate: "I thought that if the warden is white and the person on death row is black, then the racial dynamics become the narrative, and not an interrogation of the prison space and the practice of capital punishment and the system of incarceration."20:50: How she captured the feeling of the prison.23:38: We talk about witnessing an actual execution.30:00: We discuss the Golden Globes not nominating any female filmmakers in the best directing categories.31:45: "We all should support the films that don't get supported by these structures and entities."33:32: "We have to be willing to use our privileges and access for those who aren't as privileged. And sometimes it is sacrifice but that's what we have to do sometimes in order to move forward."34:00: CLEMENCY SPOILERS FOLLOW.35:00: Aldis Hodge interview begins.35:35: "It's not about him committing a crime. It's about us as a society feeling justified to commit a crime that we shroud in the identity of true justice."41:02: Audio quality improves thanks to a microphone switch. Thanks for your patience.42:38: "I want art to be part of the progressive conversation."45:00: We talk about Aldis Hodge's watchmaking, and why he's pursuing it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.