William H. Kelly III
Associate Editor
Black History Month festivities at Jackson State University ended with a historical bang on Feb. 29 with a special screening of WGN America series, “Underground”.
The screening, hosted by the Gamma Rho Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., featured three of the cast members: Alano Miller, Amirah Vann, and Theodus Crane.
Immediately following the thrilling screening of the movie, the stars held a question and answer session as part of their Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) tour.
Miller and Vann each shared why they accepted the roles dealing with the touchy subject of slavery.
“I think I took it (the role as Cato) because it was sensitive to society. I like to do art that isn’t comfortable, when I can. These opportunities come very few and far in between and so for me it is partly about my legacy as an artist and the impact that we can have on the world,” said Miller. “This isn’t just a black and white issue; this is a human issue.”
Vann stated that she accepted the role to honor the pioneers of freedom during that time period in American history.
“For me it’s about the revolution and about celebrating the heroes of the time. So that, I felt was necessary, right now for us to celebrate ourselves and celebrate just as a nation as the first integrated civil rights movement; blacks and whites on a whole working together,” Vann said.
The series was written by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, two veterans of the TV film industry.
Green has written and produced for many popular series, including: “Sons of Anarchy”, “Heroes”, “Helix”, and many more.
Pokaski has written and produced for “Heroes”, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, and “Daredevil”, to name just a few.
“Misha and Joe, their writing is really exquisite and really intricate. There are no heroes, there are no villains. All the characters are three dimensional so that makes the work exciting and makes it very honest,” said Vann.
“Underground” is set in the 1800s during the era of slavery and details the journey of a group of slaves who are determined to escape a Macon, Ga. plantation.
The cast also includes actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who plays house slave Rosalee; actor Aldis Hodge, who plays Noah, a blacksmith slave; and Christopher Meloni, as August Pullman, a man whose identity is currently mysterious.
While many slave based films portray the gruesome ordeals of slaves, the cast says that “Underground” has a different approach.
“Our people are vast, our people are interesting. The stories are numerous and so to be able to have a series and be able to kind of delve into all the various stories and define the pain, and find the joy, and find the heroism, and the love, and the strength, and the intelligence. I mean its just really glorious to be able to explore all of those sides of us,” said Vann.
Crane stated that the series is relevant to the issues of today.
“Also, because of the contemporary take on it, the parallels between what’s going on now and what happened then are way more apparent. They’re readily available for people to make notice and it’s not a history lesson, as much anyway,” said Crane.
Miller stated the music featured in the series, which includes rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop, also helps to put a contemporary twist on the series.
“The music is huge with the show; it is the beat of the show. In the first episode, the first scene its Kanye West, which they don’t do. John Legend who is executive producer and also works on the music, they all wanted it to be bold and for it to push the envelope,” said Miller. “This music is instilled in this because we’re still telling the same stories, unfortunately. We may not be enslaved physically but we are enslaved in many other ways and how we break free is what the show, I think, is centered on doing.”
“Underground” will premiere on Wednesday, March 9 on WGN America. Fans can use the hashtags #breakfree and #undergroundwgn, to stay up to date with posts related to the series.
