Exclusive: Hubert Point-Du Jour Talks Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird & Peacock’s Dr. Death
One of the breakout stars of Showtime’s satirical series The Good Lord Bird as it comes to an end on November 15 is Hubert Point-Du Jour, who plays a slave named Bob opposite Ethan Hawke and Joshua Caleb Johnson’s characters.
THE GOOD LORD BIRD, based off the book of the same name, follows Ethan Hawke as the 1850s abolitionist John Brown and the group of freedom fighters in an effort to end slavery. Often serving as the conduit to what’s actually going on with slaves, ‘Bob’ become integral to ‘Brown’ in his endeavors.
Point-Du Jour is a New York based actor who has starred off-Broadway at the highly acclaimed Public Theatre in NYC, before turning to television where he has been seen on tv shows such as Madam Secretary, Blindspot and The Path. Following his run on The Good Lord Bird, he will next be seen on the Peacock series Dr. Death with Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater.
BlackFilmandTV.com caught up with Point-Du Jour as he talked about his role on both shows.
How did this role come about for you?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: This all came about for me from an audition that I got from my team. I responded to the material and got some feedback from the director of episode one, Albert Hughes. He asked me to audition again, but to submit a self tape. I had to tape my myself and send the tape off. I sent in a second tape, and then I was in Virginia, filming the series a little under two weeks later
How would you describe your character?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: Bob is an enslaved man who is removed from bondage by the white abolitionist, John Brown (played by Ethan Hawke) When that happens, he's separated from his family, which includes his wife and two kids. And throughout the series, he's trying to figure out a way of what that the best course of action is. Either go back, find his way back to his family, and risk being caught as a fugitive slave, or head up north with John Brown, gained his freedom and get a job to earn enough money to buy his family's freedom? So those are the two choices that he's torn between throughout the series.
Did you know a lot about John Brown coming into the series?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: I did not know much about John Brown before getting this audition. I had a vague memory of hearing about him at some point. But we definitely didn't do any in depth study of him when I was at school, that's for sure. I was deprived and so I had to do my research. I had to catch up. Within those two weeks before I started filming, I had to do a lot of research. I even continued learning about him after we filmed the show.
Because the show is a satire, do you find yourself having to sell the show to those who may not get the initial premise of the show?
Hubert Point Du-Jour: It has lots of satirical elements to it, no doubt about it. It more than encompasses many different things. That's kudos to James McBride, who the wrote the book that the series is based on. I would say it has satirical elements, but it has very deep dramatic moments also with James McBride's words, and the colorful and complexity that that he brings to his characters. But you've definitely never seen a show from this time period depicted in this particular way.
What goes into saying yes to the projects you take?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: Something in the script has to grab me, and there's no real formula to that. For this particular script, it was the language, the humor, the way that he's using humor in these really difficult situations, in this antebellum era and in America. The fact that he had me laughing as I was reading the script, I really like that. One of the ways that I choose a script is I do like a challenge. How am I going to pull this off? How am I going to pull this character off? How is this project going to work? I like that challenge.
You have another series coming up, Dr. Death. What’s your character on that show?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: I play an OR nurse named Josh Baker, and he ends up joining a team of people to help take down this neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch because the medical system in Texas had failed to remove him. People were coming out of his surgeries with horrible side effects. People were maimed and people died under his care, and he would just go from hospital to hospital. This is all based on a true story. The nurse that I play has joined forces with two other doctors, one played by Alec Baldwin, the other by Christian Slater and we work to try to take this this horrible surgeon taken down.
How does it feel to have two projects that are out around the same time?
Hubert Point-Du Jour: I'm very, very lucky and very fortunate. This is the trajectory I was headed on anyway, as far as focusing less on my stage work and more camera work. It just so happens that now we find ourselves with this pandemic and in this situation, but I'm definitely fortunate to be working on something and having this show.