He stumbles across it by accident, while wandering around the plantation one day, but quickly becomes the most eager pupil Uncle Mingo could ask for—and eventually his replacement. For George, cockfights are unlike anything he's ever experienced, giving him a sense of freedom he didn't think possible.
Related to this are George's hard-partying ways. Even after he gets married to Matilda, who's devoutly religious, he continues getting sloshed and spending time with other women. It's a real drag. But George is pulled back from the brink by the love of his growing family and, interestingly, his desire to live up to Kunta Kinte's legacy.
Check it out:. For the first time in a long time, Chicken George felt that his cabin was his home again. This is the turning point when Chicken George finally gives his family his full focus.
The results are amazing: most of his kids learn trades and become successful beyond his wildest expectations. It's super swell. We're referring, of course, to Massa Tom Lea, George's owner, fellow gamecocker, and biological father.
Massa Lea raped George's mother Kizzy when he first bought her, eventually producing a son who he decided to name George after the first slave he ever owned. This situation is horrible no matter which way you look at it, but as soon as her son is born, Kizzy resolves to help him transcend his circumstances. And she does it through Kunta's legacy. Kizzy decided that however base her baby's origins, however light his color, [ Many years later, she inadvertently reveals the truth of George's parentage to him.
This really throws him for a loop, leading him to approach his owner much differently. He goes out of his way to seek Massa Lea's approval. Coupled with what you're going through physically for real, in terms of not being able to hold your feet, you're cold, you're dirty, you're in the mud, you're exhausted, everyone's exhausted, everyone's trying to balance between that professional, we're here and we're doing our job thing and also it's hot, it's muddy, everyone's dirty and getting bitten, and my heart's breaking ten times a day.
So days like that can be trying. But I think Malachi [Kirby] talks about this a lot, where, again, because you're on the ground, there's enough around you to remind you that anything you're experiencing is such a small taste of what you're representing and that in itself then reenergizes you. HB: Tell me about your co-stars. Did you form a special relationship with them, having gone through something like this together?
RJP: Yeah, certainly, and not just the co-stars. I've never experienced a set like this. There was not a single person on that set who was turning up to do a job. It was always more important than that. This is not just the creatives, the actors, the directors, the producers, the DoPs, though they were certainly involved. This is the groundsmen, the sparks, this is every single person who was on catering.
Everyone was emotionally invested in making sure this was done right. And so there's a certain background radiation of support from every person on that ground, which is extraordinary. I've never experienced anything like it and I'd be surprised if I experienced anything like that again. RJP: I'm not sure there's a word for that feeling. It's very, very strange. But also, it's your job. It's what you do. You go to the office, you tell important stories, if you're lucky, and you tell stories with people who are leaders in your profession.
I've been incredibly lucky to be paired up with the best mentors anyone could ever ask for on a job like this. I'm just this kid who's wandered in with a really good imagination. I'm in no way as qualified as these marquee names you're talking about. So it's a huge thrill to be in that proximity, and to be able to have them as a resource and a support and as inspiration. HB: What's the best piece of advice you received before—or during—shooting? I didn't have the mentors yet. There was a very practical piece of advice that Chad Coleman [who plays Mingo] gave me.
My first week on set, it was pretty much just me and Chad in a barn with about chickens and it was about as maddening as that sounds. I was very wide-eyed at this point, I had never been on a set this size and it was all very, very intimidating, it was a little rabbit-in-the-headlights. On some of the late nights—we were working very long days—it got to a point where Chad decided to lighten the mood a little bit. So he'd start either playing pranks or he'd do something to make me laugh, just to bring a new energy.
It got to the point where I was like, "Chad, I can't do this. I need to get my head back, you're gonna get me lost, mate. I'm gonna teach you a little trick. Whenever you feel like you're losing it, come 'round behind to the monitors, look back at the monitors that are showing our house, our beds, the huts. This is the world. Have a look, and you're straight back in it.
A very practical actors' trick. HB: You mentioned the need to tell important stories. What are the stories you want to tell next? RJP: I enjoy the unpredictable. I like the fact that I'm in a wonderful moment where stories are popping up in front of me.
We're getting a lot of stories made now by audiences who traditionally haven't been heard very much. Even Roots represents a very underrepresented perspective on our culture. I think there's a lot of that happening, especially in the landscape here, you're getting stuff like Fresh Off the Boat , you're getting stuff like Blackish , you're getting a lot of new stories and old stories with new perspectives, and that stuff excites me very much.
It doesn't have to be dire and serious—which Roots isn't all the time, incidentally, which I think is also important. There's a lot of humanity and joy, there are weddings…The whole point of resistance is that our humanity was not quashed, we held onto it. It is painful but it is also ecstatic, it is also joyous, and holding onto those qualities is the greatest resistance that I think we can portray in the show.
The world is so new right now in storytelling that I'm enjoying that I don't think I can predict what I'm going to enjoy. It's the portrait of a family, it's the portrait of how a people and an identity were crafted and survived. HB: Who are your dream collaborators? These are incredible people who bring such intensity and integrity to everything they ever do. Whether Tom [Hardy] is a bad guy in a superhero movie or he's trying to build a building with the right kind of cement in a car for two hours, the integrity is exactly the same.
David Oyelowo does the same thing. Chicken George and Tom Lea ride up front. Mingo in back. Michelle Short. You can stream past episodes here. Today we dig into episode 3—and, yes, there will be spoilers. Michael Mechanic: Good morning, Matt! So, Snoop Dogg rants aside, people of all races seem to be welcoming this history. Go Warriors! And the remake has spawned an interesting Twitter hashtag: RootsSyllabus. Matthew Delmont: Yes, like FergusonSyllabus, CharlestonSyllabus, LemonadeSyllabus, people are using this hashtag to share books, articles, films, and other resources related to slavery and African-American history and culture.
Seeing people express their thoughts in real time on Kizzy, Chicken George, and Tom Lea is amazing, and then having some of the leading historians on slavery tweet to help contextualize this historical fiction is pretty cool. I thought the acting was superb. The scenes with Kizzy and Lea were difficult to watch, but they painted a clear picture of what surviving slavery looked like for Kizzy. MD: Yes, and I liked the way they slowly revealed how much George knew.
Here he seems to surprise Kizzy by telling her he figured it out on his own. The whole dynamic again shows how tangled the idea of family is during slavery. MM: At one point, Lea says something that hints at it, and George sort of does a double-take. But inside, he knows. MD: He has to deal with the knowledge that his father owns him. This episode also did a nice job of portraying a dynamic where Lea only owns a handful of slaves.
MD: Yes, Coleman was really great in this role. I like these moments when you have different black characters sort of mentoring each other, even if they do so reluctantly at first. MM: Like with Fiddler. Both of these guys had places of relative privilege and were loath to put that at risk.
MD: It also showed how many of these enslaved characters have specialized knowledge that is really valuable. What did you make of all the cockfighting? This has to be the most cockfighting on television this decade, right? MD: I think Alex Haley would have loved this episode. I was surprised at how much time we spent with Tom Lea in this episode, though.
MM: Hmm. Was there never a duel in the original? MD: This duel scene was not in the book or the original series. I agree that it fits in the narrative. MM: Ha, yeah! Which is why George and his free friend attend the duel, and why they push so hard to make sure Tom triumphs.
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