During his address, Hollywood director Lee Daniels gave his audience some advice.
“You’re never going to please everyone,” Daniels told a crowd of about 100 at the Nasher Museum of Art Wednesday. “So you might as well tell the truth.”
In an event inaugurating its year-long series of lectures, Duke’s Center for African and African American Research hosted the critically acclaimed producer and director to speak on his life and work. Daniels, who directed this year’s Oscar-winning film “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” spoke to an audience of faculty as well as student actors, directors and screenplay writers.
In his remarks, which lasted about an hour and a half, Daniels stressed the importance of making movies that illuminate issues people sometimes find uncomfortable. “Precious” is about a young black woman who struggles to finish high school while raising two children after being raped and impregnated by her father.
“The main purpose of my films is to make sure you never walk down the street and not see [Precious] again,” Daniels said.
The center’s goal in inviting Daniels, who often makes movies that center on controversial racial issues, was to foster discussion about racial topics among a wider community, said J. Lorand Matory, a professor of African and African American Studies.
“There is a long history of pushing for more exaggerated images of the respectable black American,” Matory said. “But Daniels recognizes in his films that now it is time to be purely honest.”
Before he made movies, Daniels got his start in Hollywood when he accepted a job from Warner Bros. as the head of minority talent.
“I was sitting there with a pen in my hand really doing nothing—but getting paid great money at the same time,” he said of his 10-year career as a talent management agent.
A student in the audience asked Daniels how he became interested in the taboo subjects his films depict. He said his own experiences as a black man have given him an acute awareness of the problems faced by many black Americans.
“I felt the need to do something to give a voice to the voiceless or a face to the faceless,” he said.
Daniels added that he was able to use the connections he made during his time at Warner Bros. to create films that drew from existing scripts that had been deemed too inflammatory to be transferred to the big screen.
After he showed students a series of clips from his major films, which include “Monster’s Ball,” “The Woodsman,” “Shadowboxer” and “Tennessee,” in addition to “Precious,” many of them asked questions about his creative process.
When asked how he chose his actors, Daniels smiled.
“You have to trust the actor first,” he said. “You have to really know that this person is right for this role and then they have to understand your head. There is no rehearsal process… I don’t believe in rehearsing anything. I believe in being in the moment. I believe in spontaneity. If you hired the right actor, they’ll give it to you in the first take.”
After the last clip from “Precious” moved several in the crowd to tears, a student asked Daniels how he is able to portray truthfully people like Precious without solidifying the existing negative stereotypes surrounding them. Daniels was unapologetic.
“I think art prevails; I think I have to speak my truth,” he said. “It may not be your truth, but I have to say it.”
The director finished his remarks by urging any aspiring filmmakers in the crowd to pursue their artistic goals regardless of financial limitations.
“Pick up your iPhone or $2 camera and just shoot,” he said. “Speak from your heart and show them your thing.”
Emily LaDue, an instructor for the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image who also produces her own films, said Daniels’ remarks resonated with her.
“I think that listening to artists speak about their work is really important as an artist.... [Hearing] stories of how they started and where they ended up... is uplifting and keeps you going when times are hard.”
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