Selma and Orange Is the New Black Casts: “I Can’t Breathe”
December 27, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
At the New York premiere of the film Selma on Sunday, December 14, many cast members and co-writer/director Ava DuVernay wore “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts over their red-carpet suits and gowns. Cast members David Oyelowo, E. Roger Mitchell, Wendell Pierce, Omar Dorsey, John Lavelle, Stephan James, Kent Faulcon, Lorraine Toussaint, Andre Holland, Tessa Thompson and Colman Domingo also did the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture in honor of Michael Brown. The day before Pierce, best known for his roles as "Bunk" on The Wire and as Antoine Batiste on Treme, had marched in the streets of New York City with thousands of others. His Wire co-star Michael Kenneth Williams ("Omar," and also "Chalky" on Boardwalk Empire) also wore the shirt on the red carpet.
See a Youtube of actors and others at the NYC premiere of Selma talking about the protests against murders by police.
On December 13, when 25,000 people in New York City were marching in the streets to protest the police murder of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and other Black youth all over the USA, Vicky Jeudy, who plays Janae Watson on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, posted a photo (see below) of members of the show’s cast holding “I/We Can’t Breathe” signs and doing “hands up, don’t shoot.”
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