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美国国家公共电台 NPR Lena Waithe On 'Queen And Slim,' A Black Lives Matter Odyssey

时间:2019-11-29 01:21来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In her debut1 feature film, screenwriter Lena Waithe has written an odyssey2 set in the Black Lives Matter era. "Queen & Slim" is about a couple on the run after a routine traffic stop gone wrong. They kill a white police officer in self-defense3, and rather than entrust4 themselves to the U.S. criminal justice system, they flee.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "QUEEN AND SLIM")

JODIE TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) What if they kill us?

DANIEL KALUUYA: (As Slim) Don't say that.

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) There's no guarantee they won't. You're a black man that killed a cop and took his gun.

KALUUYA: (As Slim) I'm not a criminal.

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) You are now.

MARTIN: The movie plays out over much of the United States. It explores on a bigger scale a whole lot of the themes Waithe writes about on her Showtime drama "The Chi," which is about life in South Side Chicago. Waithe recently talked with our co-host Noel King, and she called this film a meditation5 on black life in America.

LENA WAITHE: Who we are, how beautiful we are, how complex we can be and how we are resilient and sometimes will do whatever we have to do to survive.

NOEL KING, BYLINE6: Let's talk about Queen and Slim and how we meet them. They're in, like, a diner on a date.

WAITHE: Yep.

KING: And it's a Tinder date (laughter).

WAITHE: Right.

KING: Tell us about who these people are.

WAITHE: They are coming from very different places. You know, he's probably coming from, you know, eight-hour shift at Costco. She's a defense attorney, and she's almost like a superhero in a way. She kind of goes around and tries to save people from the system, and the system has sort of failed her that day, and she's not feeling great about it.

KING: They're on their way home, and they're pulled over by a white police officer. And then things really turn.

WAITHE: You know, Daniel Kaluuya said something to me - very interesting.

KING: He plays Slim.

WAITHE: Sometimes a black person respecting themselves can be read by a white person as disrespectful. And I thought, whoa, that is so interesting because a big road map that I used for that scene that I wrote a bazillion times was Sandra Bland7's dashcam footage.

KING: Sandra Bland - the woman who was pulled over in Texas...

WAITHE: Yes.

KING: ...Pulled over by a police officer.

WAITHE: Yeah. And then ultimately was found dead in police custody8 a few days later. There's a turn that I noticed in that footage that's very subtle, but it was the turn that I needed to help me figure out the scene. He asks her to put her cigarette out. And she makes a valid9 point. She says, is it illegal for me to smoke a cigarette in my own car? He says, no, it's not, but I'm asking you to put the cigarette out. She says, no. And then, instantly - step out of the car. And that's the turn. It was as if he felt like his authority wasn't being respected. That is the difference between life and death.

And so for this scene, he just asks - it's cold. And mind you - we were in Cleveland, Ohio. It was freezing. We were there - polar vortex. And the line was just, can you please hurry up?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "QUEEN AND SLIM")

KALUUYA: (As Slim) Could you please hurry up?

STURGILL SIMPSON: (As Police Officer Reed) What did you say?

KALUUYA: (As Slim) It's just cold.

SIMPSON: (As Police Officer Reed) Put your hands on your head and get on the ground now.

KALUUYA: (As Slim) Are you serious?

WAITHE: Yeah. And then he added - Daniel added, because it's cold. And I knew - I said, yeah, that could be the turn. And even on the page, I say, in an instant, it goes from 2019 to 1968.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "QUEEN AND SLIM")

SIMPSON: (As Police Officer Reed) Get on the [expletive] ground.

KALUUYA: (As Slim) Sir, sir, sir - we don't have to do this.

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) Why is he under arrest? What is your name?

SIMPSON: (As Police Officer Reed) Get back in the car.

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) What is your badge number?

SIMPSON: (As Police Officer Reed) I'm not going to tell you until you get back in the [expletive] car.

KALUUYA: (As Slim) Get back in the car. Get back in the car. We got this.

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) Why is he under arrest?

KALUUYA: (As Slim) Sir, we don't have to - sir, sir, sir?

TURNER-SMITH: (As Queen) What is your badge number?

WAITHE: That is our fundamental issue, I think, between black people and the police. The police want us to bow down and respect them, but also, respect has to be earned; you've got to treat me like a human being.

KING: Queen and Slim get out. They hit the road. They flee. But they begin to realize along the way that they've become heroes, kind of outlaw10 heroes, to many black people.

WAITHE: Yeah. I mean, I think because our history as black people with the police has been so turbulent, so violent. A lot of people point to Rodney King, which is a clear example of police brutality11. But then you can also go back to the civil rights movement. Who was it that was hosing down college students? Who was it that was siccing dogs on them, beating them with batons12? It wasn't just, like, crazy racist13 white people; it was the police.

KING: Yeah, it was the authorities.

WAITHE: So that is why I said, if two black people ever killed a police officer, in self-defense or not, I knew that there would be pockets of the black community that would look at them and applaud, whether it's right or wrong. There would be some black people that would think that was extremely irresponsible.

KING: You have characters say that, too. You have a character who at one point says, what you did was wrong. It gives the cops now an excuse to shoot us.

WAITHE: Correct. But then so they could argue, since when did they need an excuse? What Queen and Slim represent are the two different ways black people can behave when they get pulled over by a police officer.

KING: Which are?

WAITHE: Yes, sir. No, sir. Yeah, you can search my car. Or you can say, may I ask why I was pulled over? May I see your badge number? Let me speak to the person above you. You've got to decide - who do you want to be that day?

KING: You know, I think of your writing and I think of it as being very place-specific. Like, you know, in "The Chi," it's the South Side of Chicago. It's specific neighborhoods. This movie unrolls over half of the United States of America.

WAITHE: Right.

KING: And I wondered, is it freeing to be able to write that much space? Is it scary to have to write that much space? Like, what is it that comes with writing an odyssey, I guess, is what I'm asking?

WAITHE: You know, it's freeing because I get to explore all these different characters. But at the same time, it is daunting14 because I had an actual map on my wall next to my character stuff (laughter).

KING: This made me so curious. I know nothing about making movies or writing movies. But this is a very beautiful movie. You see all of these scenes from across the country. And I was wondering, when you're writing this, my guess is you're not on a road trip.

WAITHE: Nope.

KING: (Laughter) So how do you write - do you just write...

WAITHE: I would just say, like, beautiful...

KING: ...Beautiful Georgia?

WAITHE: Well, I would - yeah, but I'd also write beautiful scenery fields, you know, because I've been on a couple long road trips, and that always happens. Like, when you get out of a city, you're out on the open road, and you're just like, America is beautiful. But it's also ugly because of our history and, you know, what we've done to each other. And that's why I really love the exchange when he says, man, it's beautiful out here, because he's never been this far out of, like, Cleveland, Ohio. But then what do you see? Which is also a real thing. You see prisoners.

KING: Yeah. Inmates15 working along the side of the road.

WAITHE: Working. To me, that's what I wanted to show. It was like, that's what - nothing's more American than that - a beautiful road and trees and grass and then, of course, black and brown bodies working the land. And she says - after he says, it's so beautiful out here, she goes, is it? Is it?

KING: Lena Waithe, screenwriter and producer of "Queen & Slim." Thank you so much for joining us.

WAITHE: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAURYN HILL'S "GUARDING THE GATES")


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 debut IxGxy     
n.首次演出,初次露面
参考例句:
  • That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里,他初次在百老汇登台,扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
  • The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。
2 odyssey t5kzU     
n.长途冒险旅行;一连串的冒险
参考例句:
  • The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
  • His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程,到此结束了。
3 defense AxbxB     
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
参考例句:
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
4 entrust JoLxh     
v.信赖,信托,交托
参考例句:
  • I couldn't entrust my children to strangers.我不能把孩子交给陌生人照看。
  • They can be entrusted to solve major national problems.可以委托他们解决重大国家问题。
5 meditation yjXyr     
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录
参考例句:
  • This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
  • I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉,我打断了你的沉思。
6 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
7 bland dW1zi     
adj.淡而无味的,温和的,无刺激性的
参考例句:
  • He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
  • This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。
8 custody Qntzd     
n.监护,照看,羁押,拘留
参考例句:
  • He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
  • He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后,他立即被押了起来。
9 valid eiCwm     
adj.有确实根据的;有效的;正当的,合法的
参考例句:
  • His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
  • Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗?
10 outlaw 1J0xG     
n.歹徒,亡命之徒;vt.宣布…为不合法
参考例句:
  • The outlaw hid out in the hills for several months.逃犯在山里隐藏了几个月。
  • The outlaw has been caught.歹徒已被抓住了。
11 brutality MSbyb     
n.野蛮的行为,残忍,野蛮
参考例句:
  • The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
  • a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军
12 batons 5442c30d33d3b0cef5ac5551a1a56f01     
n.(警察武器)警棍( baton的名词复数 );(乐队指挥用的)指挥棒;接力棒
参考例句:
  • There were many riot policemen with batons. 有许多带警棍的防暴警察。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Chinese police fight? Number one is a person with batons to fight! 满街飘的中国国旗,是一个老华侨在事发时那出来分给大家的,很感动,真的,从来一向多一事不如少一事的中国人今天团结到一起站出来反抗。 来自互联网
13 racist GSRxZ     
n.种族主义者,种族主义分子
参考例句:
  • a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
  • His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。
14 daunting daunting     
adj.使人畏缩的
参考例句:
  • They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
  • Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。
15 inmates 9f4380ba14152f3e12fbdf1595415606     
n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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