Denzel Washington & Cast Interview, The Great Debaters

MoviesOnline recently sat down with Denzel Washington, Nate Parker, Denzel Whitaker, and Jurnee Smollett at the Los Angeles press conference to talk about their new film, "The Great Debaters.”

From two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and an ensemble cast lead by Washington that includes Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, comes "The Great Debaters.” Inspired by a true story, "The Great Debaters” chronicles the journey of Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington), a brilliant but volatile debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from a small African American college in the deep south into a historically elite debate team. A controversial figure, Professor Tolson challenged the social mores of the time and was under constant fire for his unconventional and ferocious teaching methods as well as his radical political views.

In their pursuit for excellence, Tolson's debate team receives a groundbreaking invitation to debate Harvard University's championship team. The film is directed by Denzel Washington and stars Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker, Denzel Whitaker, and Kimberly Elise. "The Great Debaters" was written by Robert Eisele and Tom Epperson and produced by Todd Black, Kate Forte, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Roth. 

Here’s what the director and cast had to tell us about their new film and the power of words:

Q: Denzel, what’s the best thing about directing?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: What's the best thing about it? (Long Pause) Wow. That's a tough one. There's no one thing — I can't say the best thing about it. The best thing about it is getting the opportunity to do it. That's the best thing about it. In this case, just seeing these three young people do what they've studied hard and worked hard to do. I know as an actor how difficult it is to get in
this position, to get the opportunity to get good parts. You know, many times,
people talk about Academy Awards and this and that and I always say you can't be considered unless you have a good role. And good roles are hard to come by. So all three of them have great roles and great opportunities.

Q: This question is for Denzel Washington.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: It's only because I'm the old guy. [Laughter].

Q: Through this project, you offer a new generation of talented young actors a wonderful opportunity to be seen by a new motion picture audience. Do you have a philosophy behind that?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: No, no philosophy. I mean, that's — you know, if the movie had been about three 70-year-olds, I don't think it would have been new actors. They might have been. But these were the roles and these were the actors that won the roles. I mean — I didn't decide to do this film because I saw a great opportunity or solely because I saw a great opportunity for young actors. I read a piece of material that interested me and that I was moved by, and these were the young people that won the parts.

Q: What do you think of the debates we’ve seen recently in the U.S. election coverage and how the candidates have drawn upon personal experience to make a grounded speech similar to the speech the young man at Harvard makes in the film?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I thought that was a very good speech you just made. [Laughter] You mentioned the speech that the young man makes at Harvard? (Turns to the other actors). Why don’t you talk from your own personal experiences?

DENZEL WHITAKER: Well, how I feel about grounded speeches — debate is all about relating your topics and being sincere as well as getting across the facts. So to have a grounded debate or a speech say from someone like Barack Obama, I think it relates him to the people because democracy is all about the people. So for him to relate to the people, that makes us feel that he is a better candidate.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Well, I mean, I would just have to agree with little Denzel (joking about the two Denzels present).

[Laughter]

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I’m big Denzel.

[More laughter]

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Yeah, I’m trying to minimize the confusion. Debate is about you believing what you say and saying what you believe, and really shutting down your opponent with words. The key to it is being passionate, you know, and that was one of the things that Denzel said to us when we went to debate camp. He was saying that technically we should be better debaters. He said, ‘Y’all better win because you're actors and you should be able to believe what you say and be sincere.’ And I think that's what we were able to do at debate camp.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: We set up a camp for the kids. I met Dr. Freeman, who's the debating coach at Texas Southern, which is one of the top debating schools in the country, so I interviewed him and actually put him on film. But I asked him, could we set up like a mini camp for the young actors and he put them through their paces. Well, Nate, you tell them about what he did.

NATE PARKER: Well, we arrived, we learned all about parliamentary and impromptu debate. Denzel was very adamant about us researching and us knowing what we were talking about and being well versed in the process of debate. So we got with the Texas Southern University team and they took us through and gave us a crash course. Like Denzel said, we should be more persuasive being that we’re actors. So on the first day we learned debate and on the second day we broke into teams and we debated, and the morning of, we were watching CNN and MSNBC and reading the Wall Street Journal. If you could have seen us in our van driving over, Little Denzel has the paper open. [Laughter] So we took it very seriously and we defeated them, their freshman-sophomore team. It paid off. It’s a testament, even to answer her question about research and preparation. Any time you're going to be able to stand up in front of people and speak passionately about something, it helps for you to know what you're talking about. That's what helped us in the film. You see the film and you see these speeches that were of course written by someone else — but we studied and we researched all the details behind those speeches so we could be passionate. You know what I mean? So they meant something to us so that we could be believable.

Q: Did you win?

NATE PARKER: Yes, we did.

DENZEL WHITAKER: Oh yes, we won.

Q: For Denzel Washington, has this movie sparked something in you to do other movies about unknown stories in Black history?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I was already doing that, so no, it didn't spark it because I've been doing that.

Q: Do you see yourself doing more films like this?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I don't know what I'm going to do next. I like to keep it close to the vest. But, you know, this was just a really good story. I liked it. I call it a sports movie. You know, in those days, that's what they considered it — a spectator sport. It was a very popular event to go to, so that was interesting — the fact that there were only 360 students at this college and they were going up against these big schools. That was very fascinating. I interviewed Mel Tolson's son and Henrietta Wells. The character that Jurnee plays is loosely based on her. She actually debated in 1931. And what they talked about was how prepared they were. They weren't intimidated. They were prepared. It was a sort of cocoon, if you will. It's a movie so there are big dramatic strokes in it that didn't necessarily happen in two hours of their life — maybe it happened over the course of 20 or 30 years or 5 or 10 years. But the fact of the matter was that when they got up on that stage and when they went against anyone, they were not intimidated by anyone. And as our film, we changed it. I said I wanted it to be Harvard. In actual fact, the national champions were USC. But there was no question that everybody they went against they beat. So it didn't matter who it was -- Oxford, Harvard, USC, Cambridge. It didn’t matter.

Q: To Denzel Washington, if it were possible, is there anyone living or dead, nationally or internationally, that you would like to debate?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Me personally? I don't need to debate. You know, talk is cheap. That's my philosophy. I'm about doing. So I don't need to talk about it. I'd rather do it.

Q: To the rest of the actors, what inspired you about Denzel Washington?

NATE PARKER: What inspires me most about Denzel is his integrity. It wasn't even so much as watching him act or watching him direct, but just watching him in every other detail of his life. As a young actor, being in this business, sometimes it's difficult. You know, you see what Hollywood has done to certain people who went about it the wrong way, and you say to yourself — is it possible for me to be in this business for 35 years and to…

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Watch it, watch it. [Laughter]

NATE PARKER: …and to hold onto my integrity. If in 35 years I can look back on my career and say that I've walked around with a sense of morality and integrity, then I'll be happy. So it was important for me watching him every day to see if that was who he was. He didn't let me down and every moment — whether it was off set or on the phone — he carried himself in a way that inspired me to be more like him in the future.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Wow. So there!

[Laughter]

JURNEE SMOLLETT: I would just add to what Nate was saying is his humility and his devotion to the project, because at the end of the day he was able to really just check his ego at the door, and was so devoted to making the project honest and being the ultimate collaborator. He was our leader. It was his vision, but at the end of the day, we were all doing this together, whether you were the prop master, whether you were in the background, whether you were doing wardrobe or whether you were in front of the camera. We were all making a film together. It was a team effort. And for him to be our leader and to be the one with the most awards, for him to be able to check his ego at the door and ask us what we thought was so amazing to me. It spoke volumes about his character.

DENZEL WHITAKER: For me, personally I've always looked up to him from the beginning of my acting career. I just love how he's humble. Everything he does — he's so intelligent. I mean…

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [Laughs] I’m a good actor!

[Laughter]

DENZEL WHITAKER: No, no, no, but seriously, a true thing is I write down quotes. Everything he’s told me, I have them on my computer right now. I look at them before I go to auditions. Just sitting behind his chair while he was filming, just seeing how he came on set. I remember I was talking to our producers Todd and Molly about this. Just when he came on set, he was passionate. You could see he loved what he does every day. He still has a love for it, for being in the game, and I just loved that. I'd love to be where he's at right now years later and have the same passion and do roles that are inspiring to other people

DENZEL WASHINGTON: 35 years later.

[Laughter]

Q: I thought this was an incredible movie.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Thank you.

Q: Another inspired performance by you as well as the entire cast.

All: Thank you.

Q: What was the challenge of doing this movie while doing all these other projects that you’re involved in?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: It was a four-year process. The script came across my desk, I think it was January, it will be four years next month. So I worked on the screenplay for a long time between jobs or when I would come back home, I'd sit with the writers. I worked with Bob Eisele. When I came on the project — Bob wrote the original screenplay — Suzan-Lori Parks was working on the screenplay, I worked with her, then I worked with Horton Foote for a while, then I worked with Tom Everson, and then I ended up going back to Bob Eisele. So it was a process. I might be home for 4 months, 5 months, we'd get intense work done, he'd go off or she'd go off writing, they'd send me stuff, I got home again, I'd look at it, and then I guess I finished American Gangster November of last year. The day I finished that, the next day I’d forgotten about it that day. It was a long plane ride home from Thailand and by the time I landed, American Gangster was in my rear-view mirror. It was done. So I had a lot of time to work on it and then that intensified in the last 4 or 5 months before shooting in May. So I had enough time. I didn't feel rushed. But at a certain point you gotta get on with it and let the actors start to speak, put everybody in a room. We'd sit in my office and we'd talk through a scene and tweak this and how do you feel about that line, and as they've heard me say, I sort of play all the parts anyway. In working on the screenplay, I would stand up and read them and just shape it and mold it. Basically the process didn't finish until Tuesday when they finally took the picture from me. I don't know when you all saw the film, but there have been different versions of it, and the actual film wasn't finished until Tuesday night. Wednesday was the first screening of the film. The screenings before Wednesday was a digital copy. It’s what they call a D5, a high definition copy. So if you didn't see it before Wednesday, you didn't even see the finished movie. [Laughs] Sorry about that! You gotta go back!!! [Laughter] The sound was done but not the picture.

Q: How do you feel about bringing attention back to Wiley College which has been around for over a hundred years and what do you think we should do to get the message out to young people to go see this movie?

JURNEE SMOLLETT: To answer the first part of your question, there was an article that was on the front page of The New York Times this past week, and it was saying exactly that — how enrollment and the studio gave this whole makeover to the exterior part of the campus, and I was so proud, you know, because this little college in Marshall, Texas has given birth to so many great minds. And it so deserves to get this extra lift. A lot of people have never even heard of little ole Wiley College — the little train that could — and it's giving voice to the voiceless, putting lips to something, and that's one thing that makes you so proud to be part of a film like this, because you're giving a salute to everyone who has come before you, the people who have worked so tirelessly to make it where we can sit up here and talk with all of you. So I'm very, very proud.

DENZEL WHITAKER: I'm glad that we're finally getting our message out. I mean even now, a lot of people are becoming — there's a higher rate of enrollment, people are becoming interested in debate, and the message we're really trying to  get out — I think — is intelligence and that it's powerful and that it's great, and sometimes even cool to be intelligent. So to see high enrollment rates already rising and people interested in school, I think we're already getting out what we were set to do.

NATE PARKER: I'll just say one more thing. We had a screening a couple of nights ago and a young man stood up, maybe about 15, and he expressed to us what the film meant to him and how it was different than the parents just saying education is power and you need to go to college. He said that something actually clicked inside of him where he saw how we were confusing people with our words and how the progress we gained because of the things that came out of our mouth and that really hit me. So if there's a suggestion I can make, it's that everyone encourage their kids. Everyone should see this film because it speaks to these kids that it is important — education is the key, it's the way out — that they can define the elements of their environment, by simply picking up a book.

Q: For Denzel Washington, in the film you play a role model. To prepare for the role, did you reflect on others who have been a role model in your life?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I guess. I’ve reflected on everything else. I guess I did. No, I can’t think of one thing like that. I don’t even look at myself as a role model. It’s an opportunity in this case, with these young people, to share what I’ve experienced with them; you know, 35 years [laughs] of experience. At the same time, it was inspiring for me too to work with them, to work with Forest Whitaker who is a heavyweight in this business and for him to make a sacrifice, which he did, to be in the film was great for me. So no, there wasn’t any one person I thought about. I felt an obligation but a connection, if you will, with Mel Tolson and with Dr. Farmer and his father and Henrietta Wells and all of these people that accomplished what they accomplished. Does that answer the question because I could go on and on?

Q: Denzel, do you ever feel as though there is a point in your career where you might plateau? Is there a point at which you’ll want to slow things down?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I’m not moving that fast. People say ‘Wow, you’ve got a lot of movies out’ and I’m like ‘Well, actually, I did one last year and one this year.’ I did American Gangster last year. They waited a year before they put it out. I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’ve got a new life now behind the camera so it’s really like I’m starting over. So the plateau for me was probably about ten years ago in terms of how I felt about what I was doing and the work and all of that. I started looking for other things to do at least about ten years ago. It’s just getting out there now.  This didn’t start yesterday.

Q For Denzel, you’ve collaborated with Spike Lee and other directors. What do you guys talk about since you moved behind the camera?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: We didn’t talk a lot but I have a greater appreciation, even in the first film I directed, especially, a greater appreciation for what a director does. I had no idea. I just thought, ‘Action! Cut! Press junket!’ [Laughter]. There’s a little bit more than that. So, I had studied Spike’s film and I’ve studied a lot of... You know I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with some great filmmakers so I went back and I look at a lot of their work and suddenly things click and make sense that I may have learned from them -- from Spike, from Ed Zwick, Jonathan Demme or Ridley Scott or whoever that I hadn’t been able to apply yet.  But now, as a filmmaker, I’m able to apply them. All of that was getting stored in the computer [points to his head] now I’m getting a chance to use it.

Q: I’d like to ask the young actors how they related to that time period in the 1930’s and the way society was back then and how it’s different now.

DENZEL WASHINGTON:  Let me say one thing before you kids start. We’re on the cover of Ebony this month, Oprah and I, nice cover, nice picture and, in the corner, it talks about nooses, the whole thing that’s going on with the noose coming back. I’m like ‘Wow! Things have changed but they haven’t changed.’ On the January cover for 2008, the cover of Ebony magazine is talking about nooses. I guess it wasn’t even news then. Maybe that’s the difference between then and now. It’s news. It wasn’t even news then.

DENZEL WHITAKER: What I have to say about that is, first of all, I’m playing a real life person, James Farmer Jr.  First of all, I think there’s a little pressure with wanting to do the actual person justice with playing the role. Just playing in a time period where African-Americans weren’t accepted in society, it’s hard and kind of devastating to see. Of course, I’ve learned about it in our history books and what not but to actually play the character is a little different because you could relate to what your ancestors were going through. We’re thrown into situations, especially like the lynching scene or the pig farmer scene, and we’re thrown into situations where they’ll pull a gun on us or we’re sitting in a car scared for our lives and we feel it as actors and, emotionally, we have a sense of disturbing images and kind of being scared in that situation. For me, it just brought me closer. It helps me to understand what I learned in the history books. It’s not just text anymore. I could say that part of me kind of lived it. It’s sad what America did. I look back on it and I definitely have a shame for America, a shame for human society as a whole. I’m glad we’re coming far away and we’re progressing ahead but things today like nooses and prejudice overall is still holding us back and, hopefully, with this film and other things in the future, we can overcome that.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Through the extensive research that we all had to do, as you dig deeper and deeper and just hear all the first-hand account stories of what it was like to live in the Jim Crow South and what it was like to live through the Great Depression and what it was like to know the fact that your cousin was lynched not too long ago and yet the government has declared a war on crime and left out lynching. It’s this crazy feeling to know how society wants to dictate to you what place you should stand in. Yet, you have all these emotions going on inside, all this frustration feeling like ‘Well, shouldn’t I be entitled to be free?’ So they knew that education was their ticket and that’s what everyone told us. That’s the thing a lot of the first-hand account stories were saying, that education was their ticket. You were either a sharecropper or you were an educated person. There was no in between. It speaks volumes to how far we have come and how far we have come in such a short amount of time. It was a lot. It was heavy, doing the research on the lynchings. There is this book called "Without Sanctuary” that talks about how the lynchings were photographed often times by the lynch mobs because they would take these pictures and put them on the back of these post cards and send them off to family members saying ‘Look what we did on a Saturday night.’ They had their children there and they had food there and they had the bands there. It was hundreds of people who would kidnap people from jails before they were given a fair trial. There was no such thing as a fair trial and so, when you digest all of this stuff, it sometimes hits you heavy on the heart and it’s hard. But then, at the same time, it makes me very, very proud because I know I’m standing on the shoulders of great people. I’m standing on the shoulders of the Ida B. Wells and the people who really, really fought and I’m so humbled by it.

NATE PARKER: Yeah. It was a task, as a black man in America in 1935, to be compromised every day, to have to say ‘Yes, suh’ instead of ‘Yes sir,’ to dumb yourself down in fear that you may be lynched, hung by your neck, dragged down the street without justice. It was a task to take on that as a character. What it did was create a turmoil inside of the character. Here you have a man that is very strong. Born in 2007, he could be Obama. He was very intelligent but, in the period that he was born, he was put in a place where he’d be walking on the sidewalk and if an 8-year-old Caucasian boy was walking down the street, he’d have to get off the sidewalk. And there’s something to be said about having to literally compromise yourself every single day. No matter how much you know. You can read a thousand books but when you see a young white boy that says ‘Hi,’ you have to say ‘Hi, suh.’ It was just a task to take on that burden, to take all that in and make myself vulnerable to it and allow that turmoil to come out on screen. It was definitely a great responsibility. I remember we had all this research they’d given us like pictures of lynchings and I lined them up across my mirror to remind me every day when I walked into that trailer, what my job was. I think, as an actor, sometimes you’re tempted to surface certain things. You’ve done your research, you walk on set and you do a scene, but I think that those pictures reminded me of the veracity of that time period. That these were people that, without any kind of trial, were killed and there were no reports and it was expected that no one would care. So, I tried to remember that. I tried to carry that in my heart, carry that in my step, everywhere I walked when I was on set and I was in scenes, that was the chip on my shoulder. It wasn’t just ‘I want to be a rebel,’ it was ‘I’m drinking to suppress those demons, that constant reminder that I was inferior.’ ‘I’ meaning, of course, the character. So with all our research it was a responsibility for us all to tell the truth of these people so that, when you looked on that screen, you saw truth, you saw what they went through, not actors acting.

Q: What does this film about debating in the 1930’s tell us about the state of debating today? Are we losing that art?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: We’re not developing that muscle that imagines as we used to. We went from spoken word to radio to television to film or computer. I got a letter from Henrietta Wells and one of the things that was beautiful about it was how well it was written, the penmanship. My kids write like chicken scratch because they’re used to [pretends to type on a computer keyboard]. They don’t have to write anymore. It’s not the sport that it was. Talking to Dr. Freeman, they do have these big debates but he said many times there will be ten, fifteen, twenty people in the audience. There were others ways to… it seemed to make a turn around post World War II. I think, with the advent of television, it just wasn’t as popular anymore. I don’t know that it ever will be like it was but I think the spoken word still is popular. It’s no coincidence that one of the dominant themes contributing to our culture now is Hip-Hop or Rap which is getting right back to poetry whether you like what they’re saying sometimes or not. There’s good poetry out there and bad poetry. And, I kind of wanted to… I didn’t do it in any obvious way, but I wanted to make that connection to the spoken word. It was important for me to have young people speak so that ‘F the police’ is not the only thing young people have to say. But that is somehow what we end up writing about or what ends up on the airwaves but there are other rappers as well that are very intelligent, that have a lot to say like Common or A Tribe Called Quest or other groups. These guys [indicates the young actors] are basically doing what rappers say, they’re spittin’ in competition. It’s verbal jujitsu, right?

NATE PARKER: Absolutely.

Q: What topics would you each like to debate on that might have an impact on changing society?

NATE PARKER: One I’d like to take a stab at is enrollment in college and how it’s increasing and the ability of someone from the inner city with a 4.0 GPA to go to college, their opportunities versus someone from a more affluent, suburban area with the same grades in the same position and the differences in curriculum.  I have four younger sisters and they just moved here and were looking for schools and to see the difference in curriculum, the difference in grades, it just blew me away.  Some of these kids get straight ‘A’s’ and still don’t get accepted because you’re not in advanced placement or their schools don’t offer those classes. So, I think that’s an interesting topic if we’re expecting the young people to one day lead this country and lead us to a place that is better than where we are right now, I think we should really take a good look at the opportunities that are being put in front of them in their youth.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: I would have to agree. A topic that really interests me in the education debate is the fact that we often times spend so much more to house a prisoner than we are spending to pay for a pupil to get educated. I do a lot of work with the Children’s Defense Fund and one of their big things is how some states can sometimes spend two and a half times more for a prisoner than they are spending to educate a pupil. So it’s like, by the time they are a prisoner, what did you do to prevent that? What kind of education did you give them? We’re not giving the money.

DENZEL WHITAKER: For me, it would have to be education-related, especially towards colleges because right now, I’m trying to fill out my apps for colleges [laughter] and, for me, it would have to be SAT’s, the reason being is it’s an important test, it’s a great test. First of all, let me set it up for you. I go to a very good public school and sometimes they’d even say the curriculum is better than the private schools around my area. And I’m fortunate and glad to be there but, at the same time, in order to come from my school and go to a good college, you either have to take advanced placement classes and come out of there with a 4.-something GPA and I’m working with a 3.6 right now. I get basically all ‘A’s,’ maybe a few ‘B’s’ here and there in my classes. I was looking at my app the other day and I had a pretty impressive application -- mostly ‘A’s,’ maybe one or two ‘B’s.’ I do a lot of activities in the community, a lot of community service and what not, but I was looking at it and I was like what they’re really gonna base my test off of is my essay and my SATs and it’s really depressing that they are gonna judge my life on a test that I’m gonna spend four hours on one day when you can look on my whole academic career and my whole life over the course of eighteen years and not see anything remarkable in that? You can’t see all my ‘A’s’ from all my other years. Then you’re gonna say on my SAT’s, one test that took four hours that they’re gonna judge my life on? I feel that’s wrong that they’re gonna judge me on a piece of paper [people start, laughing, talking and agreeing] instead of my whole academic career. I think that’s wrong. 

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [Laughing] He would win that debate. Slip in a DVD of the movie. 

[Laughter]

Q: When teens and young college age kids walk out of the theater after
seeing this, what one thing do you hope they will take with them?

NATE PARKER: That environment is not an excuse anymore. I think that if our characters could sit here now and tell you all the things, the many obstacles they had to overcome to simply graduate high school, to simply get accepted to college, to have to walk around on their campus and still, in the back of their mind, to be worried about having a pick-up truck come down and maybe picking them up for fun and ending their life. I just want these young people to understand that they can overcome their environment, period. They can overcome their environment, and it's inside of them. You know, a lot of people say, ‘I didn't have support.’ Then you pursue a teacher. Find a teacher that will inspire you. Find a guidance counselor. Look for someone that can ‘have your back’ in your journey, but don't allow your environment to put a glass ceiling on your success or progress in life.

DENZEL WHITAKER: For me, it'd be basically just get out ‘knowledge is power,’ of course. You know, that's always the message in life. But I kind of really understand it from doing this movie, and I really want to get that across, just for kids even my age, and my peers. I was watching Chris Rock the other day, and he was talking about, you know, some people take pride in being dumb. And you know, I thought it was funny, I thought it was a joke. But then when you really look at it, some people do. Some people don't take education seriously. And just like in that time, education was their only way out. You know, knowledge was the only way they were going to overcome, and getting everybody's voice out. It was up to these debaters to get their voice out and let America know what we were feeling. And nowadays, with so many outlets...I mean, you got podcasts, you got the internet, of course, and even in school, you have so many resources to get your voice heard, and yet I don't feel we're taking the opportunity to get our opinion out there, let it be known. And really, we're not even striving for education as much as we want to. So for me, just get out that education is important, knowledge is power, and that, as Jurnee said earlier, it's something to be said about shutting your opponent down with words instead of your fists. Even today--I'm not going to go all governmental on you guys--some people could take note from that. So let's get that word out.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: And just to add that we, as young people, don't have to be voiceless bystanders. We can be pro-active. We have to get out there, you know? Whatever your passion is, whatever your cause is, we are all taking up space on this planet, and there's something about us not just absorbing everything and inhaling all the air. You know, we have got to take care of each other, we have got to give back, we've got to be pro-active. Like you were saying, there's so many things, so many different ways we can get our voices out there. There's the internet, there's YouTube, there are so many different ways we can be creative. Marching and everything that our founding fathers of the civil rights movement did, there are so many other ways that we can do it today.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: I would add also that it is our responsibility as adults, as parents. The bottom line was an environment was created for these young people at Wiley College. It didn't happen in a vacuum. It didn't happen in a vacuum. One of the things that was important to me, part of this story to tell, was that this young boy thought that his father was being less than a man, or that he had to kowtow, or that he had to shrink himself when he comes up against these pig farmers, and maybe he thought that Tolson was more of a rebel and more of the sexy guy, the hipper guy. But in the 11th hour, it was his own father that got Tolson out of trouble. So it is still our responsibility as adults to create an environment, which we have not done. If you look at politics or anything else, we spend so much time on the negative. And I'm not pointing fingers, but we have to create an environment. Whatever troubles our young people have are our fault, period. I don't care how you slice it. We created this environment, we created this world that they are born into, and it is our responsibility to try to create an environment for them to excel. That's what happened at Wiley, you know? There's a line I say in the film. ‘I and every other professor are here to help you...’ Whatever Farmer and Tolson's differences were, it was because they cared about these young people. And we have to do that. And I'm sure people in this room do it. In your profession, do you bring young people in, do you mentor them, do you allow them to walk around a newsroom? I'm sure most of you do. And this is what we have to do. We just can't say, ‘Well, it's up to them and they've got to figure it out.’ James Farmer, Jr. and Henry Heights and Henrietta Wells did not excel in a vacuum. It was because somebody was there and someone made the sacrifice for them to excel.

Q: What one word describes your feeling about this movie?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Well, my kids grew up with ‘Do what you gotta do so that you can do what you wanna to do.’ That came from me. [Laughs] I don't know if it came from me. I must have heard it somewhere else. But it was a theme in the movie. So again, going back to our fast food society, we teach our young kids, everything we sell them tells them that it can happen fast, that you don't really have to do anything, that you can leap over and just do what you want. You can just put down four lines on a piece of paper and be a millionaire rapper tomorrow. It's fine. You know, it doesn't talk about the process that it takes to get there. So I've always instilled that in my children: You do what you have to do first. It doesn't work the other way around. ‘Dad, can I go out?’ ‘Did you do your homework?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, do what you have to do so that you can do what you want to do and so that you can feel good having done that.’ And it's just a lesson for life because to try and learn that lesson at 19, 20, 21 is too late.

NATE PARKER: If I had to pick one word, it would be responsibility. No one is exempt. We all have a burden to bear. So if I had to summarize the whole word and what it means to me and what I could give to you all or everyone, it would be responsibility.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Did you say one line, or like a line from...?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: She said word. I just made it a line. [Laughs]

JURNEE SMOLLETT: You know, there were so many different versions of the script. And the last version that I read included the line [turns to Denzel Washington] I think you made the revision about the type of justice, freedom and equality, being now. And when I read that, it brought tears to my eyes because it spoke volumes to...one, as the character, for me, why should I have to wait for my opportunity? Why should I have to wait for my chance? And then it spoke volumes about our society now and all walks of life. Every cornerstone of this earth, everyone should be entitled to equality and justice now, you know? So that's what I loved.

DENZEL WHITAKER: I guess you could say mine would be opportunity. We as a people back then, even today, we all had the opportunity to do something great. And it's whether we take the chance and we gamble with our lives and we can either sit back and not do anything, or we can be progressive and actually get up and make a change in the world. So it's seizing the moment, seizing the opportunity.

Q: Do any of you debate for real? Mr. Washington, do you encourage your kids to debate?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Well, to express their opinion. Whether they're on the debating team or go out for the debating team, I haven't necessarily encouraged them to do that. But just to believe in themselves and to stand up for their own opinions, and to do their research, you know? To do what they have to do to study hard and believe in themselves. But no, I haven't encouraged any of my children to debate, no, or to join a debating team necessarily.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Prior to the debate camp? Not formally. I mean, informally...

DENZEL WHITAKER: A debate is relaying your topic and just getting your point across.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Yeah, we do it on a daily basis.

DENZEL WHITAKER: We do it on a daily basis, but as far as formal...

Q: You should put it on your college application...

DENZEL WHITAKER: [Laughs] I should. As far as formal debate though, no, I've never done anything other than a little middle school thing. But that was fun.

Q: Did Denzel the director get everything he needed out of Denzel the actor?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [jokes] I tried firing him.

Q: Aside from this movie coming out number one, what would make your Christmas or holiday season perfect?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Wow, that's a big word: perfect. The acting part of it, I didn't want to be in the movie. It was just in order to get enough of the money I felt we needed to make the movie, I had to be in it. So once I knew that was the case, I said, ‘Okay, well Denzel, just embrace it. Don't be negative about it. Just do it.’ And I just had a good sense. I usually do two or three or four takes, and if I felt good, I just move on. I was more concerned with getting everybody else's performance. I'm pretty good, so I figure...couple or three takes and I'll be okay. [Laughs] I'll cut it together later on. [Laughs] I'll build a performance out of it. And Christmas is...A perfect Christmas? Wow. I don't know. Anybody?

DENZEL WHITAKER: Well, the movie's coming out at Christmas. [Laughs] So that I'm already proud of. I guess this Christmas, me and the family are going to go, I'm going to take some friends and what not. For me, you know, Christmas is just that time of year you spend with the family. We as a family, me, my mom and my dad, and my sister and brother, we don't really emphasize the presents that much. I mean, we haven't done that since I was probably 12 or so.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [jokes] Looooong time ago!

DENZEL WHITAKER: So we kind of broke away from the presents. Even the tree. Sadly, we don't have a tree this year. But Christmas to us is just spending time with the family and what not, and then just to see them proud this Christmas with seeing the movie, that's all I really want to see. Just them proud and to know they love me.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Yeah. I have a huge family. [laughs] That's mom over there. [Laughs] So spending my time with my family, that's always the funnest thing because we all get together and laugh and debate and dance and stuff. So we're all going to go see the film. And for me, that is one of the things that's so much fun about this whole process. You know, when the film is talked about in a magazine, I call my mom. It is a pride that they have. That's one of the things that makes it such an enjoyable experience for me. So yeah, we're a big caravan. A bunch of people, we're all going to see the film.

NATE PARKER: For me, it would be just to see my mom. My mom's here, she just moved here, and I haven't been able to live with her since I was like 17 and I went to college. So for me, it's just a celebration for her that her eldest son is making progress in his life. Just looking at her and seeing that she feels that she did the right things in raising me. Not that I'm perfect, but you know, there's just something to be said about that. The look in her eye that, Okay, in spite of anything that's happened, I did an okay job raising this guy.’ So to me, that is going to make me happy.

Q: Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: No I don’t. No. I haven’t thought of anything that I wouldn’t keep anyway. [Laughs] I haven’t thought about that yet.

Q: Nate, what did you learn from your trip to South Africa? And how did you come to reflect on some of the issues we've brought up here that relate to this film?

NATE PARKER: It related directly. I was actually there when I got the call that said that I was going to be auditioning with Denzel. It's funny because the theme is ‘everyone has a voice.’ And not everyone has the opportunity to speak their voice, so when the time comes along, we have that opportunity as actors, it is a huge responsibility. Being in South Africa, there's a lot going on. And it reminded me, it had shown me how much we take for granted in our lives. And believe me, we take a lot for granted. You know, having insulation in our walls, having a roof. I saw a couple houses that didn't have complete roofs. We did a thing where I packed all my bags...I traveled light, but I packed toys, and we went into the townships, Hout Bay Township, and we gave away toys to the kids, and shoes, just little things, dollar store things. But to them, it was so huge because they don't have the opportunity to go to the dollar store and spend a buck and get a toothbrush or whatever. So going from that into this job, I took their plight as well. These young kids...This 8-year-old kid with no shoes that is the man of his house has a voice. Who is the one that's going to speak that voice? Either I take the responsibility or I don't. Either I accept that platform or I stand back and say, ‘Hey, what about the next movie?’ So it was a heightened sense of responsibility coming from there to here, understanding a lot of those people are living in a state that's not as physically, or mentally as well, as high as one would say that ours is as Americans. So I took a lot away from it. It's a beautiful, beautiful country, and there's things being done there. Not enough, so I encourage people, just like this movie, educate yourselves, take the responsibility of mentoring a child like Denzel said. But also, when you find yourself in a position where you can give to charities in South Africa, it wouldn't hurt to give a little. A little to you may be a lot to them.

[moderator] Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be the last question. We have the young lady right here in the second row.

LAILA: This question is for Denzel Washington: What do you hope kids will learn from watching this movie?

DENZEL WASHINGTON: What do I think...Have you seen the movie?

LAILA: Yes.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: What did you learn? Come on up here. Come on up. [Washington invites Laila to take his seat and join the panel] All right, Laila, this is Nate, Jurnee...Laila, here, you sit right here. I'm serious. You just tell them what you learned from it. I'm curious. [Washington assumes the role of interviewer] Laila, what did you learn from watching this movie?

LAILA: Well, I learned that if you work hard, then you can accomplish anything.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: That's a lot. What was your favorite part of the movie?

LAILA: The end.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: The end! [Laughs, addresses laughter from press] See how cynical we are? [to Laila] You mean because it was over or because they won? [Laughs] I'm not laughing at you. It's just that this is old folk business right here. So why the end?

LAILA: Because they won.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Was there anything in the movie that kind of scared you a little bit?

LAILA: Well, yeah. There are some parts, like the lynch mob and the pig scene. But there are some parts that were really inspiring when they were debating.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Mmm-hmm. Like which debate did you like the most?

LAILA: I liked the last one and the first one.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: The Oklahoma City...When Jurnee debated?

LAILA: Yes.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: Why'd you like the one where Jurnee debated?

LAILA: Well, because her speech was really good.

JURNEE SMOLLETT: Thank you.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: [to press] And there you have it! The speeches are really good! It's a good ending!

[Applause]

Presented by The Weinstein Company, "The Great Debaters" opens on December 25th.