10 Things We Learned From Nate Parker On The Breakfast Club

Over the summer Nate Parker went from being the next prominent Black name in Hollywood to a controversial figure that’s been fighting to clear his name of past accusations.

With his film Birth Of A Nation due out in theaters tomorrow (Oct. 6), the director/writer/actor stopped by The Breakfast Club and touched on how his past may be being used to smear the message of his film, and how hard it was to get a film about Nat Turner not only funded, but accepted by his Black peers that it was the right story to tell at the right time.

Here are the 10 things we learned about Nate Parker on The Breakfast Club.

Photo: Instagram

1. History Lesson

Nate Parker grew up 42 miles away from where the revolt happened and he had never heard of Nat Turner. He didn’t learn about him until he was 21-years-old in African-American Studies class.

2. Peer Pressure

According to Nate, Black prominent directors were telling him to dead this film and make a movie about John Brown, a white man who led a slave revolt. Someone even told him that his film needed more good white people.

Photo: Instagram

3. Out Of Pocket

The first $100,000 of his film’s budget came out his own pocket and basically left him with rabbit ears. Luckily ballers like Tony Parker, Michael Finley, and Derrick Brooks helped fund him.

Photo: Instagram

4. One Way Or Another

Mr. Parker says that had he not gotten Sundance, he would’ve released the film on Youtube. That’s how much he believes people need to see this film.

Photo: Instagram

5. Anti

He wants people to realize that his film isn’t anti-white, it’s anti-evil.

Photo: Instagram

6. Defamation?

Before the dirt from his past was dug up, Nate says that he was warned early on by industry people “Are you ready for what may come with this film?”

Photo: Instagram

7. Necessarily Uncomfortable

Nate hopes this movie “makes people uncomfortable” but doesn’t want it to inspire violence.

Photo: Instagram

8. Bigger Than I

He hopes people see this movie with an objective eye and forget “the baggage” his past might bring to the film. He feels the message of this film is bigger than his being.

Photo: Instagram

9. Becky Critics

The criticism of him being married to a white woman doesn’t phase him because he knows how much he fights for his Black nation.

Photo: Instagram

10. Standing Tall

At the Sundance screening for Birth Of A Nation where 90% of the audience was white, the film got a 6-minute standing ovation when the credits rolled.