The Trial of the Chicago 7

Mm-hmm.

You've written stories that use our politics and institutions as a backdrop so many times, The West Wing, The American President, Charlie Wilson's War, The Newsroom, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and some might add The Social Network and your new film, The Social Reckoning, to that, and we're gonna talk about that in a minute.

How do you view your role in, in that equation?

It's not a political agenda.

Hmm

... uh, and in some cases about people who are still alive.

The Trial of the Chicago 7, for example.

Chicago 7.

You know, I don't, it'd be difficult to do that with two, but hopefully, you know, I would, I would set out, um, I would start off with the get-down, because I get to show a lot of that, and there's a certain flash and flair that I get to share with that, and I haven't had that type of fun in a very long time.

Oh, you know, I don't know if two will be able to do it, but I'm going to try to do it in two, because as I'm talking about the get-down and Cadillac, you know, Simon Williams in Wonder Man is also one that... he's like the new version of cadillac because he sort of reminds hopefully reminds people that well that there's a sort of different flavor that i could cook with as an actor as an actor as well so you know that was they both sort of fall into the same type of flair category and then i would i would i would selfishly i would like for anybody to have checked out um If I can't say by any means, I would check out the trial of the Chicago 7 because that was some personal work that I was really, really proud of.

So that's what I would say.

I think I managed to name two, but I also managed to sneak in four.

He was good in...

Child of Chicago 7 he was alright in.

He's good in Chicago 7.

But that's it.

He decided to pivot out of that kind of comedy and move into more serious roles and then has literally just panicked and fallen back on...

Not bad.

And then more recently, we've got The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Now, that has a big chunk of that in a courtroom.

I mean, that is mostly courtroom.

Four of his films were nominated for Best Picture.

Toy Story 3, Birdman, Spotlight, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

He was considered for Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop.

Okay.

Abdul-Mateen grew up in both New Orleans and Oakland, studied architecture at UC Berkeley, and worked as a city planner until a layoff sent him to the Yale School of Drama.

He booked his first major role in 2015, nearing 30, and since then he's performed on Broadway in Top Dog/Underdog, been cast as Black Manta in Aquaman, Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7, the lead in Candyman, and won an Emmy for playing Dr. Manhattan in HBO's Watchmen.

Wonder Man made him the lead in his very own Marvel series, and then two weeks after his Emmy nomination, Disney canceled the show a few months after a second season had already been announced.

And Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, welcome to Fresh Air.

He's nominated for an Emmy for his lead role in Wonder Man, a Marvel comedy about a struggling actor who's hiding the secret that he has real superpowers.

Abdul-Mateen II grew up between New Orleans and Oakland, the youngest of six, studied architecture at UC Berkeley, and worked as a city planner in San Francisco until a layoff sent him to the Yale School of Drama.

Since then, he starred in several television productions, which include starring as Black Manta in Aquaman and Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7.

He won an Emmy for playing Dr. Manhattan in HBO's Watchmen and earned a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut in Topdog/Underdog.

You've seen Mark Wahlberg in the Transformers series and The Departed.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II starred in The Matrix, Resurrections, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Now they are playing an unlikely pair in the new crime drama By Any Means.

Abdul Mateen plays FBI agent Wayne Strider, who teams up with mob hitman and FBI informant Greg Scarborough, played by Wahlberg.

Oh, heavens, yes.

Number four, I'm not proud of it, but this is where I rank The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Aaron Sorkin's take on how six organizers at the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest and one Black Panther in the wrong part of Chicago at the wrong time got railroaded by a bad judge trying to make a point.

A stellar cast, including but not limited to