Cuba Gooding Jr & Nate Parker Chat With VIBE About 'Red Tails'

VIBE's Krystal Holmes (@IAmKrystalH) caught up with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Nate Parker to talk about their new epic film, Red Tails. Here Nate reveals the career lessons he's learned from Cuba, they both talk abotu the special effects and why Red Tails is a must see movie.

VIBE's Starrene Rhett (@GangStarrGirl) got some additional time to chat with Nate Parker. Here's what he says about what attracted him to the movie:

There’s a number of things that attraceted me to the film, the first thing was that It’s a film that allowed me to present to the world a group of masculine, unopalogetic Black men whose input in the film determines the outcome of the film. So often Black men in film are emasculated, whether it’s them wearing a dress or whatever the case, because there are so few projects we have to take what’s given and often that comes with compromise, so it’s great to get a project that celebrates masculinity in our community.

And I think that can be used right now in contemporary times to inspire young people to really step up into that position and to encourage them in what decisions they’re making because that can have an impact. And the other thing is that the Tuskegee Airmen were all about excellence. It wasn’t just about, "I have to go and shoot down a plane," it was, "I have to be perfect." To be in the military in a time when they weren’t allowing us to do it and then finally allowing us--a lot of these guys got perfects scores on their tests. Imagine getting a perfect score on your SATs, that’s the equivalent to passing the test where you have to fly a piece of machinery. We got a chance to look at some of the tests they were giving and the scope was just so wide, I was like, how did they even pass?"

And then the other thing was for George Lucas to put 59 million dollars into a historical Black drama and make it an action film is mindblowing, it never happens. This is the first time I’ve known it for a Black historical film to have a pledge this big and for it to be an exciting popcorn film. It talks about the pain but it also talks about the excitement and the ability. These were the rock stars of their generation. It was like they were like flying race cars. Those are the reasons why I really wanted to be a part of it.