Will the Oscar trophy wear a mask this year? And will Daniel Kaluuya win Best Supporting Actor for his intense portrayal of race activist Fred Hampton in ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’?
We will find out on April 26, when the Academy Awards are announced.
Kaluuya’s table-reading for the part, however, is already part of Hollywood lore. The 32-year-old was heart-poundingly nervous as he faced Warner Bros boss Toby Emmerich and two other executives from the studio. This was the case even though Kaluuya, who grew up in London and has Ugandan parents, was an acclaimed actor with a Best Actor Oscar nomination in 2017.
The green-lighting of the film depended upon the reading by Kaluuya and some other cast members. Unbeknownst to him, a budget increase also rode on it.
The first half of the reading concluded. In the second, Kaluuya decided to break out of his shell and let it all out.
“If I’m going to die, I’m going to die shooting,” Kaluuya thought, according to a profile in The New York Times.
One of the scenes was of a rousing speech Hampton made. Kaluuya seized the moment, screaming the lines, “I AM…a REVOLUTIONARY! I AM…A REVOLUTIONARY!”
It left everyone in the room spellbound. Shaka King, the film’s producer and director, said, “Everyone else was in a screenplay reading, but he turned it into a play. There were only around 20 of us in the room, but he played it like he was performing in a theatre for 300 and had to reach the back row.”
The above line should be framed and hung on a wall by anyone whose job involves pitches and public speaking. It’s not always about the volume, of course, but the fire.
What also helped Kaluuya develop into a powerhouse orator was lessons from an opera-singing trainer. He was tutored how to condition vocal cords and use his diaphragm for the speech scenes. This, Kaluuya said, made his lines truer to character instead of just an imitation.
“People can say whatever they’re going to say about the performance, and I’ll still feel free,” Kaluuya told NYT. “I gave it everything I had. I gave. I gave. I gave.”
He said this about his overall effort and not just the nerve-wracking reading. Yet, it’s another line worth preserving.
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