The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump's Fear-Mongering Oval Office Address & Schumer and Pelosi's Awkward Rebuttal | Barry Jenkins

Episode Date: January 10, 2019

President Trump demonizes migrants in an Oval Office speech, Desi Lydic reacts to Jeff Bezos's divorce announcement, and Barry Jenkins discusses "If Beale Street Could Talk." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. John Stewart here. Unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election, economics, ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. January 9, 2019. From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is the Daily Show everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for being here. I'm Trevor Noah. Our guest tonight, I'm such a big fan of his. He is the writer and director of If Biel Street could talk.

Barry Jenkins is here, everybody. I'm try to get to the guest tonight. Our guest tonight, I'm such a big fan of his. He is the writer and director of If Beal Street could talk. Barry Jenkins is here, everybody. You may remember him, you may remember him from last year's Oscars when he yoyed Lala Land's award out of their hands for his film moonlight. So we'll find out who's Oscar he's going to take away this time. It's going to be fun. But first, let's catch up on today's headlines. The government is shut down, but the Mullah investigation is still going, and yesterday we got a surprise look at where it's headed. A slip up by Paul Manifort's lawyers has revealed new information about his contacts with

a Russian during the Trump campaign. While Paul Manifort was serving as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, the documents revealed that he was in contact with a man by the name of Constantine Kalimnik, an associate U.S. officials believe is linked to Russian intelligence. Now these new details come in a document that was filed by Manifor's lawyers. Some lines were blacked out or redacted, but it turned out because of a clerical error, they could easily be read simply by copying and pasting them into a new document. Oh, wow. Okay. Now, first of all, don't judge. It's hard to edit a PDF.

I don't know if you guys know how to, I don't know how to do it. And second of all, that sure sounds to me like Donald Trump's campaign manager was colluding with Russia. And giving Russians polling data so that they could target American voters would have been vital because you know Russia didn't have much luck with their own polling. It was probably them on the phone like, hello Mr. Williamson, this Steve from glorious polling industry. Who do you want for leaders? Strong Trump or Clinton woman? But the funny part to me is that we found out about this. The only reason we found out is because Manifor's lawyers didn't know how to edit a PDF. That's insane. So Maniford was colluding with the Kremlin

when he should have been colluding with Kingco's. That's what he should have been doing. Moving on to some other news, diamonds, the little stones that we strap on to our fingers. Yeah, kind of weird when you think about it thi that their thin. But thin, thin, thin, thin. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi's thi. thin. thi. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin' to thin. thin. to to to to to the to the the Tiffany will begin revealing the origins of its diamonds to show they are so-called conflict-free. Starting today, the region or country of origin will be displayed alongside a selection of diamond rings. Customers can now store employees for information on all newly sourced stones. First and foremost, what we want to have is to have customers that feel good in buying a Tiffany diamond, not only for its beauty and its value, but also for the transparency of its supply chain.

Yeah, that sounds amazing. I like this guy. Basically his new ad campaign is, shop here. We didn't kill any Africans. I like that. Oh, and this is good news. You know, of course, knowing rich people, I wouldn't be surprised if the new fad is going to be getting the most unethically sourced diamonds. There's going to be some rich lady who's like, oh my god, Ashley, did he buy you a diamond? Like, mm-hmm, it's three carrots and six dead Congolese. Oh my God, he's the one. And you know, it's good that they're doing this for diamonds, but they should should should should it for all products. I think we should try. I mean, diamonds just get the attention because everyone saw blood diamond, right, which

exposed the corrupt exploitation of native laborers and also Leonardo DiCaprio's horrible South African accent. Yeah, like maybe you guys don't remember that, but we Africans will never forget. He was like, we got to go back to those bloody diamonds. Get the bloody diamonds. What are you, a drunk Australian? What are you doing? They should make a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Fars Wittaker's character from Black Panther, and they could just do like bad accents together.

You know all the bloody diamonds and the strength of the Blick. The Blick. What the hell is Blick? Moving on. The blick. I give you the strength of the blick. Pinter! Even Ticelo was like, the what? Moving on. Here's a story that was big news over in the United Kingdom. Are you guys fans of Harry Potter?

Yeah. So, what happened is that author, J.K. Rolling, decided to announce for some random reason that Hogwarts didn't always have bathrooms, and in the old days, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood and vanished the evidence. Really, J.K. wherever they stood? I mean, it's great that you vanished your duke, but first I had to watch you squeeze it out for like eight minutes in the middle of potions class.

I mean, the floor is clean, but my mind is scarred for life. Also, why don't they just make it disappear in their tumies? These are wizards. I don't understand. So yeah, basically, according to J.K. Rolling, Wizards were just shitting everywhere. And that doesn't make Harry Potter more appealing to me, but it does make New York City seem more magical. Yeah. Because I'm like, I passed a wizard on the way to work this morning.

All right, let's move on to our main story. Today is day 19 of the government shutdown. The streets are piling up with trash. Food is going uninspected. And in, and in, and in, and in, their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. th. th. th. thia, th. thia, th. thiol-n. thi. thiol-n. thiol-in. th. th. th. th. thiol-n. th. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to. And, to. And, to. And, to. th. to. to. to. th. to. to. th. to. to. too. too. too. too. toooo. too toe. toe. too too too too t t t today. t today. tash. Food is going uninspected and in the capital they're being forced to use both sides of the toilet paper. The Washington Monument is even walking the streets just to make ends meet. And at 19 days, we're only two days away from this becoming the longest shutdown in American history, which I think Trump is secretly going for. He's like, that's right, folks, mine is the longest. So today at the White House, the president met with congressional leaders to try and negotiate an end to the shutdown. And Trump shut that down too.

Unfortunately, the president just got up and walked out. He asked Speaker Pelosi, will you agree to my wall? She said no. And he just got up and said then we have nothing to discuss and he just walked down. This was what President Trump had to say about it. He said, quote, just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy a total waste of time. I asked, are you going to improve border security, which includes a wall or steel barrier? Nancy said no. I said bye-bye.

I said bye-bye, nothing else works. Bye-bye. Say what you want about Trump. Some of the things that he does are pretty badass, right? Because that's always been a dream of mine. I'm not going to lie. I've always dreamed of walking into a meeting, me like, are you guys going to give me what I want? No? Well, then this meeting's over. Bye-bye. Just like, walk out. I'm out.

Yeah. Oh, sorry, wait. Who validates parking? Who, uh, you, yeah, because it's like $2. I've got a 10, I don't want to break it. Yeah. Now, if you are disappointed about this breakdown in talks, then you must have been really disappointed went on television for his very first oval office address in prime time. All day, everyone was speculating. Was he going to declare a state of emergency?

Was he going to reopen the government? Was he pregnant? And Mexico was the father? But when 9 o'clock rolled around, all we got from Trump was basically another immigration stump speech. And like not even one of these fun ones, you know, where he like jerks off an imaginary giant or whatever he's doing. Instead, we just, we just got a low-energy jeb version of Trump.

My fellow Americans, tonight I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. All Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only because Democrats will not fund border security. This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul. Soul. Crisis of the soul. You know Trump had to practice that word hard, because he's never said it before, right?

He was probably reading a draft of the speech like, a crisis of the soul. Saul? Did you guys just make up this word? I love it. Give me more nonsense words like this. I love it. So, Shaool. And look, for all the hype, the speech wasn't even that long. It was only 10 minutes, and eight minutes of it was just Trump sniffing.

This barrier is absolutely critical to border security. That defends our borders and reopens the government. Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. You're slipping so much. It sounds like he's trying to get all the drugs off the street himself. I'll get rid of them. Bring them to me. But even in that short 10 minutes, President Trump managed to pack in a lot of scaring the shit out of people about illegal immigrants. Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs. Meth, heroin, cocaine. More Americans will die from drugs this year.

Sex crimes, violent killings. Murdered, raped, beaten, beheading, dismembering, blood, blood. Good Lord. So much violence. This thing was on TV at 9 p.m. This didn't belong on network. This was an HBO speech. They should have put up one of those content warnings first so you could get the kids out of the room, you know? And now, to be fair, some of you can read, I like that. Now, to be fair, Trump isn't making up these crimes, right? Let's be honest.

The sad truth is, some illegal immigrants have done very bad things. But if you only listen to Trump, you'd get the impression that everyone is crossing the border just to come and murder Americans, and we know that that's not true. You could just as easily pick stories to make immigrants look flawless. I can show you a headline about an illegal immigrant who saved someone's life. True story.

And I can show you another story of an undocumented owner who went on to create jobs for Americans. True story. Or an illegal immigrant who even went on to become the first lady of the United States. Oh I'm sorry I misspoke. I meant an immigrant who maybe didn't have the right papers at the time she was working in this country at the time. But as a nation, America said we can't let those cheekbones get away. We need those cheekbones so America can be best! And she stayed. And Democrats knew that Trump would spend his whole speech fear-mongering, which is why they demanded equal time after his speech to give their counter-argument.

And right away, in classic Democrat style, it was well-intentioned, but real awkward. Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American. Okay, okay, stop. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, what the hell is this, guys? Why are you sharing one podium? God damn it, you guys really are socialists? What are you doing? Also, why you look so grouchy? What is this?

It looks like the hostess at Ihop just told them there's no senior discount. And look, I'll be I their their their their their their the host, look, look, I'll the host, I'll the host, I'll thi I'll thi I'll thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thus, tho, tho, tho, thi, the host, tho, tho, tho, tho, what tho, what tho, what tho, what tho, what their, what their, what their, what tho, what, what thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan with you, I'm not going to waste your time. You don't even really need to listen to the democratic response because for them it was also the same things that they've been saying the whole time. Immigrants are good, walls are bad, emogees are problematic, it was all the same stuff. So the truth is, we didn't learn anything yesterday except that America needs funding for that that that that that what we do know. That's what we do know. And right now it looks like the shutdown could go on for a very long time. Because both sides feel like they have a mandate from voters. All right? Trump could say that he won the presidency promising a border wall, so he has a duty to build

that wall. But on the other hand, he also promised that Mexico would pay for it. The Democrats could say that they just won the midterms in a landslide and they ran against the wall so they have an obligation to stop it. But the one thing everyone should be able to agree on is that none of this should shut the government down. This is politics, this is what what you what you thiii what you thi what you th – th – th – th – thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus is thus is thus is the thus is thus is the thi, thi, their is the is the, the, the, their is their is their is the the the is the the the the the the their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is their is the their is the their their their their their their the, the, the.. thean. thean. thean. true. true. thean. true. thean thean. thean. thean. thean. the supposed to be discussing. It's your job. And it's also disingenuous for President Trump to try and blame the shutdown on the Democrats, especially after saying this. I am proud to shut down the government for border security.

I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it. Unless it goes bad, then I'm blaming you guys. Bye-bye. And the frustrating thing is that illegal immigration is a nuanced complex issue. That's something I feel like we've completely lost now as people. It involves asylum seekers. It involves visa overstayers, DACA kids, the dreamers. So much more.

It's not an easy issue. But because of Trump, no one is talking about that anymore. The whole debate is just devolved into wall or no wall, like cave-man Congress. And if there's one thing we know, it's that nothing will stop immigrants from trying to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, is.s, is.s.s.s.s, is not. they. they. they. they. they. they. they, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the stop immigrants from trying to come to America. This is a place the people's dream of coming to, because people who are trying to make a better, safer life for their families will do anything to achieve that dream. And I know Donald Trump understands this, because of this video we found from 15 years ago. Never, ever give up. Don't allow it to happen. If there's a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over, go around it, but get to the other side of that board.

We'll be right back. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient-to-bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to the Daily Show. Let's take a moment to get into business and talk about Amazon. They're the reason you were able to do all of your holiday shopping without wearing pants.

That shit doesn't fly at best by. Trust me, I've tried. And now, Amazon is finding new ways to keep you coming back. Amazon is sending shoppers free samples curated to their taste as part of the company's push into advertising. Axios reporting, products free of charge that you may like are going to show up on your doorstep, and it's all based on your purchase history on the website. Okay. I like the idea, but how's Amazon going to send you a sample of something? I mean, I get how that would work with like food or shampoo,

but Amazon sells everything? I'm going to send you like half a TV? The handle of a coffee mug? Just the tip of a dildo. You're like, if you enjoy this sample, you'll love the shaft. But free samples aren't the biggest story about Amazon today. Because just this morning, Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO and the winner of capitalism, announced that he and his wife Mackenzie are getting divorced. This is a huge deal.

Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, and under Washington state law, he has to split everything he's earned during their marriage, 50-50. McKenzie Bezos will get $66 billion. Yeah. This is the biggest transfer of wealth since Warren Buffett left his debit card in a McDonald's drive-thru. 66 billion dollars. I can't imagine having that much money, let alone losing that much money. Yeah, and you're really rich, Trevor.

I mean, there was a whole week where you just paid us to speak for you. But look, Jeff Bezos will be fine. Don't worry about Jeff Bezos, okay? He'll be fine. He's still going to have $66 billion. I mean, he's not going to be one of those divorced dads eating spaghettios over the sink of his studio apartment. He'll be eating spigettios over the Mediterranean from the third story of his yacht.

Oh, which reminds me, this story is brought to you by Spaghettios. Spaghettios. Divorce is hard, but so is boiling pasta. Actually, Desi, some of us like spaghettios for the flavor and the shapes, you know, but whatever. So, you think this divorce settlement is fair? Oh, yeah, no, definitely. A marriage is a partnership. McKenzie Bezos spent 25 years helping her husband grow his business and grow his swagger. I mean, look at that.

He went from pleaded pants salesman to jacked up arms dealer, am I right? Yeah, it's totally fair. Look, but that chapter is now closed, okay? It's over now. And this next phase is crucial. You have a wealthy person navigating a painful time in their lives, unsure about what to do next. And here's where I cannot stress this enough. It is so important to get married again right away. Find someone someone blonde who will take care of you, you know, like a, like a city

gal who also feels at home on your private island. Someone who will divorce my husband at the drop of a house. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, Desi, come on, this this is weird. What? Because it's come on the show to pitch yourself as a spouse for Jeff Bezos. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. to tha. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. Like, th. Like, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, too, th whoa. What? No, how dare you, Trevor? No, I am pitching myself as a spouse for McKenzie Bezos. Look, yeah. This woman is beautiful. She's an accomplished author. She studied under Tony Morrison at Princeton.

And now she's worth $66 billion. Oh, is she? Right, yes. No, yes, now she is worth 66 billion dollars. I mean, you said she's a whole package. Mackenzie, call me. I can be on a plane tomorrow, or today if you use prime. The future Mrs. McKenzie Leibbert, everyone. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the Daily Show. My guest tonight is an Academy Award-winning writer, producer, and director, whose latest film is the critically acclaimed if Beal Street could talk. Please welcome, Barry Jenkins. Welcome back to the show. Thank you very much. Congratulations on the film, first of all. You know, just last night you received an award.

I mean, the film has been nominated for everything from Golden Gloves to Academy Awards. Regina won that amazing Golden Globe for her performance. Let's start at the beginning. If Biel Street could talk based on a James Baldwin novel, that is not an easy thing to achieve to turn not just a novel but a James Baldwin book into a film. Where did you even start? Yeah, you know I started without the rights of the novel. I'll say that up front. I just went to Europe and decided I would adapt it and not thinn't to the the the, to, to, to, to, the, to, the, to, the, to, the, the, I, the, I, I, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, they.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e. their, they.e. they. they.. I just went to Europe and decided I would adapt it and not thinking, oh I have to get permission from someone. This is a published text. It's like, I'm just going to do it. And so I did it and came back and realized, oh, and now you have to actually legally be able to do this. But for me, Mr. Baldwin had many voices, he spoke in the other one just as passionate about systemic injustice.

In this book, there's this relationship between this young couple, Tish and Fani, and I felt like that was just the best vehicle to blend his systemic injustice. All these things he said about American society, and the things that bond us and bind us in living in this country, they were just fused in the story of these two kids. Right, and many people may know James Baldwin, you know, obviously he's been brought up in conversations around Tanahasi Coates, people may know his essays, but not many people are familiar with him as a novelist. And this story was really interesting because, as you said, it's a story about Tish and Fani. It's a love story, but it's a love story that is taking place in a time in America, which is familiar to some today but was really more intense before, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, and, is, is, is, is a, is a the, and, is a the............................................. to.. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the. the. the. the. to. to familiar to some today, but it was really more intense before when you really could not be a black person living free in the United States.

Yeah, you know, we talk about like aggressions, micro-aggressions, and I think that you have to think of this period the early 1970s, it's a period where, you know, black people have now arrived. So where rights movement has sort of come and everything is great and Vietnam is happening. And there was almost like, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thri, thri, thri, tha, thiiiiiiiiii, thiiiiiii, thi, th clap-back, where it's like, okay, now you have these rights, but now we want to show you just how we can still enact all these aggressions. And I think this young man in this book, Farnie gets caught up in the system that it's very easily manipulated.

And that system is, I won't spoil anything in the movie for you, happens very early on is we learn that Farnie has been accused of raping a woman, right? And the story takes place in Harlem and the Bronx and he's been accused of raping a woman and he has an alibi, but his alibi is are worthless because they are black people unfortunately. And you're seeing how the story plays out, but what's interesting to me in the story is you have characters who are his family, who feel for the woman who has accused him of rape, when you're writing that and when you're creating that, why is it so important to have that moment where you have people whose lives are being destroyed because of somebody else's

accusation and yet they are still sympathetic to the woman's cause. Because in the movie there's a powerful scene where one of them says, do you think she was even raped? And the woman, her friend, Tishishishishishishishishishishishishishishishishishishish.... Shish. She's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the, th. th. th. th. the, th. the, to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the, the, the, the was even raped and the woman, her friend turns, Tisha's sister turns to her and says, sister, don't ever say that. I know what women go through, she's not lying, but I know Farnie didn't do it. Was that difficult to create and why was it important? You know it wasn't difficult to create. I think it's know, the book is about trauma in a certain way and I think these things we're going through in America right now are also about trauma, you know, talking about it, acknowledging it, and then creating the tools to deal with it. And so I think in this book you have all these human beings because this James Baldwin who havety's not falsely accused of anything. These two people have never met. He's

been placed in a police lineup by a cop who you see has a vendetta against him. Right. And the system is so easily manipulated that all it takes is for this cop to say this person was here and now you're trapped. Right. You're caught up in the system. And what I loved about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about a the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the police. . you know, I'm not a woman, James Baldwin is not a woman, and so I have to check my directorial ego and trust Regina King, Kiki Lane, Angelou Ellis, Tiana Paris, Emily Rios, all these women, and there was a point where I was like, can we really deal with this stuff,

you know, can we really touch all this very sensitive tissue, all these grenades, all these grenades, all of a woman, th.......... the, the, th. th. th. th. thin, the, the, thin, thin, the, the, the, thin, thin, the, the, the, the, the, the, and then, and then, and then, and then, throwne, and then, and then, and I. the, and I's, and I's, you. tha, thea, thea, thea, thea, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, is.... tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. the. the. thea, thea. t thea. thea. t thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. the woman, they all said, we have to acknowledge this. If we don't acknowledge this woman's trauma, that is more of a trigger than trying to remove the trigger from the narrative. And I think when you process it that way, you can very clearly see, so long as we're treating everyone as a human being, acknowledging, acknowledging everyone's trauma, What was interesting about the movie as well is that I've seen many movies that tell the story about black people's pain or suffering.

What I haven't seen a lot of is stories where you are experiencing black people living life as a combination of pain, suffering, joy, you know, love, passion, all of these things are taking place simultaneously. You know, a lot of the time it feels like it comes with the filmmaker, but do you think that it makes a difference in who is telling a story as to how they see the story to be told? I think it does, you know, this is a very simple story. And I think we've seen a version of the th a character like Fonny is dehumanized, and in the wrong hands, that's the version that ends up reaching the audience. I think in the hands of James Baldwin and these wonderful actors,

and I guess ultimately myself, the humanization of these characters comes part and parcel. So you're right, there is joy, there is love. You know, there is birth, to me, that was a part of like really sort of endeavoring to bring James Baldwin to the screen. He's a very interior writer. It's all about the interior life of the characters. Yes. But what I love about working with people like yourself, you're a wonderful actor as well is you can take all that interior language, you know, what him mean, why you of his character on the ordeal of Kalif Browder, and I'm sure your audience knows exactly what Kalif Browder is.

And you can see in these two hours, just this whole world of possibility, that is unfortunately being corrupted, coroaded by the system. One thing that's just beautiful in the way you've shot it. Congratulations. The acting is phenomenal. The storytelling is beautiful and different. You know, we live in different times and in different periods. It's not just linear.

But what I really found fascinating and different was that there was no bad guy. Right. It really was a story about a system that has been created and we are all living in and experiencing at different levels. That seemed like a very conscious choice because it was, these families were experiencing the system and it wasn't like, there's the bad man, let's get him and then the story is saved. Yeah, you know, we've been telling stories, cinematically at least for about a hundred years, and somehow some way over the last 20, 30 years, the format of those stories have been reducing, have been shrinking. You know, there are good guys and bad guys and that's it.

I think you have it that way is really easy to stand outside the story and go, okay, I'm with the good people and those are the bad people, so this problem is not mine. I think when there's no bad person, you know, when everyone is very gray and the system, then it comes from the screen and it goes into your life. You can understand how when I go to the ballot box, I am now empowering the system. Even though I think I'm not participating in it, I definitely am. And James Baldwin published this in 1974. He knew all about systems. It's why the story is still so relevant to today.

It's an amazing story. Congratulations again. Good luck for the Oscar. If Bills Street Talk is now in Select Theatres Nationwide and opens everywhere January 18th, you really want to watch this movie. Barry Jenkins, everybody. Noah, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. John Stewart here.

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