Back in January, Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation swept the Sundance Film Festival by storm, and was scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a near-record price. But the narrative behind the release of The Birth of a Nation has changed in the past few weeks, as the film that was primed to be the next breakthrough movie out of Sundance has been overshadowed by the director/writer/star’s past. A rape accusation and trial from 1999 has come back to haunt Nate Parker, and while he has made a statement acknowledging it, the case still follows him and hangs over the film before its October release.
The topic came up on Friday night at a screening for The Birth of a Nation, where Parker expressed disappointment with his past self and his treatment of women, says The Hollywood Reporter.
“The way I treated women, objectified women. My manhood was defined by how many women I could be with. I was a dog. I was wrong. I hurt a lot of women. And that was normal for me, in respect to how I treated them emotionally. I was introduced to sex in a certain way. That type of male culture, that type of hypermasculinity where your manhood is determined by how many women you get to say ‘Yes’ is destructive.”
Parker seemed humble and willing to admit that his past self was in contrast with the image that he projects now of not only a filmmaker, but an activist.
“I’m a work in progress. I’m trying to be better. I feel remorse for all the women that are survivors that felt I was being insensitive because I was. And I want to have a better understanding of how I can be more of an ally, if they’ll accept me. There will be people who won’t accept me, and that’s okay. All I can do is say that I stand for justice and really learn more about this issue so I can be a better ally of this issue.”
His words seem sincere and have satisfied some critics, but it probably won’t be enough to make the issue disappear, which he seems to understand.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
