“The Gray House” actors Mary-Louise Parker and Ben Vereen want people to wake up. Especially before the November election.
“I think they aren’t as horrified as they should be. We could potentially have a convicted felon as our President! There is a real lack of alarm,” Parker tells Variety at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival after the premiere of the Civil War series.
“Such ugliness was unleashed in our country by our previous President. It just spread, like some kind of virus. It gave people a sense of agency about their ignorance, their racism. It’s hard.”
“It’s frightening! People are not upset. There is a whole generation of ‘I don’t care,’” adds Vereen.
“There are scenes in this series that look just like the Jan. 6 [Capitol attack], don’t they. All of a sudden, it comes back into focus. You go: ‘Wow. It is happening again, now.’”
Distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution, “The Gray House” – about four women spying for the Union – is exec produced by Morgan Freeman, Lori McCreary, Rod Lake, Howard Kaplan, Leslie Greif and Kevin Costner.
Although it happens eons before Trump, the story feels more urgent than ever, say the actors.
“I think there is a hunger for substance,” observes Parker.
“I can’t believe it has never been told before. It’s so dramatic! To have a story where all the protagonists are taking huge risks on behalf of others… It’s a really good time for that. These women enlist their compassion and their proclivity to care for and rescue others. That’s really beautiful.”
“Weeds” and “Angels in America” star plays Eliza: a mother of real-life socialite-turned-abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew (Daisy Head).
“She tends to recede and wants others to be the center of attention. Her life is about her children. It makes it interesting to depict – probably not that much fun to actually live, though.”
Vereen adds: “That stories like this haven’t been told has to do with our male-dominated society, where women used to be considered as a lower class. Now, we can speak out for equality and we are doing it.”
During the opening ceremony, Vereen compared slavery to the Holocaust. Vereen, an acclaimed dancer and Tony winner, gained prominence thanks to his role on “Roots.”
“It is our Holocaust. You can’t help but look at it this way. Our Jewish brothers and sisters came up with the word, but we have already lived it. We were taken from our homes, tortured, beaten, killed. Then we had a black man as our president in Washington, with a beautiful black woman by his side. That would have never happened had we given in.”
Some of the show’s violent scenes were necessary, he says.
“It was expensive, but it had to be done. Expensive for you to be in that moment. There was one scene that cost me a lot. I had to go back to the hotel and deal with it all night,” he recalls.
“There is a tendency to suppress stories of truth, so that people don’t become enlightened. I am not knocking education, it is very important, but if we would be really enlightened, these things wouldn’t be happening anymore. We would have realized who we are and we would have been treating this human experience a little differently. We don’t. We are captured inside of the consciousness of greed.”
Parker notes: “When you have people making creative decisions who are not creative people, they go: ‘This is going to create money, so let’s just redo this story.’ Ground is not being broken. It’s more about perpetuating a certain type of wealth.”
Still, a lot has changed since her “Weeds” days, she admits.
“A lot of people that wouldn’t have worked on television years ago, work there now. There used to be that stigma. Chris Rock made fun of me at the Golden Globes: ‘Why are you on Showtime? Nobody is watching this show.’ But then I won, so…”
Vereen can’t help but hope the series will “opens up doors” for others as well.
“So many of our ancestors are still screaming in the shadows, waiting for their voices to be heard. This is about people who made this country, so my wish is that there is a curiosity and a willingness to find out how we came to where we are today,” he states.
“It’s time for all these lies to be torn down.”
Source Agencies
