The Trial of the Chicago 7 brings the arrest of anti-Vietnam War protestors in the 1960s to the forefront through Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay and direction. The film, which arrives on Netflix October 16, sees the story of the Seven through to the trial itself.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) plays Bobby Seale, and he contends it’s his most important role yet. He spoke to Screen Rant about why it was meaningful to him, and what political activism means in this day and age.
You've played many iconic roles in fantasy and sci-fi as of late. Tell me why the role of Bobby Seale may be just as important as all those other characters.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: Oh, of course. Most definitely, I think Bobby Seale is one of the most important characters because of the reason that he was someone who is a still living, breathing person in our life. He has children and lived a life that has implications; he made real sacrifices for us and inspired us because of his real actions. He put his actual life on the line, and I can go on and on and on.
Supernatural heroes and gods and inspirational figures are very, very important, but I don't think any of them to this day can hold a candle to the importance that I've felt when stepping into the shoes of Bobby Seale.
I know that you have an even more personal connection to this, because you're from Oakland. Sometimes it's harder to research people when the narrative is being told by those in power, so how did you research a revolutionary like Bobby?
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: I listened to his own words, I read one of his autobiographies, I listened to his words that he spoke when he was in prison, I watched his interviews and watched his speeches. There was one particular interview that he gave from prison, during the time he was incarcerated for this trial, I believe.
I just learned so much about his character, about his strength, about his wit, about his insistence to not be broken - or to not show that he was broken by the system. I learned a lot about the cruelty of the system and about his willingness to overcome. He was a survivor, and he was always fighting for his humanity, to be seen as a human and as a person, and that's what I keyed into for my performance in this film.
It seems like many of these heroes that we should respect today were treated as enemies during their quest for justice. Political and social activism comes a lot of sacrifice. Can you talk to me about why it's necessary to sacrifice certain things for just causes?
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: Yeah, because you can't do it from a place of comfort. You can only change so much from a place of comfort so, and discomfort is disruption. It takes courage, because there are consequences that come with disruption. These figures knew that; these figures knew that what we were given to be understood as order was actually chaos, and was actually disorder.
For them, it wasn't disturbing the peace; it was disturbing the chaos in order to create peace. We know, and they knew as revolutionaries, that what the world saw as order was actually chaos and disorder. In order to change that, you have to create good trouble, so to speak. You have to get into it.
