Theyd be a part of me and understanding the history so i could take that tapestry and pull it together. Because its also for me a love story. A love story through the eyes of this man and one of the reasons i said yes to lee after he was relentless in asking me to do it is because i wanted the tapestry the depth, the broadness of that communication between a husband and a wife and particularly a middleclass black family to be seen by the rest of the world. Its something we dont see very often and i think that women have been the backbone regardless of race during that period for a number of reasons and i wanted to be able to show that in that one character. Rose lee daniels the butler for the hour. Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following give a little bit give a little bit of my life for you nows the time when we need to share so send a smile were on our way back home rose additional funding provided by these funders and by bloomberg, a provider of news and multimedia Information Services worldwide. From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose you gene allen was born on a virginia plantation in 1919 he worked in a country club until 1952. He then found a job as be a butler in the white house. He ended up spending 34 years there. He served under eight president s from harry truman to ronald reagan. He saw some of the pivotal events in u. S. History the cuban missile crisis, the freedom rides, the assassinations of j. F. K. And Martin Luther king, jr. , the vietnam war and watergate. His life, wrote president obama after allens death in 2010, represented an important part of the american story. Now a new movie has been made inspired by eugene allens story. Here is the trailer for lee daniels the butler. Are you political mr. Gaines . No, sir. Good. We have no tolerance for politics at the white house. Im cecil gaines. Im the new butler. You hear nothing, you say nothing. You only serve. You know he got that job himself . The white house called him, he didnt call the white house. I want to hear all the stories. I dont know how many stories youre going to hear because they done swore them to some kind of secret code. Did you go to an allcolored school, cecil . I didnt go to school, mr. President , i grew up on the cotton farm. Dont you lose your temp we are that man. Its his world, we just live in it. About time you go ahead. You looking for some help . You done broke our window, you done stole our food and now youre asking for a job. I know how to serve. They said this new white boys smooth. Im thrilled to be working with all of you over the next four years. Dr. King, what did your daddy do . He was a butler. The black domestic plays an Important Role in our history. Something special is going on here. Mr. President . I know your son is a freedom rider. Turn the bus i never understood what you all really went through. Youve changed my heart. This theres this whole black Power Movement going on. I give you the green light to gut those sons of bitches. Theyre going to kill you. You need to go. What . Get the hell out of my house. Sorry, mr. Butler, i didnt mean to make fun of your hero. Everything you are and everything sufficient because of that butler. Rose joining me now is lee daniels who directed the movie, danny strong who wrote the script and two of the films stars, Forest Whitaker who plays the butler and Oprah Winfrey who plays his wife gloria. Welcome one and all. Thank you. Rose im pleased to have you here. You, sir, are at your creative best. Congratulations. Thank you. Rose you, magnificent. Thank you, sir. Rose but you, sir, are just brilliant. This is an extraordinary performance over a span of years to capture this person, these ideas, all that you have done was really an extraordinary achievement. Thank you. Thank you for that compliment, thats very nice. Thank you. Rose how difficult was it for you . It was a challenge. It was one of the most challenging roles i ever played. You know, i think because of the sort of being able to communicate without words, you know . The process of going through all these years and the aging process. Trying to carry these experiences that were painted in the script by danny and lee inside of myself so that you could feel them and know them and theyd be a part of me. And then understanding the history so i could take that tapestry and pull it together. But its a love story, so i guess trying to navigate the feeling that i had for my wife. Hello. laughter and trying to make my life not to make her upset. It challenged us and it challenged me and my son. Yeah, but it was about that. Because its also for me a love story. A love story through the eyes of this man and one of the reasons i said yes to lee after he was relentless in asking me to do it is because i wanted the tapestry, the depth, the broadness of that communication between a husband and a wife and particularly a middleclass black family to be seen by the rest of the world. Its something we dont see very often and i think that women have been the backbone. You know, regardless of race during that period for a number of reasons and i wanted to be able to show that in that one character. Rose and what did you hope to bring in this script . What story . I wanted to tell the history of the Civil Rights Movement. It seems to me that that movement has not been properly told in hollywood. And you have world war ii, youve got the holocaust. These are extremely famous, theyre part of our National Consciousness and a lot of that have is because of movies and t. V. Shows that have been made about them. There havent been that many movies made about the Civil Rights Movement and its a shame because its one of the most important dynamic and dramatic events of the 20th century. It deserves to have many movies made about it. For me i just really wanted to try and push that into the National Consciousness the way that these other events have been dramatized. Rose the scope of history is told in intimate personal stories. Exactly. Exactly. Thats the joy of doing the butler. Because the butler is in the white house and you can see him in meetings where decisions that are going to affect the entire nation are being made and through his family you see how those decisions are played out in the lives of Everyday Americans so it seemed like if we could make that work it could be a powerful film. Rose who first saw the possibilities of this as a movie . Lars us skind, amy pass squall from sewn fwhoi told lars iskind and spiderman and so she told lars to option it and she since passed and danny was brought aboard and then i was brought aboard and it was between me and Steven Spielberg, can you believe it, charlie . Rose so steven said im busy . I dont know what happened. Rose this is what they do in hollywood. If steven is busy laughter i wouldnt mind taking second place for that. laughter very good. Rose stevens busy, so go to lee. So they go to you. Whats the challenge . The challenge is trying to get the budget to meet this epic story. Because the studios will only give African American dramas a specific amount of money and dannys script spans decades and so thats a lot of money. So we were going to do it. The movie was green lit, we were going do it for a budget and i couldnt cram it into the budget that the film deserved. So it was frustrating and oprah i said oprah, were green lit with the studio. Were doing a movie. I dont know. I dont know about this. And solarz iskind passed away. I didnt get you would 6 believe you would get money for this because i had done the great debaters. What he is saying is really true. Its very difficult to get a black drama green lit in hollywood because the theory is black dramas dont work. Lara passed away. She had cancer. And on her deathbed, literally, she was raising money for film. Literally on her deathbed. And she hadnt raised money before because she was a studio girl. She went from studio to studio. She said lee, how do you raise money . I said come with me, sister. Rose been there; done that. So we went from one investor to the next and i think that after her death a lot of the investors that we went to felt guilty and rose to the occasion and and if not guilt a sense of respect for her exactly. I would say respect. And love. Oy, this is republics show. Rose what charlie meant to say. She left enough money in her film to keep her company open so this could get made . Isnt that amazing . Its so interesting, guys, we had a screening in new york last night recently, and what was interesting to me, when you were talking about her i really do believe this so dont call me cuckoo, i do believe that all of us are energy and even when you pass on youre energy. Something that you were talking about her last night, i thought lara is all up in this and she is going to be ushering this film in a way that we really cant imagine. So i think the spirit of her has been throughout this film and were going to fill it fill the spirit of her, really feel the spirit of her once this is released. I think shes all in it. Rose so you got the money. You got the script. Yes. Rose youve got to get actors. Yes. Rose so Forest Whitaker came to you instantly . With forest, you know with forest this is so beautiful. And its a testament to who he is as a person and how he and an oscar winner. Rose i was going to say. Thank you. He came in to audition. And i was humiliated asking him to audition. I said dude, you know, you are who you are but i have to see how the. Rose youre idi amin. Yes, lets see if idi amin and oprah have chemistry. Rose the two of them came in and it was magic and i grabbed oprah and i said this is it. He must have thought what the hell is going on . And i grabbed him and said yeah, we were in a little suite at the chateaux and after we had done a few lines together and i think we did we rehearsed the birthday scene. And lee pulled me into the kitchen and he goes i think hes the one. Yes laughter i go i so want to work with forest i had wanted to work with forest before. Did you know this, charlie, that when he was nominated for i think you would already been nominated when i called you, right . Yes. Rose for last king of scotland. I just called him up in that way that, gee, i would love to meet that person. Id seen last king of scotland. And i called him up and said i just admire you so and i would love to meet you and your family and could you all please would you like me to have a party and would you come to my house and bring your trends so that we could celebrate you whether you win the oscar or not . I also met lee this that way. I saw precious and i called lee laughter i called lee i got lees cell phone number and i called lee and i said hi, lee, this is Oprah Winfrey. And he goes im at the sun dance film festival, we just won the best award. I said why is your damn cell phone on . So i love calling up people. Rose i want to meet you. I want to celebrate you. I call him just to say i want to celebrate you. Swered, because it saidwhy i unknown. And we talked about this the first time you interviewed me. Uownkn meant thats money. So i thought thats possible money for my next movie. Hello . As im walking up the stage to get my award. Crazy. Se if it said oprah you would have answered it, too. I dont know. I dont know if i would have believed it. I would have thought it was a prank or something. Rose did you have any sense of the power of the script and the story or did you clearly understand that if we got this right we could have something here that transcends movies and transcends i think i felt that way when i read the scrip. You know, i the motion of the movie, the historical moments that were so reflected in our emotions because theyre so connected to whats going on. I thought if we could accomplish that, if he could accomplish that then we could do Something Special so i started just like bearing down on it as an artist to try to understand how to convey that. Rose even though this is a script, did you go in search of eugene allen . I did. I talked to charles allen. I talked to people who worked with him. I had some confidential conversations with some butlers. I talked to a number of individuals all the way through and i started working with butler coaches to understand just the mentality and the philosophy behind it. I spoke to to some civil rights leaders that i wanted to just pick their mind a bit about what they were thinking and then started thinking about my own past and my grandparents and my great grandfather because i knew my great grandfather and my father, they lived to very old ages in their 90s both of them. So i was just remembering some of the incidents that i lived in in my life, too, and started to combine these things together to make something true. Rose how about gloria for you . Capturing well, i was a little nervous about this because i hadnt picked up that instrument in 15 years. And i had just rose an acting instrument . The acting instrument. I put hit in the corner and said well, those days are gone, and wasnt that nice . And really. Yes rose its amazing to think of. Yes, i had. Thats incomprehensible well, i had. Because ied that day job that sort of took over my life. And it was always difficult to get someone to say yes, i can do the movie but can you do it between july 12 and august 14 because i have to be back for the september start of a new season. So i just threat go and also my disappointment over beloved and when i started talking to lee about this he said you need to come back, you need to act. He sent me several scripts. laughter which i shall not mention. Some rose why not . laughter i sent her a script about a serial killer . I was going to play the serial killer. Not only am i not going to i said im going to burn this script and do not send me anything like this again and if you do that your karma is going to change. Rose hay, dude, what are you doing . What are you doing. But who would have been she would have he said i want people to lose the oprah thing. Well, i dont have to go all the way to being a serial killer to lose the oprah thing. Hello. Theres some character in between can you believe it . So i was a little nervous. I called he suggested that i call susan batson, the acting coach. Rose right. She came and had a session with me because i was saying rose this is before you decided . This is before i decided and she came and i had a session with her and she in 20 minutes i was exposing all of my stuff and she said you still have it. You have to vulnerability, you have to spaces where you can go inside, you can reach and you can find gloria. You have to do the work to do it. Because i started out saying to her its just a small role. Its a small role and theres no such thing as a small role yeah, no such thing as a small role. And she to me represents shes a composite of that era. You know the night we screened we had a screening and none of us said charles allen, the son of eugene allen, had not seen the film before. And he stands up at the screening at the end and because gayle is hosting this screening and she says mr. Charles allen is here, tell us what you thought . And he stands up and the first thing he says well, you threw my mother under the bus. And then we all go, oh, lord, whats he going to say . He actually liked the film. He loves it. And i said well, i certainly took some liberties with your mother. His mother is smoked a couple packs of pal mall everyday and i dont think she wasnt a drinker, not to that extent and certainly wasnt tiptoing out with the next door neighbor because the next door neighbor wasnt terence howard. So we took some liberties because what she loved to do was watch the price is right and watched the soap operas. So rose you got that. You got that. Rose so you finally said yes because something because rose because this was a busy time in your life. Own i was trying to build a network and i said to lee no, no no. And finally said yes because, you know, my entire life ive been a student of the history. When i was a young girl i knew all of Langston Hughs poems. I knew all of and thats a lot of poems. All the major poems i knew and i knew the entire gods trombones and i knew sojournny truth speeches and Fanny Lou Hamer speeches so i was an orator and the idea of knowing who you are for me had been the reason i can sit in board rooms and be the only woman and be the only black because it reminds me of that line from a maya angelou poem where she says i come as one but i stand as 10,000. I stand as 10,000 because i know where i come from. I know the path that was paved for me. I know crown that i know wear holds the jewels that all of those people before me prepared for me. And i know that theres an entire generation that doesnt understand that. They dont have the context for who they are and how they got to be who they are. As, you know, African Americans, young African Americans. And also i just wanted to offer that story to people in a way this they could see the greater picture rose you saw something you had to do in the end . After all this, ive got to do this . Yes, and, you know, my whole work is about opening the heart space for people and i said, wow i think heres an opportunity that you can show people something in a way that they can see the best of themselves. Yeah. Rose what was the hardest part for this . Youve got your cast now. Youve got everything in place. Really making sure that everything is from the shoes to the makeup to the their accent to their head movements, everything is honest. That everything is really, really honest and keeping it honest and thats a hard thats the hard hes a truth seeker. May i say this about him . He is the kind of director i mean, thats why every actor that ever works with him loves him. Because he will not let you get away with a split second of anything less than the truth. He literally rose has to be authentic and true . Not only truth. Not only truth. He will call you over to the monitor this happened to me. Call you over to the monitor and say look at that. See where shes leaning in right there . Thats good. Thats good. See where she took a breath. Id say yeah. Hed say drop the breath. Too much drama. Rose this is also about family. A lot about family. Tell me a little bit about that. I think its exemplifyed in the father son relationship. Our relationship is more about the absence and my not being there for us and it causes a lot of problems for her and for the family. But with my son, im trying so desperately to keep my family together and to let my family have all the things they need and desire. And its my quest for my son to live a better life than what i did. And he he makes a decision to do a pursuit of trying to pursue a great life, too. But in his mind doing that he has to confront what he considers the demons of the country or the demons of social injustice, you know . So i my motivations are all about caring, in a way. I care so much for my son. I dont want them to go to fiske i want him to stay out of the south. I know whats happened in the south. I want him to stay right here in washington, d. C. At Howard University so i can protect him. I say in the movie i cant protect him there. He goes there to this place and then he starts this movement of what i taught him, because of the way my character was a trailblazer. He left this sharecroppers town and went across to washington, d. C. And then the white house. My dad i used to think about that, too. He left texas and went to los angeles, you know . And my family, that was unheard of, in my family you stayed right there on the farm. You can put a trailer on the land but you dont go. In that case my grandfathers not coming to visit you, you know what i mean . Youve got to make a big step. Ive made this step, now im here, and he goes and starts to confront these things and im thinking, hey, stop, you can be okay. You can have education and family. You can have a life, you can have a home. Hes like no, dad, everybody deserves a life, everybody deserves a home. I cant be happy inside myself unless i know these rights are there. So we explore this Civil Rights Movement in this personal way. Thats whats brilliant about what you did, lee. Im always arguing and dealing with him over the real moments of history that, like, give us an emotional understanding of the Civil Rights Movement of whats happening, whats occurring. And thats kind of a movement of our family. And ultimately the reconciliation of our family. The kind of coming back together because of the deep love, the foundation of who we are. Rose and coming to truth. Coming to truth. And appreciation. Rose and you see that theres a moment in which one of the sons goes off to vietnam. You cant protect him in vietnam. Yes. Rose and the agony that brings to you. Yes. It destroyed our family in some ways. For just a moment we lost our heart. Because wed already lost one son because he left. I had to draw a line in the sand to force him to do what i considered the safe and right thing. Now we lose our son and she starts drinking more and more. I love that line thats in the voiceover where you said you lost them to vietnam and you didnt even know what that war was for. You didnt even know what that was all about. Rose this is a scene reflecting some of this. This is when cecil gains, played by forest and his son louis, take a look. Whats the name of that movie honey . In the heat of the night. In the heat of the night with sid any port yay. Thats a white mans fantasy of what he wants us to be. Sflp what are you talking about . Hes breaking down barriers for all of us. By being white. By acting white. Sidney poitier is nothing but a rich uncle tom. Look at you, all puffed up with your hat on your head covering coming in here saying what you want. You need to go. What . Get the hell out of my house get on out im sorry, mr. Butler, i didnt mean to make fun of your hero everything you are and everything you have is because of that butler rose thats dannys brilliant line. You wrote that line, thank you you delivered it. Rose we often ask men how they can write through a womans voice and we ask women how they write through a mans voice and we ask you in terms of capturing the black experience. Part of that has to do with, i assume, something is within you but also something you went in search of to make sure you had right. Yeah, absolutely. Its the job of the writer to write characters that arent themselves, from men writing women, women writing men. In the case of this project, i had a few powerful weapons at my disposal. One was memoirs of people that worked at the white house that i read that really helped get me into the mindset of what that world was like. My other big secret weapon was lee daniels. Lee was an amazing collaborator on the scripts and had a great deal of influence and it was we just had a wonderful experience. Rose what do those memoirs tell you . Oh, god, everything. Thats the movie is whats in those memoirs. What life was like working in the white house. Seeing these halls of power, not being able to comment on what was happening. Trying to be invisible while at the same time there are events happening that you know are going to affect your life. And its extremely dramatic and very powerful and something that i felt if we could haarness into a movie it could just really be special. Rose that line everything you are and everything you have is because of that butler is the essence of why i said yes to this film. Because i believe that for my generation and certainly for my generation. Ing that i am and i see that very clearly, have m the daughter of a maid. My grandmother was a maid. Her mother was a maid so i understand that perseverance and just the courage, the courage that it took to get up everyday andwa ie people saw you as not evenfully. You know, you and i when i did cbs this morning you i have theav movie, that scene where cecil gaines goes into thenisration rose the butlers. And asks for a raise. And i think about the courage it would take to walk into that room, how many times he would have to practice what he was going to say and how he was going to say it and know that he was going to be turned down and still have the courage to stand in there and do it anyway. That was his way of being a war your. Of standing up. What it took to get up every morning and still maintain your values, take care of your family and be a man and know that the rest of the world didnt see you that way. Thats real courage. Rose he basically says in this scene you tell me, forest. What does he say to the guy when the guy says well, i guess you can leave. The black butlers arent paid as much as the white staff and i think that we do the same job. And he says well, if you feel that way you can leave. Rose and you said i knew youd say that so i asked the president. And youd left not left the room, but not left the job. And youve seen him say it before so when you go in and he says that you say i knew youd say that. I told the president and he said perhaps you two should talk about it. laughter it turns everything around. O . I was blown away when i was interviewing this is our favorite scene. I was just blown away when i was interviewing people that worked in the white house because i interviewed butlers, ushers, engineers when i found that out that the African American staff was paid 40 less than the white staff for years and years and years and it was so difficult to get promotes from houseman to engineers office. Really blown away that that existed not just outside but in the halls of power as well. Rose the interesting story here is the son. Amazing performance. And he leaves. Hes cast out because of his demeanor, because he doesnt seem to have the respect and because you worry hes going to leave and you finally say just go. And thats part of his journey. What happens to him . Because in the end, without giving the details of this, there comes an appreciation of father and son. Yes. Rose and thats the journey of this fil that was the reason why i did the movie. I didnt do it because it was an important civil rights movie. I did it because it was a fatherandsons love story. And, you know, i have a 17yearold she was 13 when we when i got the script and he was fighting with me. Id say black, hed say white. Id say day, hed say night. Id say go to bed, hed say no. When does it stop . When does it stop . You know . And so this it wasnt until we were doing the bus scene that i realized that this was that these soldiers were fighting for freedom and that this was a movie that was not just a fatherandson sorry but a bigger story. And, yeah, it was it was as oprah says, that ahha moment when you realize its not what you thought it was, its something. Happened on thes. That realization. On the bus we were it was hot. It w a rea bus, we had danny niece that scene. Hes flirting with Denzel Washingtons daughter in the scene. And so were on the bus and i yell action and from nowhere comes the klan members and the nazis and the spitings and the terrifying. You were in there, too. The bus is shaking, the bus is shaking and we hear these deafening noises and the sweat and the sheets and the crosses and i yell cut a little too soon, because i was afraid, got nervous. We were nervous on the bus. And i said cut and it wouldnt stop. So im at the window saying cut cut and they wouldnt stop. And i look at danny and i look at ya ya and dave and i know at that moment that this is what these kids went through. And there wasnt nobody around to yell cut. There was a fear and courage. This is whats beautiful about this. The when theyre training with lawson and you see the fear that they have but theyre standing by their dwixs and you see them breaking and being yelled at but they confront their fears because what they stand for is more important and they sit at that counter and its so powerful. I had six of my girls at the screening rose when you say girls you mean i mean my girls from south africa rose who are entering american colleges . Theyre in colleges and they, you know, are not students of their of aman history. They know about t civil rights movemend all that stuff. So last night we were having discussnsabout the training and i was explaining that all of these kids that went on the bus, that that was really real because in order to have the ability to not to fight back and not to just go against your because somebody spits on you theres a visceral reaction that you have that you want to knock that person out now go through the nonviolence training, to take it because we had the conversation this morning with the girls about what would have happened had one of those people hit a white person or spit at them back. Holy cow. Holy cow. I mean, all would have broken loose. It would have been a bloodbath for sure. Thats whats so extraordinary about it. Rose it reminds me of a scene in 42 about Jackie Robinson in which branch ricky is talking to the actor who played Jackie Robinson and he, the actor, says to Harrison Ford who plays branch richie you need somebody here whos tough enough to fight back. And branch ricky says i need somebody whos tough enough not to fight back. And thats the point. Rose that is the point. That is the point. As we watched history go forward where do you think we are in terms of somehow making sure that the battles that are being fought have come to where the end point out to be in terms of black and white and racism in a country . Well, were not at the end point of where were supposed to be but were not supposed to be there. Im going to let you speak toe that because you speak so eloquently to being in a living history. But i just would like to say when you look at the film, the beginning of of the film when the butler is sitting there and reflecting on his life and how he got to be there and theres the lynching memory and then how that film ends full circle, you know, in 2008 and what happened in 2008 in . That is one mans lifetime. I have to say only in this country theres not another country in the world where you would have the span of that much richness and development, i think, in terms of cultures coming together. I think thats pretty extraordinary. Not to say that we dont have a long way to go and lots of other things we need to accomplish racially and otherwise but thats pretty extraordinary that from in the beginning of eugene allens cecils life until 2008 that off black president. From 1926 when the movie opens until 2008, thats extraordinary. Thats pretty extraordinary. Rose its an extraordinary story in terms of you hear this every time in terms of what it meant. Your character gloria is not going to see barack obama elected. Yeah. Rose but you understand how what is seminal moment it is. Do you know that the real gloria, the real mrs. Allen, die it had day before he was elected. She died on november 3 she died november 3. They campaigned for him and she died november 3. Go ahead. Rose ares another great line, just because theres so many good lines, in which eugene allen is being the butler comes to the white house. Hes coming to the white house to meet the president and some young aide says to your character, you gene allen, mr. Gaines in this case ill show you the way. And what does he say . I know the way. laughter yeah, that was a great moment. Its your point about history. Yeah. Were talking about how we achieved it and its still sitting on that promissory note that Martin Luther king talked about, the promissory note of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the note that was promised to all americans for human rights. So this Civil Rights Movement which isnt really a history, its a living history because were still moving in the same shape towards accomplishing what was the initial promise. He talks about that that vault, you know, he refuses to believe that its empty. And that all of us can have the things that we deserve. So we move through this line of living civil rights history which is American History because in order to reach that final goal thats when well truly be americans because that was the promise of the constitution and declaration of independence. That was the promise to all of us and we havent accomplished it. So we see these cycles moving, like the emmitt till side of the film, we see his mother and her response and we move to our world and see that this circle which is going on then is still going on right now all over the country. Have w many different other people and we say how can we break this cycle to move to the next place . So we can finally get to the end which is the Promised Land he talked about. Because he talked about he said i just want to live a few years into the second half of the 20th century. So now were living in the 21st century. Those were martins words. We havent done it yet. Im so disappointed that we havent been able to achieve his promise yet. But thats what were trying to get to and thats where were going. And this film is part of the dialogue to make us all keep talking. Rose as oprah pointed earlier and i think the president said this when he went to selma during the campaign. Hes part of a new generation and my generation stands on the shoulders of those who came before and other generations will come forward to stand on the shoulders of those, like you, who are there today. Rose but what is so important is to know what those shoulders meant and to know that you are standing on the shoulders. I mean. Thats what i think this film rose and to know what it meant for them to have broad shoulders you could stand on. Whats been so exciting to me is during the process of promoting the film we were doing a junket the other day and a young White Reporter said to me a guy in liz late 20s, he said i voted for barack obama because i thought it was the right thing to dos it was a r. A. R. A. Moment. And he says only after seeing this film do i understand how important it was that i voted for barack obama. I said well, thats a reason to do the film. He said i now understand it wasnt a good decision it was the best decision to vote for barack obama. Thats the reason to do the movie when you hear Something Like that. You did brilliant things because you showed different faces of fighting against social injustice. And there are many ways to fight against social injustice. You can do it by whiting a note or whispering in somebodys ear and asking a boss to step aside. Or you can do hit in the arab spring or protest at Trayvon Martin marches, however, but theres many different ways to do it. Correct. And you see all these different places that are so different from each other but all different faces of ways to trying to find social justice and i think thats the message to the youth today and the message to all of us. Rose theres also this. This is a story about the sweep of history but its also this very much of a love story. Its the story of generations. The story of responsibility and its the story and i dont know whether this is true or not this part when you gene allen and your character gets to go to the white house to a state dinner. Thats very true. He was the first butler rose president reagan invited he was the first one to ever be invited to a state dinner. I think that was. Rose and mr. Allen was so happy. Rose what did gloria say . Well, look at her she said finally got to the white house rose im going to see where my man works. Roll tape. Heres the scene. Youre very popular. Everyone says youre the man. I had no idea. I wish i could take credit for that. Id like to invite you to the state dinner next week. Im going to be there serving. Not as a butler, cecil, im inviting you as a guest. But the president prefers for me to serve him personally. Dont you worry about ronnie. Ill take care of that. So well see you next week, you and your wife. My wife . Its gloria, yes . Yes, maam. Oh, thats fantastic rose you two are hugging there. Tell me about it. You know that walk she does, too, she walks away . I love that walk. We practiced that mrs. Reagan walk for quite a bit. And we shot it about six takes just the walk alone. But we worked on creating i didnt want i was in another movie 15 years ago where i had a bedroom scene with danny glover and i just you know, we arrived on the set in the morning and its like good morning, how are you . Then youre climbing into bed. I didnt want that. So i started working on creating some kind of connection laughter first day in the trailer. So i would see rose so that there would be a natural so that there would be a natural intimacy. That wouldnt be good morning forest. What side of the bed are you on . Yes. And so forest, you know, would come in and depending upon what was going on that day with his character sometimes he would be three different ages in one day. Rose thats why the performance its un its extraordinary. And i wouldnt want to bother him. Id see hed already gone in, hes in that space. So i would just go over and rub his shoulder and sometimes id be standing outside the trailer waiting for him to get done. Id say somebody let me know when forest is almost done. Hed be standing there and hed say what are you doing here . And id say i just want to walk with you to the set. And id take his hand. Rose did you know this was happening to you, forvest . laughs it was magical. Sometimes it was timeless just walking hand in hand. It just felt like part of the substory in the film itself and thats why i end the music at the end. Everybody wanted me to end with something patriotic and, you know, its like what i wanted was it was a love story. Many lod with what i end with Dinah Washingtons song that they were in more their making love moment ill close my eyes which is doesnt say this is a civil rights movie or this is a father and son this is a love story. Theres a form where he talks about closing it and he says i love you this way because i dont know any other way of loving you, i love that way when you put your hand on my chest, i put my hand on yours, when i fall asleep, your eyes clothes. Oh, my god. Talk to me. Talk to me, forest laughter i can hear you. laughter charlie kids aint home no more rose so all these kinds of things are happening. What went into deciding and you talked a little bit about that. How to put the right touch on the end as youre going the last you know hes going to leave. He tells the president hes going to leave. The president doesnt want him to leave. And you see the relationship there. Youve got to take youve had all of this in this film. Yeah, it was crazy trying to figure out that end. We kept trying to reedit it and edit it. Danny came into my i have so many opinions because i dont have the right answer. Whats the last thought you want to leave them with . Thats there hope. That theres hope. That theres hope. We knew we had to end up with theres hope. But it was getting there that was troublesome. You know, we have a its part of the editing process. Rose you put together a really Impressive Group of actors here, too. Thank you, charlie. Rose cuba gooding, amazing in this film. Who added such a lightness to the film. Every scene that hes in he lifted a little higher and bricks in a little more light. And elijah, last night, who plays my other son. You know, that kid, every single line i say was adlibbed by him practically. Hes hilarious. Hed get a laugh on every scene. Hed run them by me and id go wait a minute, we have p. G. 13 and we have to make sure they that they work. We had to take out the words. Hes an incredible talent if everything he says is without the script because everything hes said is smart and funny and right on. All the time. All the time, yeah. Kudos to him for that. Rose how did you decide on the end . You just finally said what . That we knew that we had to have hope and i think the thing was that it was all in forests eyes. How are you feeling . What is he feeling . Is he because the way we originally the way he walked down first he was walking up and very thankful. I said no, man. Youre cranky. You got this. I know the way. Rose that was it. I know the way. The first time we heard forest talk about his process of being able to his aging process is like nothing ive ever heard before. You want to share that . Well, it was a process of taking this experience the emotional experiences and placing them in my body and the more they placed the more my body starts to get the weight of these experiences. Thats how i did the aging process. I didnt do it through i mean i had worked once i had worked with the body structure, i worked with this one coach for a day i said okay, im going take the pain of our son being killed and put it here. And im going to take the pain of our son running away here. And my wife being an alcoholic and not being able to control her here. And slowly these things started to change and when that happens even your voice starts to change and you just think of those places inside yourself. By the end each time youre carrying those things. The weight of all those experiences so i would if i broke it down i knew what age i was and what scene i was doing i would be able to just fall into the experience. Rose to go to that point of that experience. Isnt that wonderful . Thats what we feel in film. Th rose and the great part about both of them is that, you know, often and you havent asked that question because everybody does, whats it like to direct oprah . Rose i thought id avoid all the obvious questions . laughter thank you so much thats what makes you you but the great part about both of them is that they are one would think with all the awards this the two of them having v together and the celebrity factor and everything that they come with this thing and they come and they came to serve me. To serve the characters with dignity and they were both i learned a lesson of humility from both of them. Both of them. They were both raw. They were both open. They were both vulnerable. And they both you know, even if they you know, she would have ultimately caved in, but she knew how to trick me. If i want to do something what . Like, for example, i wanted her to do some things, i wanted her to do some things and she wouldnt pull the oprah thing. She she started crying. And i was like. Come on because it meant so much to her and then you have to you get because shes vulnerable. Lee, im not going to let you get away with that. I ended up crying to defend her. I thought it was because of the p. G. 13. I thought no, i was deeply affected by that. Because you were so vulnerable. I was. I so wanted gloria to represent who i had worked on her to be and who i believed her to be for that era and there were just certain things that i felt that woman would not do she would not fbomb her husband when he came home after kennedy was shot. Fought for that. And she would not even though she was flirting warned the neighbors she would not go all the way and i think you wanted to see me rolling around in bed with terence howard. I did laughter . Rose why . Well, why not . Rose why first . Why . Because she was alone, you know what i mean . Shes alone, shes vulnerable. Its terence howard. Why not . Shes drinking. Why not . She would never be able to come back from that. At the end when she says what she says about you being the kind of man my mama would have been proud of we dont care about her anymore because she could not have sex in bed in her husbands bed. I said, lee, theres a crucifix above the bed. The bible is next to the bed table. No you were right. Thank you my favorite words. My favorite words you were right. laughter my favorite three on earth. You were were right. laughter rose forest, tell me the end sum up what you think this in terms of what this experience was like for you. What the experience was like . Of this film, this character, this accomplishment of making this movie. My experience . Not the movie rose yes, you. There were times when i was working on this movie and i was sitting in a chair and i felt like i was in a field of blue. Like just everything was blue. No time, no space, no nothing. And for me thats a feeling i really have unless its a depply spiritual experience. So the experience had that for me. There was a couple times i thought what year am i in . What time, what place . Rose thank you. Its remarkable performance. I fell in love with her the summer of 2011, wasnt it . Uhhuh laughs for me, you know, it was a little different because i was trying to build a network at the same time and i literally was i would do a scene and then have to go and shoot an interview and do a scene have to shoot an interview. Lee would have a joke wheres oprah . Wheres oprah . Where is she . laughter but im so i was so grateful for the words, you know . I remember hearing spielberg many years ago accept an award on the oscars an he was saying everything begins with the words. And, you know, for the script that you wrote, we are so grateful for the words. For the words. So grateful for these amazing performances. And you brought them to life, lee, thank you. Rose soon theyll be saying we cant get lee daniels, can we get Steven Spielberg . laughter steven thats not true laughter rose thank you all and congratulations. Great to see you. The movie is called lee dance yels the butler. It opens on august 16. See you next time. Democracynow. Org 08 20 13 08 20 13 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] from pacifica, this is democracy now there was a heads up provided by the british government. This is something we had an indication was likely to occur, but it is not something we requested. And it is something that was by the britishly law enforcement. As press freedom and human Rights Groups criticized britain for using a terrorism