A Cover Story with Sean Patrick Thomas! Speaks on latest projects Reasonable Doubt & Till

Cox: Sean Patrick Thomas I’m excited to speak with you today. Before we get into it man you never play a character that is broke (laughs).

Thomas: You know what! The thing is, I have played characters who are broke, but they don’t act broke. Both characters I played back in the day in Save The Last Dance and Barbershop were broke (laughs). There’s a difference between being broke and acting broke. 

Cox: Now getting into your character Brayden Miller in Reasonable Doubt. How was that experience?

Thomas: For me playing this part is probably one of the biggest acting challenges I’ve had. Mainly because this guy is all over the place. He has so many angles to him of where he is coming from and what he is trying to do. There are so many layers to him and what he is going through internally. It was a great and exciting challenge to play this type of character. 

Thomas (contin): I love to play this type of character because of how Black men are portrayed on screen. It’s important for us to see Black men being successful in their line of work and a billionaire. The great thing is he is just a successful dude not weird or corny. This needs to be seen as a normal thing in the media with the portrayal of Black men. It should be something that seems more non-fiction than sci-fiction when we see Black male characters in script.  

Cox: I’m not going to lie at first when I saw Brayden’s interaction with Jax initially I was like wow. But then later I grew to be empathetic for him and see him more. I misjudged him at first. 

Thomas: The showrunner Raamla Mohamed put it best when she told me you have to look at Brayden and Jax being used to being the only Black person in the room. So when they encounter each other they are like wait a minute I’m supposed to be the only one here. This is on both their parts because they aren’t used to sharing this space so they are trying to sniff each other out. This is something that you see us doing to each other in real life. 

Cox: Are there any parts of Brayden you can relate to? 

Thomas: I think what I can relate to is that both of us are ambitious. I think we both can be impatient with people who we think aren’t getting it or moving at a pace we want them to. We are both competitive and these are the attributes I believe we have in common. 

Cox: Now switching gears! I want to talk about your role as Gene Mobley in the movie Till.

Thomas: I was very excited to get the opportunity to play the role and be part of this story in American history. You would be surprised how many people didn’t know the story of Till when I told them I had the role in this movie. This gave me extra motivation to really be part of telling this story because it’s inexcusable and shocking that the entire country doesn’t know about what happened to Emmett Till and what Mamie Till-Mobley did after he died. 

Thomas (contin): The courage that Mamie Till-Mobley had was incredible. She is an American hero. She helped change the world and everyone should know that. So I am proud and gratified to be in any part of putting that story out there.

Cox: You know we hear people say we don’t need to make movies like this that show a dark time in our history. What are your thoughts?

Thomas: People need to see movies like this because racism is not over. There are lots of people who are trying to gaslight Black people to believe it’s not here anymore, and that’s a lie. It’s alive and kicking. This movie gave us an opportunity to push back on the lies they tell about racism being a thing of the past or that it’s in your mind. I’m extremely excited to be part of anything that pushes back on that. Everyone has to know this country hasn’t lived up to its ideals yet. We are not all treated equally and until we are, we have to keep telling these stories. 

Cox: How did you prepare for this role? 

Thomas: For me it was really just talking to people who knew Gene! Writer/Producer Keith Beauchamp knew Mamie and Gene very well. I spoke with him for hours to get as much information as I could about how they interacted and communicated with each other. It was important to know how they loved each other. I needed to know what kind of guy Gene was. I even had long conversations with Director and Writer Chinonye Chukwu. She and her team sent me tons of information, historical data, and articles. I even read Mamie’s autobiography. 

Cox: Sean you have sustained a long career in this industry. It’s a tough one to do that. What’s your secret?

Thomas: I always say I’m lucky. Do I work hard? Yes! Do I train? Yes! Do I have tenacity and resilience? Yes, I have all of those things, but I am very lucky. There are so many talented people I have known through my time in this industry who don’t have the opportunities I have. And these people are brilliant and amazing. So I default to always telling people I’m just blessed and lucky. Oh, and I work hard (laughs).