EXCLUSIVE: Director Barry Alexander Brown Talks his New Film, “Son of the South”
Son of the South was released this past Friday, February 5, and we had the chance to sit down with the film’s director, Barry Alexander Brown to talk about the new movie.
During our chat, Brown talked about how the film came to be, his relationship with Bob Zellner, casting Lucas Till as Zellner, and so much more. You can read our interview below.
On how he came to direct this film? “It was me who originated the idea of making it a movie. I knew Bob [Zellner] a long time ago, back in the ’80s, and we’re both from Alabama, both white and both aggressive, so we got along pretty well. His stories of being in the civil rights movement and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and those early ’60s were just amazing.”
On finding the right story to tell from Zellner’s memoir, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement: “It took me a long time to figure out what part of the story I could make a film out of. Because I’m a filmmaker, is when I hear great stories, how do I incorporate this and make a movie out of it? Finally about 10 years ago, 11 years ago, it hit me on how to do it, and it also gave me the opportunity to say a lot of things about the South I grew up in.”
You can read the rest of our interview below. For those who have seen Son of the South, what did you think of the film? For those who haven’t, go check it out!
On why that part of the story was the story he wanted to tell: “That period of Bob Zellner’s life, the Spring and Summer of 1961, where he was challenged a great deal to figure out what kind of person he is or he was, what kind of man is he? And to his credit, he showed up and really made the tough choices rather than saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is too dangerous. You do anything and all these other people just flip out and want to kill you for doing almost nothing.’ But he didn’t do that. He did just the opposite, which was, ‘This is my people, this is my place, and if I don’t fight this fight to change my own society for the better, who’s going to do it?’
There’s that phrase that was often used at the time and was said to Bob, too: ‘If not me, when who? If not now, when?’ And that’s a simple phrase, but boy, it’s powerful.”
On talking to Zellner about that his memories of that fateful day in McComb: “He told me that he had this conversation in his head where he said, ‘I can’t do this. This is happening too fast. And if I go out there, there’s going to be more violence than normal.’ And he hears himself say that and he says, ‘Wait a second, Bob: Oh, really? A normal level of violence? Now what is a normal level of violence?’ He thinks, This is America; you’re supposed to be able to march, right? I got to march, too, because what kind of person am I if I don’t?’ Then there was that whole aftermath and it got to be quite violent and quite violent for Bob. At which he really did think he was going to die. He thought he was going to die.”
On how they cast Lucas Till as Bob Zellner: “Well, we were trying to cast for a while, and Lucas had come up for me on my radar pretty early on. For some odd reason we didn’t approach him. Then when it came back around to him and we sent him the script, I got on the phone with him and he said something right away that just bowled me over, it touched me. He said, ‘How did this film come to me? How did this script come to me?’ As if he saw and understood that this was a chance of a lifetime. Parts like this don’t come by. They don’t come by. They won’t come by again. The part to play someone like Bob Zellner is not going to come by again, not for any of these actors. And it was a great part and with great dialogue, and you play somebody who’s very human, who is struggling with doing the right thing.
And Lucas, man, finally, Lucas just embodied Bob Zellner. He kind of looks like Bob, which is amazing. And Lucas is from Georgia, so he knows all this stuff. He knows so much of this, what this means to be somebody like Bob. So it was great he did it. I mean I can’t imagine anybody else doing it.”
On why have this movie is coming out at the perfect time? “Maybe there are forces that manipulate things beyond. I wrote this script 11 years ago. I would have liked the film to have been made and come out then. But so be it. It has really finally come out, for me, at the perfect time. I can’t ask for a better time for this film to have come out. And you can just say it’s dumb luck or I have angels around me, guiding my way. I don’t know.”
On how he came in contact with Bob? “It happened because he was going out with a woman in New York City, a cinematographer, Judy Irola, And Judy said one day, ‘You’re from Alabama, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ She says, ‘Well, my new boyfriend’s from Alabama.’ And so then we met and we just liked each other so much right away. We’re both from the same state and we both like telling stories and we’re both on the more liberal side of politics, so there was a comfort right away.
And he would just tell me stories, back in those days of his life and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and it was just amazing. Amazing stories to hear, one after the other. And I knew that there was a movie in there somewhere. Took me another 20 years to figure out what that movie was.”
The interview has been edited for clarity and length*