More than 50 years into his career, Glynn Turman appreciates evolution of film, TV – Akron Beacon Journal

George M. Thomas|Akron Beacon Journal

'Ma Rainey' actor Glynn Turman looks for the dignity in his portrayals

Actor Glynn Turman talks about appearing in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and working with the late Chadwick Boseman.

George M. Thomas, Akron Beacon Journal

Ma Rainey a captivating character study. xxxD

Some may not know the name, but its a guarantee they know actor Glynn Turmans face due to a career thats spanned more than 50 years on stage, television and movie screens.

Turman, whose film career dates back to 1971, has lived and acted long enough to see the television and film industries evolve to the point where Netflix the streaming service that releases his latest piece of work, Ma Raineys Black Bottom recognizes the importance of Black voices and stories and has turned one of playwright August Wilsons seminal works into a captivating character study debuting Friday. Its already had a limited run in theaters.

He sees the difference from the days when he found a leading role in the Blaxploitation horror flick J.Ds Revenge, a film about ghostly possession.

J.D. Walker, the boss talker, the water walker, he said smiling when asked about that juncture in his career.

Black actors have walked a significant path since those days, and hes relishing the progress.

I'm very impressed with all the work that we're doing as the young people are getting behind the scenes, he said. As show runners, as writers, as directors, as producers, as people with content that they bring to the networks, in positions as part of the networks. That was what the fight was back then in the days that we're talking about.

Turman understood back then the power was held behind the scenes.

That's what we were wanting. We had enough in front of the camera. We had enough actors and actresses, but we didn't have anyone who could control the narrative, he said. And [controlling] the narrativeis when you make the impression and the depth and change the face of the world, the way that the world looks at you.

Controlling that narrative allows stories such as Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins, and Selma, helmed by Ava DuVernay, to see the inside of screen. A service such as Netflix, which has demonstrated a commitment to working with Black creatives, continues the evolution with the release of Ma Rainey, which is directed by George C. Wolfe.

Set on a hot summer day in a Chicago recording studio before eventual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum inductee Ma Rainey (played by Viola Davis) conquers the recording medium, it explores the social and economic plight of Rainey and her band Levee (Chadwick Boseman), Cutler (Colman Domingo), Slow Drag (Michael Potts) and Toledo (Turman) in the 1920s.

Toledo, a worldly, wise, dignified and intelligentpiano player, represents the kind of character that embodies much of Turmans work, be it the Army colonel in The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World or Doctor Senator, the consigliere of a Black organized crime family in 1950s Kansas City in the most recent iteration of the TV series Fargo.

Many of his portrayals represent complicated characters who have much more than initially can be seen percolating beneath the surface. Such was the case for Doctor Senator, a career criminal who possessed all the character traits previously mentioned. Its a role Turman was drawn to because of his fondness for Fargo the film and its sensibilities that permeate four seasons of the series.

I look for the positive in him and the dignity in him, the thing that makes him accessible, he said. And I find that those qualities are inherent in most people to some degree. And I try to find that degree to which that is believable, in this particular character that I'm playing.

Ma Rainey came to him after Denzel Washington, who is in the process of producing 10 August Wilson works for the screen the first having been Fences, which won Davis an Oscar in 2017 for best supporting actress saw him in a play at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Washington told him to stand by and stay ready.

The result: another complex character and nuanced performance in Ma Rainey. Part peacemaker, part wise man, yet not willing to take anyones guff, Toledo tries to counsel Bosemans Levee, a young, headstrong know-it-all who is just looking to find his place in America, but doesnt understand the forces the overt bigotry and racism that hes working against. Some of the films best moments feature Boseman, who tragically died recently after an undisclosed battle with colon cancer, squaring off against Colman and Toledo.

Wolfe winds the tension up in those moments, but he takes Wilsons narrative and does so with its broader themes in mind. There exist different ways to interpret Ma Rainey and Wilsons words, including seeing it as a rumination on the issues that still haunt the Black community. Turman sees it as an exploration of religiosity in the community.

I think for me, what all this has done, is taking all of those characters and taking a point of view, an issue of faith and belief. In other words, Colman, God is everything to Colman's character, Turman said. He believes, he's a believer in his God, Don't you curse my God. He's willing to go to battle for that to me. On Chadwick's character, Levee's character, he curses God, as a result of his experience with him. He doubts God. He curses him and tells God, "I don't give a s--t about you.

Given the role religion has played in the Black community since slavery, the scene can be viewed as controversial and incendiary, but it also produces one of the most powerful scenes likely put on film in the past year as Levees monologue directed at God features a transcendent moment by Boseman thats made all the more poignant and tragic given what was learned after the film wrapped.

That scene, when he was doing that, he had a block that he wasn't able to really go past as an actor. He was having , Turman said looking for the words. Whatever. I don't know what was in his head, but it may have had to do with where he was at personally as well.

He gave Domingo credit for helping get Boseman to a place where he could release what felt like every ounce of his soul.

And Colman would not let him off the hook. Colman, even by going off script, encouraged him to, with a grit meters type of conviction, to go on. Keep going. Don't stop. What is it you're trying to say? And he's literally saying this to Chadwick, as Chadwick was struggling with it, he said. And he said, No, don't you yell, Cut. Don't you yell cut. Don't yell cut.Keep the cameras on. Keep the cameras rolling. What? What is it? And then Chadwick went through that scene and took it to that great place that it went. And we were all in shock and in awe and everything.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal. Reach him at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

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More than 50 years into his career, Glynn Turman appreciates evolution of film, TV - Akron Beacon Journal