The Emmy winner gets candid about the Hulu political thriller Paradise, his close relationship with his wife and kids, and moving forward in an industry that’s shifting from ‘race-blind’ casting to ‘race-specific.’
Parade, the premium legacy entertainment and lifestyle brand, released its latest cover story featuring a candid and exclusive interview with actor and producer Sterling K. Brown. In the interview, the Emmy Award winner opens up about Paradise, the political thriller on Hulu that he co-produces and stars in, race in the entertainment industry, how being a father was “what I’ve been waiting for,” his close relationship with his wife and two sons and more.
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Paradise’s Sterling K. Brown Gets Real on ‘Difficult’ — and Transformative — Conversations in Parade’s Exclusive Cover Story (Photo: Business Wire)
Read the full interview here. Video link here. Notable quotes are below.
On race in the entertainment industry: “I think the industry has moved to race-consciousness [casting] rather than race-blindness. I think race-blindness was a good place to start, to open it up to all ethnicities. Being considered is a wonderful thing. But now, when you're writing with an ethnicity, with a minority in mind, there's something about that person's background you want to use to highlight the story you want to tell. That's a way more powerful thing.”
“I try to have these conversations with the writers, with the director, and be like, ‘O.K., I see how this was conceived, and now, how do we make it for me?’ so it doesn't feel like I'm generically there, but specifically there.”
On supporting his ‘This Is Us’ co-stars through the L.A. wildfires: “There's been all kinds of community. We've been talking to each other, to Milo [Ventimiglia], to Mandy [Moore]. I see Mandy all the time. We've been doing the [‘This Was Us’] podcast together—me, her and Chris Sullivan. It's so heartbreaking, bro. She just had her third baby girl. And then she loses her home, her husband's family['s home] in the Palisades. She's starting over and figuring out what to do next.”
In these situations, he says, “You just make yourself available in whatever way you can. We've talked a couple of times since it all went down, but you give her space, too, because it is such a devastating thing to figure out. She’s just taking it one day at a time.”
On 18-year marriage to actress Ryan Michelle Bathe: “We’ve grown so much through the years. Ryan would agree. We used to have some fights that were just awful, absolutely terrible. I'm so happy with the evolution of our relationship and our ability to express ourselves—our needs, our desires, our wants—without offending the other person. We've come a long way, and honestly, I did not know if we would get to this place at certain points in time in the relationship. I'm very thankful that I have my partner in life to go through everything I have with her. I love her very much.”
On raising a teenager (Andrew, age 13): “Teenage boys, I don't know if they're different than girls. I have nothing to compare it to except for This Is Us. He has a tendency to be very close to the vest, my oldest son. I want to give him his privacy and his autonomy, but I need to let him know that your dad cares about every facet of your life, right? So, if and when you want to share with me, you can share whatever you want. He's a great student. The kid makes straight As. He's a great athlete. He plays soccer like nobody's business. And he's a great friend. The people that he's close to, he is ride or die. I have no real horror stories to report with regards to raising a teenager other than I just want him to talk to me more.”
On fatherhood: “Fatherhood has changed me in ways I thought it would and in ways I could not have possibly imagined. I always felt like I was put on the planet to be a dad. And then I got a chance to be a dad, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I've been waiting for.’”
On his career trajectory: “I was an economics major at Stanford University. My mom took out loans to put me through high school and made a lot of sacrifices so my trajectory could be what it was at that point in time. To make the decision to be a starving actor wasn't necessarily like, ‘Oh, man, that's the way to go.’ It was God being like, ‘Look at what happens to you when you get to do this thing. Look at how you light up. Why would you question whether I've given this to you or not? Who cares what everybody else has to say about it? Listen to what happens inside of your soul when you get to do it.’ That's what's important. The money, whatever else, will come when it comes. But this feeling you get of connectivity with the universe, with God, with everything… You're doing something that feels bigger than you.”
On Paradise’s similarities to current events: “Paradise in no way is a reflection of the world in which we live. It is a work of fiction. Similarities to characters that you see in real life are just by chance. You wind up creating a work of fiction, and then life happens, and you realize, ‘Oh, it's not as fictional as we thought it was going to be.’”
To read this story, or any of previous Parade cover stories, click here.
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