In Conversation With Actor Sterling K. Brown

Sterling K. Brown

By Darlene Donloe

  

Sterling K. Brown is in a good mood as he sits in a conference room on the Universal Studios lot in all his thespian greatness, beaming that big, toothy smile he’s come to be known for.

He’s dressed casually in a white t-shirt, jeans, white kicks and a grayish sweater with the sleeves rolled up as he waxes masterfully about the entertainment industry and his place in it. There is a method to his madness that has graciously placed Brown in the right place at the right time.

The two-time Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning actor’s seemingly meteoric rise to stardom bares witness to his gift of acting.  Best known as Randall on the hit NBC series, This Is Us, Brown, who has a production called Indian Meadows Productions, named after his neighborhood back in St. Louis, has also amassed an impressive list of character portrayals on stage, on film, and on television.  There was Chris Darden in The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Dr. Roland Burton in Army Wives, and N’Jobu in Black Panther.

Brown, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, can currently be seen in the A24 family drama Waves, and in the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He can also currently be heard in the animated feature Frozen 2.

An obvious in-demand actor with a number of projects in the chamber, Brown, a hot actor who is as cool as they come, has not allowed himself to become bigger than the work.

He has a calm exterior, no doubt due to the time he has put in therapy – something he doesn’t shy away from revealing. An obvious spiritual individual, he also doesn’t hide his love for the Lord – even frequently invoking the Name and occasionally clicking off quick prayers he consciously and adeptly inserts into conversations.

Sterling K. Brown

I recently caught up with Sterling K. Brown (SKB) to talk about, what else, him!

Q:  What do you like most about being a black man?

SKB: I think you become more cognizant that our story is one of achievement in spite of and not achievement because of. You look at all of the overcomers, who shoulders you stand on to be where you are right now and there is a tremendous sense of pride. Nothing was given. You know what I’m saying?   It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I can go work for my father’s company when I’m finished. That will be my way in.’ I went to high school with people who knew that was going to a possibility for them. That was not a possibility for my dad who passed away as a grocery clerk and my mother who was a retired school teacher. People aren’t going to give you things. You have to go out there and get it. That is the story of us as a collective, right?  That gives me an extra……'didn’t nobody give us nothing.'  Started from the bottom now we’re here.

Q:  You do film, stage, and television. What does each one of those mediums give you that the others don’t?

SKB: I feel like any actor that wants to have longevity in their career needs to start on stage.  There is a musculature that is required to hit the back wall. It’s easier to turn it down than to turn it up – if you haven’t gotten used to using your whole body to communicate.  There is an intimacy that the camera provides and you don’t have to work so hard because if it can see you change your eye direction, it can see you raise an eyebrow – that can be so effective in and of itself. TV gives you a chance to develop a character over a longer arc because you know you’re going to be coming into somebody’s house over a multitude to times.  Film has fewer chefs in the kitchen. It’s a director’s medium, whereas TV is a producer’s medium. So, artistically you’re usually going to have the most unfiltered purist thing because one person gets to put their stamp on it. That doesn’t mean I don’t love television. We have a really great show-runner, but like when you get a chance to work with someone like a Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) and they make it their own, without network notes, without studio notes, without all those other things, there is a purity of vision that can come through. I’m not saying one is better or worse, but I think if you’re going to do it for real–for real, you should start on stage.

Q:  Do you feel a sense of responsibility in showing Randall being an understanding and good parent on This Is Us, particularly when it comes to one of his daughters coming out?

SKB:  I was in an airport after Tess (Eris Baker) came out to her family and a family came up to me and said, ‘I was not as gracious when my daughter came out to me, but seeing you and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) have that level of grace with your child lets me know that I can do better.’  I thought, ‘Man if that’s not why you do it.’ It was a beautiful moment. The representation that we get to put into America’s houses on a weekly basis as a black family, supportive and who went through what we went through last year…….folks have been overwhelming in saying, ‘Thank you for showing us someone who cares.’

Q:  What scares you?

SKB:  You know my mom would always say, ‘God did not give me a spirit of fear, but the power of love and a sound mind.’ That’s something I always reiterate. I think a lot of things scare me artistically – if I don’t think I can do it, but then those are the things I’m most drawn to. The fear isn’t something that keeps me moving backward. It’s something I’ve learned to lean into.

Q:  When you were a kid, what were your favorite shows?

SKB:  A lot of Norman Lear, whether it was The Jeffersons or Good Times, All in the Family. I loved the idea that this dude, Archie Bunker, a total bigot, but they didn’t wash away his humanity.  The flip to him was Fred G. Sanford (Sanford and Son), who freaked out every time he saw a black doctor. It was so ignorant but so real.  Shout out to Norman Lear. He was the guy that made me recognize what this medium could be.

Q: What was the vision you had for yourself as a child – and how has that manifested?

SKB: I had no idea I was going to be an actor.  There was a stigma. What you gon’ do, grow up and wear tights and do Shakespeare. It wasn’t a path I thought would happen. And then I fell in love with it – and it shifted, right?  Still didn’t think it was something I could actively pursue. I went to Stanford as an economics major. I thought I was going to work in investment banking or something like that. I remember writing in a college paper that I wanted to own one of each fast-food company so that I would constantly be in competition with myself. That was my vision for myself – to own Mediterranean and Baltic Avenue and just put hotels on top of them. I would be a slumlord and I would kill it.  I would give something to my family and everybody would be taken care of. It shifted in a way that made me realize that money was important, but it wasn’t the end goal. The end goal was how can I maximize my own joy.  I feel like I’m a lamp. When I go home I try to be the kind of individual that lifts the energy of a room up, instead of bringing it down.