Writer, producer, and filmmaker Salim Akil has, alongside his wife and creative partner Mara Brock Akil, a long and established track record when it comes to delivering quality television that explores the contemporary African American experience. That includes the likes of Soul Food and Girlfriends as well as The Game and Being Mary Jane.
But Akil admits that even he was thunderstruck at how well the superhero format -- a genre he only just entered -- suited the kinds of stories he?d been itching to tell about justice, responsibility, and cultural conflict. The result is Black Lightning, The CW?s latest television entry in the world of DC, and a shockingly distinct take on vigilantism and standing up to protect the victimized, as he revealed in conversation with ComicBook.com.
ComicBook.com: This feels really really fresh, because we've had so many superhero shows in a few years, yet it suits the CW brand, it suits the Berlantiverse aesthetic. So tell me about your way into it creatively ? what you saw in Black Lightning that you thought you could bring your sensibility too but also stay true to sort of the spirit of superhero shows.
Salim Akil: It's interesting because what I saw in it was myself. What I saw in Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, even the villains, are aspects of myself. I knew that I could talk about these different men with a sense of fairness. So to be able to bring a character to life that was a father, had an ex-wife, two daughters, was a principal, it's very layered immediately. As a writer and an artist, you're immediately like, "I can say a lot with this." That's really what made me want to jump right into the character and create.
Black Lightning hasn't had as consistent a publishing history as characters like Superman or Spider-Man or even Black Panther, but you could get little pockets to check out and pull from it. Tell me about the experience of digging through those comics and seeing what resonated with you today, from the ?70s, from the ?90s, from the 2000s.
The consistent theme was that Jefferson Pierce was a man of the people. That was a consistent thing. I try not to dig too deep into the comics. I had a couple of conversations with Tony Isabella, which was valuable for me. I think more people should talk to him about the character as well, but after talking to Tony and sort of getting the nod to just do what I wanted to do, that's what I did.
I didn't reference. My writers did. They did a whole lot of research, but I sort of wanted to write it from my point of view. That's what you see. Just writing it from my point of view. I wish I could be one of those writers like, "I did. I read every fucking book that they ever printed. Then they gave me archives of stuff they didn't print." But I just sort of took it from my experience.
Tell me about that discovery of Cress, and how good he was going to be in this role. He really fills up this role.
I just give that credit to my wife. She saw it before I did. When he came into the room, I just was like, "He's the better part of me. He's going to represent this character in a way that his voice, his carriage, his demeanor." Cress is a good guy. He's just one of those really good men. Someone that you want to respect you. That kind of thing. So that all came through in his read ? and I know that sounds crazy, but it did! It all came through in his read. So it was, like, boom!
What I love about the character is that without the costume, he's still doing his best to do as much good in the world as he can. The costume gives him the sort of leeway to do the things that he's not supposed to be doing. Tell me how that resonated with you, because he clearly as Black Lightning has a degree of frustration and anger, quite often.
Yeah. I guess would you call it a conundrum? When you're given a certain amount of power ? like, you're a writer and an employed writer and you put pen to paper and people are going to read what you write. That's power. So if you have that power, you really do have to assess that moment, "How do I use it? How do I use this thing that I know people are going to read what I write. How do I use it?"
17-01-2018 - Vidéo