The Source Magazine sat down with ‘Lee Daniels’ the Butler’ Director and Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels to discuss tackling making this important historic film. ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ is now playing. 

Q: So tell me about why this was the most important film to date for you?

Daniels: I believe in God…because I started out making this movie because it was a father and son story. And it was a love affair between a father and son. I got a father that I was sort of disconnected to–we were fighting. And I have a son when the script came to me–we were fighting. And so I didn’t know that it was a Civil Rights movie, or that the heart of it was also Civil Rights until we start going in and doing some of those scenes.

Q: And there’s an incredible, incredible, performance from Forrest Whitaker. Can you speak about working with him and how he just went in as the butler?

Daniels: It was an honor working with him. What I learned about working with Forest is that he’s the most humble human being that I’ve ever worked with. And he, as the butler, that humility trickled down to the other actors that were on the set. It was an experience that I hope to experience again with him.

Q: And Oprah, another incredible performance. Can you talk about convincing her to come back into acting and working with her and developing this woman?

Daniels: I slayed her. I begged her. I pleaded. And she finally conceded. And it was intimidating at first, working with her. It’s Oprah Winfrey. But inevitably we got on the same page and it was magical. It was an honor to work with her, too.

Q: Can you speak about the challenges of going through all of these important critical times in the Civil Rights movement, and you did it on such an Indie scale. Can you speak about that?

Daniels: Again, you know, I guess I kept trying to keep the focal point – the father and the son, the father and the son. And the backdrop was just what was going on in the Civil Rights Movement and in history because otherwise it would have been a history lesson and I didn’t really wan to make a history lesson, I wanted to make it about the father and son’s experience through history.

Q: You also gathered together an incredible ensemble. Can you talk about the casting and getting all of these incredible actors together into one film?

Daniels: Danny Strong’s script was so bad-ass, you know I think that attracted the magnificent talent that we were able to incorporate in it.

Q: Why should people come out and see “The Butler”?

Daniels: To know that things haven’t changed. Because before I made this movie, Trayvon Martin had not been killed. And you know, we open with that line, “Any white man could kill any black man. And get away with it.” And that still can happen. We can’t forget.