Saul Williams, the actor who played the preacher Jedidiah in Sinners, reflected on the experience of being a part of the Ryan Coogler-directed film that won four Oscars Sunday night.
“From the moment I read the script I was deeply moved by Ryan Coogler’s attention to history and detail in his allegorical commentary on the very real bloodsuckers that haunt the American landscape and the arts,” Williams recalled in an Instagram post shared on Sunday (March 15).
“His deep reverence for African American and indigenous cultures bled through the pen,” the 54-year-old actor said of Coogler. “And his love for cinema, his craft, in connection to his disciplined purpose as an artist is exemplary.”
After examining the energy that he felt being on a southern plantation for the first time to his knowledge, Williams turned his attention to the harsh reality of living in the United States, at this moment and from a historical standpoint.
“I am grateful for the experience, proud to have played a part, and mindful of the ways in which our continued existence on stolen land requires us all to dance with the devil of a system that steals our labor, kills our political imagination, and wages war on the resource rich, while the slave-catcher patrols, militias, police, & ICE, continue to enforce the laws of colonial entitlement & white supremacy,” he wrote.
In an interview with Times Union last year, Williams said he “understood the assignment” when it came to the playing Jedidiah, being the son of the founding pastor at the Baptist Temple himself. The actor shared that he took his familiarity with growing up with preachers into account, but refrained from modeling his portrayal after his own father since he was from Brooklyn, a far cry from the Mississippi Delta.
