美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Blindspotting,' A Cinematic Love Letter To A Changing Oakland

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And, finally today, Oakland, Calif., means different things to different people, but for many, it's the birthplace of groundbreaking art and politics. But Oakland, like many major cities across the country, is changing. That's the tension at the heart of a new film called "Blindspotting." It tells the story of two lifelong friends, Oakland natives, one white and one black, as they grapple with how they fit into this new and changing world.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLINDSPOTTING")

DAVEED DIGGS: (As Collin) Do me a favor. I've got three days left on this probation¹. When you've got that gun on you, just don't tell me about it. Plausible² deniability.

RAFAEL CASAL: (As Miles) Oh, do you mean this gun?

DIGGS: (As Collin) Get out.

CASAL: (As Miles) Good night, Collin.

MARTIN: The film is many things. It's a love letter to Oakland. It's about masculinity and police violence and friendship. Fittingly, the film stars and was written by two friends - Rafael Casal, a nationally acclaimed³ slam poet, and Daveed Diggs, whom you may know from his award-winning turn as the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the Broadway hit "Hamilton," as well as for his recurring⁴ role on the ABC hit "Black-ish." When I spoke⁵ with the two earlier, I started our conversation by asking Daveed Diggs how the idea for the film changed since they began working on it almost a decade ago.

DIGGS: We wanted to tell a Bay Area story because that's where we're from, and it's a place that we feel like has interesting stories to tell that we hadn't seen yet. And we also wanted to star in it.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DIGGS: So that was about as much as we knew going in. And, right around that same time, Oscar Grant was murdered at Fruitvale BART station. And so telling a story about Oakland meant that this was going to be part of the story. You asked about how the film has changed. You know, Oakland back then - this is 2009 - Oscar's face was everywhere. His name was all over the place. The news cycle - this was early on in us starting to get, like, really clear cell phone video footage of these kinds of events, right? So people were out protesting.

So early drafts of this film had protest scenes in it and riot scenes in it. One of the ways we had to modernize⁶ it over the last decade was that that doesn't happen the same way anymore. I think the fantasy of those times was that these protests would call enough attention to a thing that happens regularly in order to create change, but that doesn't seem to have happened. We just get it reported more often.

MARTIN: So I want to get into the characters in a minute. But, Rafael, can I go to you and just say, do you remember when the two of you met - like, what it is that made you want to work together?

CASAL: You know, well, we met in high school, but Diggs is four years older than me, so he was a senior when I was a freshman⁷. And we sort of bumped into each other at a poetry slam around that time. I think we were just sort of aware of each other more than sort of fully⁸ connected.

MARTIN: Well, because seniors never pay any attention...

CASAL: Yeah, like...

(CROSSTALK)

MARTIN: No.

DIGGS: You are correct.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

CASAL: Because he's, you know...

DIGGS: Very busy doing senior things.

CASAL: ...Very busy doing senior things. And I was just, like, probably just too impressive for him to approach.

DIGGS: That is one side of the story.

CASAL: How I remember it - "Blindspotting."

(LAUGHTER)

CASAL: And so we were aware of each other. Diggs went off to Brown. I sort of went off for the next few years and did this show called "Def Poetry" and went on tour. And, by the time Diggs was back, I had sort of built this studio in North Oakland with some friends of mine. We were hoping that more artists would be recording⁹ out of that space than just us. And so a friend, a mutual¹⁰ friend, reintroduced us to each other's work and pushed for us to hang out.

And so Diggs came by the studio, and we talked a little bit about music. And then we sort of stayed there all night until the sun came up and made a couple records together. And I don't really remember a time after that that Diggs wasn't involved in some capacity in something that I was making.

MARTIN: Well, let's get into the characters. Collin, played by Daveed Diggs, has a record. He's done his jail time. We find out why later. He's almost done with his probation. He's trying to get his life back on track. Miles is his friend - played by you, Rafael - is a family man. He's also kind of a hothead. They've worked together at a moving company, so they have kind of a front-row seat to the way the city is changing - what we commonly call gentrification. If you wouldn't mind, tell me - each of you just tell me a little bit about your character and what you want us to know about him. And, Daveed, why don't you start?

DIGGS: Yeah. Well, I think Collin is trying really hard to get on the other side of this thing. If you know anybody who's on probation, who's been in jail and is dealing¹¹ with the sort of aftereffects of that, there are a series of traps set up to try and send you back to jail. And so Collin's been spending the better part of the last year kind of navigating¹² this system and just trying to get to the other side of this. But he is, you know, also working in a city where his context is changing greatly, and the way that the neighborhood is being policed is different.

Before the film starts - really, it's before the sort of big incident of the film - I think he is dealing with certain kinds of trauma¹³ and certain kinds of PTSD that I think people of color certainly feel in this country, but really a lot of us, I think, are feeling. And then, on his way home from work one night, he and - he alone witnesses the police shooting of an unarmed black man. And that for him ramps¹⁴ the stakes of everything. All of a sudden, his safety that he was already sort of questionable¹⁵ about feels even more unsafe, and the post-traumatic stress of American life are heightened by this event.

MARTIN: And, Rafael, tell me about Miles, and what other - I said in our introduction, right, that, you know, Miles is white. But that - you know, that's shorthand, isn't it, right, for how he sees himself in the world, particularly against the backdrop of the way Oakland is changing? So tell me a little bit about Miles and how you saw him.

CASAL: Daveed and I both know a number of Mileses in the Bay Area, and I'd imagine that kind of character in different iterations exists all over the place. But I think Miles is - in his reality, he's the minority among minorities, right? He's a white face in a predominantly black and brown space. And so he's built his survival on having the offense¹⁶ as his defense¹⁷. And what you get from that is a hardened dude, right? And then he's also - you know, the other side of Miles is he's a family dude, and he's trying to be a good father. And so he's a blue-collar, working-class dude who's fiercely loyal and is afraid of his context changing because it means that he has to once again fight to claim his space and his identity.

MARTIN: Well, let me jump in here and play something because the story is rooted in an incident that sent Collin to prison, and I want to - I don't want to give too much away. But it does center around a fight that breaks out over some of the tensions around the way the city is changing. So let's listen to a clip. And this is where Miles and Collin are arguing about Collin's ex-girlfriend.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLINDSPOTTING")

CASAL: (As Miles) When you were in jail, did she put money on your books? Did she come visit you even one time (unintelligible) while you were locked up? Because I'm pretty sure I went two times a week, 45 minutes each way, $500 on your book on day one.

DIGGS: (As Collin) Hey. She talked to me on the phone.

CASAL: (As Miles) How gracious of her to have called you once. And what did she want to talk to you about - about changing up your lifestyle, changing up your ways? You're not a thug drug dealer¹⁸. You went to jail on a fire technicality.

DIGGS: (As Collin) Did I?

CASAL: (As Miles) Yes. How were we supposed to know that hamsters are so flammable?

MARTIN: Daveed, tell me about that scene from your perspective and, you know, the struggle that they're having as friends, as men. And...

DIGGS: This is not an uncommon¹⁹ argument with men who are friends, right? If you don't like somebody's significant other, like (laughter), this is - you know, like, that's a roastable offence. And, in private, you will get roasted for that. So my other favorite part about that scene is that Miles starts that argument essentially²⁰ out of boredom²¹. Like he's...

(LAUGHTER)

DIGGS: Like, he's - there's just nothing else happening. And so he looks for something to, like, have an argument about, you know.

CASAL: (Laughter).

DIGGS: I love those details that are friendship details, right? They're more like siblings²² than just friends. And it's only because they're so close that they're capable of having these kinds of disagreements and conversations, you know.

MARTIN: Have the two of you ever fallen out?

CASAL: No.

DIGGS: No, not like that.

(LAUGHTER)

CASAL: No, nothing like that.

DIGGS: We, like, argue about taste in music.

CASAL: We had a - we have an ongoing²³ argument about the word opossum - possum.

(LAUGHTER)

CASAL: One of us at some point had it wrong, and now we can't remember who had it wrong, and now we're arguing about who had it wrong.

(LAUGHTER)

CASAL: Originally, the argument is about whether it was a possum or an opossum.

(LAUGHTER)

CASAL: And that went on for quite some time.

MARTIN: Well, that's...

CASAL: ...Still a little bit of a sore spot.

DIGGS: It's a sore spot. We don't talk about it.

MARTIN: Yeah. Two poets arguing over - that's a roastable offense with a poet. With two poets...

CASAL: Yeah.

DIGGS: Yeah, yeah.

MARTIN: I can see - yeah, I see it.

DIGGS: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

MARTIN: I can see it. Daveed Diggs is an actor and poet. Rafael Kasal is a poet and an actor. Their new film "Blindspotting" is in select theaters now and nationwide next week.

Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, thank you so much for speaking with us.

DIGGS: Thank you for having us.

CASAL: Thanks for having us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOT A GAME")

DIGGS: (Singing) All I know is hustle²⁴. All I know is rubble²⁵. All I know is struggle. All I know is trouble. All I know is smuggle²⁶.

CASAL: (Singing) Yeah.

DIGGS: (Singing) All I know is (unintelligible) Ain't nobody finished with the town, all of the scales, it's...

1 probation   

n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期)

参考例句：

• The judge did not jail the young man,but put him on probation for a year.法官没有把那个年轻人关进监狱，而且将他缓刑察看一年。
• His salary was raised by 800 yuan after his probation.试用期满以后，他的工资增加了800元。

2 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

3 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

4 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

7 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

10 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

13 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

14 ramps   

resources allocation and multiproject scheduling 资源分配和多项目的行程安排

参考例句：

• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。
• He has the upper floor and ramps are fitted everywhere for his convenience. 他住在上面一层，为了他的方便着想，到处设有坡道。

15 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

16 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

17 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

18 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

19 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

20 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

21 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

22 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

23 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

24 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。

25 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

26 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。