Born and raised in West Africa Liberia, Diezie Sahn is a promising actor, screenwriter, and director, specializing in martial arts and fight choreography, now based in Atlanta. He has acted and performed stunts in several short films, despite battling a speech impediment, and has received the CMF and TERMINUS “BEST ACTOR” Awards. His recent Lead role in the P.S.A, “Corona Man,” went viral. Before breaking into the film industry, Diezie lived in an Ivory Coast refugee camp during the Liberian Civil War. He refuses to allow anything to stop him from achieving his goal of empowering others through film.
Taji Mag (TM): What inspired you to become an actor?
Diezie Sahn (DS): I remember vividly at the age of 7, in the town we were living called “12 houses,” my siblings and I were attending a small community school and my mother had been encouraging me to sing in church. She decided that she would register me to perform in the Bible play, “King Solomon”, and I was to play King Solomon. I was completely terrified! Here I was, a stuttering 7-year-old child, who now had to perform in front of hundreds of people at the end of the school year. The entire school would think I was a joke. I was upset with my mother and didn’t care to see what she saw in me, but my mother was relentless. She drilled the entire play with me for days so that I would be prepared for the role. To this day, I still remember my lines. When the big day came, I was beyond ready. That was when I realized that acting and performing was my purpose in life. On stage, I can speak freely through the characters and truly express myself. For the first time, my voice was heard. I felt free and happy.
TM: What films, directors, and/or actors have influenced you?
DS: Every film I’ve ever seen growing up influenced me in some ways. Western films, the Asian martial arts films that were popularized at the time, and Nigerian (Nollywood) films. I was intrigued by the Asian films because of the action, the western films introduced me to real acting, and the Nigerian films opened my mind to telling our own African stories. I believe that life is a busy intersection we all crossing through to create a path that fits each of us. My influences are the ones like myself who didn’t allow stuttering to stop them from becoming great: Bruce Willis, Steve Jobs, Samuel L Jackson, James Earl Jones, Legendary B.B King, Steve Harvey, Harvey Keitel, Kendrick Lamar, Elvis Presley, John Gomez, Marilyn Monroe, Emily Blunt, Julia Roberts. The list goes on! They inspire me to persevere.
TM: What type of films do you most look forward to creating/participating in?
DS: I look forward to playing James Bond one day or I’ll create my own James Bond-style movie with an African actor as the lead. I’d also like the opportunity to play a superhero. I think it would be awesome to see an African man in the sky doing something out of the normal beside flying to out of his country.
Harriet director Kasi Lemmons and actress Cynthia Erivo (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
This year, director and writer, Kasi Lemmons, will bring one of the most heroic and inspiring Black woman figures to the screen, Harriet Tubman. The film, Harriet, stars Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr,. and Jonelle Monae. It is a biopic about the life of Harriet Tubman from her first escape to freedom to being the conductor of the Underground Railroad. The film premiere was held on Oct. 22, 2019 in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian African American Musem. Taji Mag was able to speak with the director, Kasi Lemmons, about her creative process and development of the film.
Dapper Dr Feel (DDF): What was the importance of making this film and will this film impact the future of storytelling from the perspective of Black people?
Kasi Lemmons ( KL): As filmmakers, we always ask ourselves, what are the great characters? I write from the characters all the time. Harriet Tubman was one of the greatest figures who has lived. So for me, the fact that no feature film has ever been made about Harriet and she is just such an important person for Americans, especially African American women… This hero needs to be brought to the world, a hero to me on the level of Mother Teresa and Gandhi. She’s a real superhero.
In terms of our future as storytellers, the more we can tell compelling stories that people relate to, the better. There are so many women directors right now and there are so many stories to tell, it’s always been a matter of is the industry ready to accept these stories. Now we are in a period where we can have a Black person as the lead and hero in a movie and bring characters like Harriet to the screen.
(Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
(DDF): What makes this film different from the other films that are about Black slavery?
(KL): Harriet, to me, has always been a story about freedom. If I were to ask you to tell me the story of Harriet Tubman, you would say that she escaped from slavery and then she went back to liberate others. To me, those were like the verbs, that is the Harriet Tubman story.
(DDF): What was your reaction when you found out that you were doing this film?
(KL): My heart started racing, they just kind of sprung it on me and I didn’t have time to think about it, which was good in a way because I went to a meeting and the producer said it in the room. They surprised me because I thought I was just going to a general meeting. I was able to check my pulse to measure my own reaction and, as I am experiencing it, I am thinking, “your heart is really racing, I think you are very interested in this!”
(DDF): You have mentioned in one of your articles that this feeling of excitement is like falling in love. Can you explain?
(KL): Find a good film to work on is always like falling in love to me. There’s always a process of courtship; you’re getting to be friends and then all a sudden you fall in love. With this film, I was really intrigued by it from the very beginning. The love started in my research; she is an incredible presence in my life.
Lemmons with her husband Vondie Curtis Hall and son. (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
(DDF): What was your approach to creating the premonition scenes that Harriet experienced?
(KL): I went through a lot of stages with it, then boiled it down to its most simple form, because I felt like they were like flashes of inspiration. They took many different forms, she had dreams, trances, sometimes just flashes of premonitions, and seizures. So I started to think about what seizures felt like and tried to make a shocking type of image.
(DDF): You did some very creative things to create the premonition scene with the various colors used. How did that come about?
(KL): When I looked up seizures and really tried to read people’s experiences of what seizures looked like to them, I would find the word monochromatic over and over again. I thought that is what I was trying to make it look like.
(DDF): “What is a man to with a woman touched by God” is a line in the script that stood out to me. How did you come up with it?
(KL): It’s interesting, that is a scene that I wrote the night before we shot it. The producers and executive producers at Focus Features, wanted me to try and describe what it felt like to Harriet after her husband re-married. So we imagined a scene with Marie where she would tell her what it felt like to her. I put off writing it because it was a hurdle to me – how do you write what God feels like? Then I started to explore what it would it feel like to Harriet, I wrote it the night before the shoot and they (Cynthia Erivo and Janelle Monáe) did it in two takes.
Janelle Monáe as Marie Buchanon. (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
(DDF): In the film, we see the evolution of the heroic woman icon, how did you go about the character development from Minty to Harriet?
(KS): There is a huge arc that we felt in her character, she almost becomes different people. From an ordinary woman into this almost mythic side of herself, she names herself and she is apart of that. So we named them, Minty, Harriet, and Moses. Everybody participated in the character development; Me, Cynthia, and costume designer, Paul Tazewell. We created her and it was a group effort to give you that arc. From Minty and her dress to when she becomes Harriet in her mission costume, it’s a big arc.
(DDF): What advice would you give to your younger self at the time you made Eve’s Bayou?
(KL): In some ways, I don’t know if I would give myself any advice. Now, where I am in life, I like the way that things unfolded. Take for instance, after I made Eve’s Bayou, I didn’t know if I was going to make another movie but that was a wonderful thing to think at that moment because I was going for broke. So I put everything into it. I’ve had ups and downs in my career. If I could talk myself through those, I would tell myself that you are going to have ups and downs but if you keep going, you get to travel the world, you’ll meet extraordinary people, you’ll work with some of the most talented people and you’ll have a great time.
(DDF): You are also doing a CJ Madam Walker series, what brought you to do that project?
(KL): I have been infatuated with Madam CJ Walker for 20 years. Literally 20 years ago, I was thinking, “You know, it would be dope if we did something about Madam CJ Walker!” So when that came about, I was super excited about being involved in it. Then, Octavia Spencer, she’s perfect for the role. It’s a story that has been interesting for a long time, she is the first self-made Black woman millionaire and you know hair is so special to us black women, we’ve got our own thing. I had a really good time working it.
Kasi Lemmons on set. (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
(DDF): Do you hope to bring more important black women figures to film or tv? Any ideas?
(KL): Oh, I am sure I will do more films about important Black women figures. Do I have any in mind…maybe? (laughs)
(DDF): You were in the horror films Candyman and Silence of the Lambs. Have you had any input or help in the development of the new Candyman film?
(KL): I have contributed to Candyman already in that I mentor the director for the film, Nia DaCosta, since her first Sundance film. She’s great!
(DDF): Will you make your own horror film?
(KL): There is something that I have in mind but I have to be careful because I am extremely sensitive. I have to protect my energy a lot and be careful of what I bring into my life. When I bring in truth, beauty, and righteousness, it’s a good feeling, so I am afraid and that’s the truth.
The film Harriet was a great film with a lot of exploration of the characters’ bravery, selflessness, spiritually, and intelligence. It stands out as a story about the perseverance of the human spirit against discrimination. Creatively, it is a departure from the usual ‘slave cry’ moments that have become rhetoric in most of the blockbuster slave themed movies and I am thankful for that. Go see Harriet November 1st.
Harriet
Directed by: Kasi Lemmons
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., and Janelle Monae.
The Jamaican born director, Storm Saulter, put together a masterful film entitled Sprinter. The film has received tons of positive critiques for both its acting and content. Without giving too much away, the film follows the lead character, Akeem Sharp, a Jamaican sprinter who has aspirations of becoming the best sprinter in the world and using the sport of racing to escape poverty and unite his family since his mother resides in the U.S.
The film consists of elements that explore some of the struggles of the emotional and mental health plaguing Black men. It’s extremely relatable considering all of the current issues that Black men face every day. Furthermore, the film lets its viewers know that these issues are global for Black men. How does Sprinter accomplish this?
3 Ways Sprinter Explores the Mental Health of Black Men
It’s in the Culture
During the film, there are issues that the lead character Akeem, played by actor Dale Elliot, struggles with. They include both mental and emotional health. Given that both his father and older brother deal with their issues negatively at the beginning of the film, Akeem goes into a downward spiral once a family secret is revealed to him. Acknowledging that Akeem had some fragility in these areas and needed help is pivotal. The lack of exemplary male role models displaying how to deal with mental health can lead to horrible results. This is a universal issue that most black families suffer from which leads to men harboring emotions and not dealing directly with those issues.
Akeem, played by Dale Elliot, winning a race in the film.
Ego is Thy Enemy
To quote Neil deGrasse Tyson, “If your ego starts out, ‘I am important, I am big, I am special,’ you’re in for some disappointments…” Many Black men have fallen victim to their egos and have lost due to it. When he starts dominating at his craft, we see Akeem begin to become popular. Just as in real life, many celebrate him and want to be in his presence to benefit from his success and this further feeds his ego. This is short-lived as Akeem’s declined humbleness begins to cost him relationships and more. His actions while his ego is inflated is resemblant to some of the Black male celebrities we see today that struggle with success and have fallen off.
It Takes Support to Get Through
Although Akeem and his family struggle coping with their mental health, we see that, once help and support are available, he is able to better combat his issues. This is something that Black men are doing better with as many are fighting the stigma and receiving treatment for mental imbalances. The examples can be seen in some of the most influential sports in the United States like professional basketball and other male-dominated sports all over the world. NBA athletes are revealing their issues with mental health and discussing the ways they are treating it, being positive reinforcements that Black men shouldn’t be ashamed of admitting their issue and finding positive solutions to treat it.
“Sprinter” is a great film and does an excellent job of evoking an emotional response. This Overbrook Entertainment (Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s production company) produced film will not only win more awards but also the hearts of many moviewatchers.
