‘Washington Black’ Star Sterling K. Brown Talks Book Adaptation Draw

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains some spoilers for Washington Black, all eight episodes of which are now streaming on Hulu.

Based on Esi Edugyan’s best-selling novel of the same name, Hulu’s Washington Black limited series takes viewers on an expansive journey around the globe through the eyes of its titular character, first portrayed by Eddie Karanja and then Ernest Kingsley Junior.

Sterling K. Brown, who executive produced the show, stars as Medwin, a man living in Halifax, Nova Scotia who takes Washington Black, also known as “Wash” under his wing when the two cross paths. Narrated by Brown, the story centers Wash’s 19^th-century odyssey from the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born to the Canadian city and beyond. Wash’s brilliant scientific mind and sharp observations about life take him all over the globe.

“(Wash) is somebody who’s dropped in one of the world’s greatest atrocities in terms of the Transatlantic slave trade, but where his attention goes is to what is beautiful. His attention goes to the things that aren’t necessarily the hardships, but the things that help lift him outside of those hardships,” Brown told Deadline. This young man focuses on what’s beautiful. He’s an artist and a scientist. It highlighted for me that those two things aren’t that different, being a scientist and being an artist.”

While Wash escapes his fate laboring in the sugar cane on the plantation first thanks to Christopher Wilde, “Titch” (Tom Ellis), the brother of the plantation owner, he eventually is forced to forge new relationships that keep him soaring around the world. Those that allow him to fully spread his wings are the love of his life Tanna Goff (Iola Evans) and Brown’s Medwin.

“There is this heartbeat of trust. Wash gets himself into so many situations, and I feel like Medwin consistently, without a question or a doubt, holds him accountable,” Kingsley Junior. added. “I just never get a sense that either of them feel uneasy about the love between them.”

In the below interview, Brown and Kingsley Junior further discuss what attracted them to the story, the dynamic between their characters that transcends their eventual parting ways and a major moment of closure for Wash at the end of the series.

DEADLINE: Could we start with how both of you were drawn to the project and how you got involved?

STERLING K. BROWN: I read the book. My development executive Danielle Reardon introduced the book to me. She (said) there’s some producers that want to try to get this thing done. I read it, and I was sort of drawn to the beautiful, creative soul that is Wash. His youth, his sense of hope, his meditation on beauty.

It reminds you of “Yo, worry is just meditation or acute focus on that which is negative,” and that we can all focus on whatever it is we choose to. Science is a work of art and done in a very particular way. I wanted to see this young man how he was able to move through the world, how the people around him were able to protect him so that he could move through the world with such lightness and transcending the circumstances that were slavery, but not focusing on the hardships, focusing on the joy, focusing on the triumph of the soul, to see beyond those circumstances. That drew me to the book. Junior’s just gonna say “I auditioned and he booked it.”

ERNEST KINGSLEY JUNIOR: (Laughs.)Yeah, so I auditioned and I booked it, and that was really, it. No, I mean, that is true, of course. But I guess, why I had such an amazing time and was thrilled to get the role was the breadth of this journey. The adventure is so massive and expansive, but also the journey of one’s spirit, the emotional journey and everything he’s going through. In the face of adversity, he still dares to dream and imagine that world for himself that’s bigger than his own. It was a dream role getting to do that hero journey in this specific context. There was no way I was saying no.

DEADLINE: Ernest, there are so many times where it seems like Wash might die! I’m thinking of specifically this scene with Willard, and you guys go off the cliff. What was it like filming those kinds of scenes?

KINGSLEY JUNIOR.: It was really, I want to say dark, because Wash is facing the epitome of his fear and his harrowing past. It’s actualised right in front of him, this person who’s out for his life, Practicality-wise, I definitely had loads of choreography to do, and that was difficult. But also getting into that mindset of, “I’m running for my life,” like I’m running for my life. I’m fine for my life. This is deep stuff. Billy Boyd was incredible, he was an incredible person to like, act alongside. He’s super scary as an actor, lovely guy. Acting alongside him was much easier. And I was able to imagine him as that person.

BROWN: I did see Junior, he would like to prep himself for his stuff. I’d be on set, and my man would be in the woods and would just start, were you doing burpees?

KINGSLEY JUNIOR: Oh yeah!

BROWN: To get his energy up and whatnot.

KINGSLEY JUNIOR: Yeah, just to get the heart rate going. It was great. It was really strenuous, but it was an awesome time.

DEADLINE: Sterling, what went behind the decision for your character to narrate the beginning of the story? Could you both speak more about the bond between your two characters?

BROWN: Brass tacks, keeping it real, my voice is fairly recognizable. And so as we’re introducing new people, audience or whatnot, what is familiar for them? So that they can engage readily. So it’s like, I have a decent voice, let’s see if I can sort of coax people into the story so that they can meet all these new, wonderful people.

In terms of the connection between the characters Medwin and Wash, I think it very much mirrors the relationship between Sterling and (Ernest Kingsley) Junior. I have a profound amount of love for this young man and a profound amount of respect for his talent, and I have a desire to see him succeed. I believe there is a divine conspiracy for Junior’s success, and I would like to be a part of that conspiracy in whatever shape, form or fashion I can occupy. Similarly, Medwin wants to see this young man live. I think maybe the chief difference between me and Medwin is that Medwin is concerned, and understandably so for the time, about the survival of his people.

 We’ve all come from different places to make it to Halifax or whatnot, oftentimes being chased there to find ourselves in a place of freedom, and now we just want to live. I think for for Wash, there is life and there is living, but there’s so much more. There’s a full version of life that I have that includes love, that includes creation, and if I cannot create and love, then that’s not a life that I want to have. He introduces that back into Medwin to say “Hey, man, there’s more to it than just surviving.”

And even though this young man didn’t have a ton of resources, he still had a vision for his life. I know it’s more than just this. It’s more than just staying in the bottom of a church by myself. That’s not the life that I envisioned as I fled from Barbados on a flying machine and landed on a pirate ship, so I can sit in a basement. Womp womp! So I think, I Medwin, in this particular case, just want to see the boy live.

KINGSLEY JUNIOR: Regardless of the situations they found themselves in, there is an unconditional and unfaltering love. I feel like it’s that love that allows Wash to incite things in Medwin in terms of giving him permission to dream more for himself, and permission to actualize dreams, goals, or people in his life that he’d want to, see more, be with more. Miss Angie specifically. It’s that love that’s at the core of their relationship that is very permissive and sparky and elicits so many things.

DEADLINE: In the end, when Wash flies away and leaves Medwin and Miss Angie (Sharon Duncan Brewster), what goes into that goodbye scene?

KINGSLEY JUNIOR:  I want to say. Wasn’t that was one of our first scenes?

BROWN: It was earlier on. Yeah. I do remember it very acutely because, and I guess because it’s something that I’ve actually thought about a lot, it’s like, “Oh, my nest is empty.” And I’ve been able to shepherd this young man for a period of time and have gained a closeness and affinity for (him.) And now you have to let him off into the world and become the fully realized version of who he was always intended to be. I have two boys myself, and I tell people now, even though now I only have four years (left with my oldest). Before, when we were shooting the show, I had a few more years, but I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna have to let him go eventually.” And when I let him go, I’m going to be sad because he because he’s so much of my life.

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This is an example where life experience fed into the imagination in a way, like “Okay, I know I have to do this” and I know that doing it is ultimately a good thing for his evolution, but I just want him to be here.

KINGSLEY JUNIOR: I guess it’s different perspectives, right? Because from the perspective of someone flying the nest, it feels really scary. I can only compare it to filming this show. I remember when I first left home. I had never been away from home for over two months, and to be filming for the span of nine, eight months was crazy. So I remember leaving and going to Iceland and feeling like, “Wow.” have constants in your life, and then there comes a time where that can no longer be a constant. And that’s sad, that’s scary, but also it’s necessary like Sterling said. It’s a mixture of emotions. It stems from that love. They have to let go, and you have to decide to leave as well. And that takes courage.

DEADLINE: Sterling, in the scene where Medwin kills John (Rick Worthy), could there have been any other solution? Why did it pan out that way?

BROWN: Dessi’s like, “Did you have to take the man out?” Could you have gotten him into 12 steps? I don’t think we had meetings at that time. It’s a parallel relationship. John was to Medwin as Medwin is to Wash. I think the heartbreaking thing storytelling(-wise), which I think is beautiful, is that inadvertently, Medwin may have been the person that introduced John to finding comfort in a bottle, not realizing that he would have taken it as far as he did. You never know when you’re introducing something to an addict until maybe after the fact in that particular case.

As I’m reflecting back on it, it’s like, as long as you are doing no harm to the community, you’re allowed to exist, even though you’re not necessarily uplifting the community. But as soon as you’re actively doing something that destroys the community, then you’re left with this decision of like, how do I deal with it? And I’ll say this too, because I’ve had this sort of experience before. It is easy to judge the decisions of the people in power until you become the person who has to make the decision. I think he holds himself responsible for this community, and he’s like, “Oh, I have to do something for its ultimate perseverance.” And if he did this once for money or for something dumb, he can do this again. He doesn’t want to do it. He is not eager to do it. He sees it as necessary. Oh, God, it’s awful. I don’t even like to think about the scene. There’s that scene, where I have to pull his body through this tunnel, NS having death on your back, it’s a weird thing to do as an actor, and I’m happy I don’t have to do it anymore.

DEADLINE: Ernest, the end with Titch Tom Ellis’s character,  you go to Morocco, you confront him. Why is that so important, even if it doesn’t, maybe go the way Wash wants it to? How does it factor into Wash finding out his true identity?

KINGSLEY JUNIOR: You have someone who, from the beginning of his journey, from such a young age, from his perspective, saved him, right, and held him and introduced him to this life of science and wonder. Throughout their journey, from young Wash’s perspective, he feels like Titch is someone you can trust, and then that trust gets swiped away and just completely abandoned. For a long a large part of Wash’s life, that has become a trauma.

As much as I see for myself as we try to live in the present and be our best versions of ourselves, and just focus on the present moments, moment to moment. I believe the actions we do sometimes are influenced by unresolved trauma and unresolved things in our past that we don’t address, and they can filter in in very subconscious ways. Titch abandoning him was one of those things, and so to have that scene at the end is closure. It’s peace. Also, I want answers, like why did you do those things? How could you do those things? Because so many people taught and showed me that it is possible to trust and to love someone. Medwin showed me that, Tanna showed me that, Miss Angie showed me that, Barrington, so many of the characters, people he met, showed (him) what that is. Why couldn’t you? It’s unloading that burden and  freeing himself in that way, and I feel like he does that in such a beautiful way. I think it was necessary. He had to get those answers and see for himself anyway, that “my identity is in myself and in the people I love.” That scene was the closure he needed to cement that.