Exclusive: Emmy Winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II On Playing Bobby Seale In ‘The Trial Of The Chicago 7’
Hitting Netflix on October 16 is Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7, featuring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Oscar-nominee Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Jeremy Strong as as Jerry Rubin, Golden Globe-nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Alex Sharp as Rennie Davis and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton. It will also star Michael Keaton, William Hurt, Thomas Middleditch, John Carroll Lynch, Daniel Flaherty, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, J.C. MacKenzie and Max Adler, who also serves as an executive producer.
Based on a true story, The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.
After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money. The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.
Abdul-Mateen II recently won an Emmy Award for his performance in the limited series “Watchmen.” He played Black Manta in James Wan’s “Aquaman.” He is currently filming the fourth installment in “The Matrix” series and will star in “Candyman,” releasing 2021 and “Furiosa,” the prequel movie based on Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa character from 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales recently spoke with Abdul-Mateen II about his portrayal of Bobby Seale.
