Exclusive: Trai Byers Talks Co-Writing and Starring In Oscar Winner Kevin Willmott’s The 24th
Coming out this week from Vertical Entertainment is Oscar-winner Kevin Willmott’s The 24th starring Trai Byers, Bashir Salahuddin, and Aja Naomi King. Also cast in the film are Mo McRae, Tosin Morohunfola, Mykelti Williamson and Thomas Haden Church.
The film is produced, co-written, directed by Kevin Willmott (co-writer of The BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods). The film is produced by Jordan Fudge, Alexandra Milchan, Kevin Willmott and Trai Byers.
The story is based on the Houston riot of 1917 during the Great War in which 156 soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment rioted after disagreements with the Houston Police Department. It took place over a single night and resulted in the deaths of four soldiers and 16 civilians. The rioting soldiers were tried at three courts-martial for mutiny. Nineteen were executed, and 41 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
For Byers, who’s best known for playing Andre Lyon in the Fox series Empire, this is his first big screen leading role. He’s also the co-writer of the film.
BlackFilmandTV.com recently spoke Byers on his involvement with the film and whether or not, Empire will return to really finish up its series.
How did this project come about for you?
Trai Byers: Well, Kevin actually showed me this script a while ago. Kevin was my teacher, my screenwriting teacher in undergrad, and this is years ago. I'm not that old, but anyway, he showed me the script when I was in my first year at grad school, Yale School of Drama, and told me that there was a part that he wanted me to play one day. Ultimately, I got out of school, I was working, and we started working together on certain ideas. We wrote another script together and he brought it back up basically said he wanted to do a rewrite and if I was interested in helping. So I joined in.
What was the challenge for you? Was this first time putting together a script for this as opposed to just acting in a movie?
Trai Byers: No, as I mentioned before, we had written another script before but I was interested in writing for a long time. I took a screenwriting class in undergrad and I wrote shorts and feature lengths for myself, but nothing that obviously has been made. I've been working with him on a few others independent projects and we just clicked. We had a good relationship as far as artistic endeavors and we wrote something else that was really good and shopped it around. It’s still on the back burner, but this was something that we just wanted to do while we have the time and while we were together, so it wasn't necessarily new for me. The story was new but not the process.
How much time went into the research of trying to get this story right for the screen?
Trai Byers: Kevin was working on this thing for 20 years and brought me on board. It's been a couple of years in the process. We had to rewrite, and while we were shopping, you're going to continue to rewrite the theme and deepen the story. We got as much information as we could from various sources. It's inspired by a true story but is not completely based on a true story, so it gave us some leeway to dramatize some things. We know things that people of color are all too used to do in terms of colorism, in terms of wanting to have honor and patriotism and having the color of their skin stand in the way whether they're a man or a woman.
Relationships between light skinned men and dark skinned women and the stigmas of having a scarlet letter on you because of what what people perceive to be your sexual activity they know nothing about. You hear a rumor about somebody and ultimately it’s canceled culture. A lot of the things that we saw, just in general, with our story with things that were happening in those times, we could relate to now. It wasn't an easy, but it was certainly gratifying and some things that we added to the story, as far as dramatizing it because we know these things also well. Kevin had a really strong hand on the history of things so to be able to educate from a historical perspective.
Having been on Empire and with a big role, what did this film do you knowing you’re practically on every page on the script?
Trai Byers: It feels good to me. I've always preferred films. This is my first leading role, but it's by far it's not my first film. To me, film is so much more intimate, and that's more the actor that I am. When we were writing the piece together, it was really again gratifying to write the piece but I was super excited about being able to step in the shoes of Boston and find the nuance. With Andre Lyon, the role played so much bigger obviously, soap opera. You’re dealing with the music world and this character isn't musical at all. Having to fit into this family, dealing with five bipolar disorder just played really big. I enjoyed that for what it's for what it is; but to be able to come over and play Boston with a beginning, middle and end and that's it no more episodes behind it, telling the whole story in a film is more challenging. I just find it so much more gratifying. As an actor, I feel like every role I play continues to build those those strengths.
How did you prepare physically to play Boston?
Trai Byers: I lost 40 pounds. If you've seen me, I really have. I'm 37 and my character was like 23-24. It's about looking the part. Back then working out was completely different from the way we work out now. These guys were basically doing menial service and building those muscles digging latrines. Just building with their hands. And by building with their hands, they were building their body. I'm happy that you asked that because that it really helped out as far as getting into Boston's shoes. During season 5 of Empire, I spent about a month and a half losing 20 pounds. It was rigorous, fast and furious
Can you talk about working with the cast?
Trai Byers: Working with this cast was fantastic. I actually did go through the same regiment with Mo McRae. He was working out with me and both of us are, again, well in our 30s and both of our characters around the same age. So we were working out together for that month and a half, losing weight, and holding each other accountable. Everybody, for the most part, had dialect coaching from a lovely, lovely guy in Kansas. His name is Paul Meyer, one of the premier vocal coaches in the country. We just happen to know him, praise God for that. A lot of us were going back and forth comparing notes as to what the characters were sounding like. For me and Mo, it was not only a vocal journey, but a physical journey as well.
What you what you learned in the process, not only about this history, but making this movie?
Trai Byers: It’s an honor that the film comes out two days before the actual event happened and August 23, 103 years ago. But for me, just walking away from this piece, and even with our opening day, it's so spiritual to me. I feel so very empowered. The first film that that I've been able to make with my hands in different positions and wearing different hats. It feels so gratifying to have service the story that I didn't know about until Kevin told me and many people don't know about and to have done it with a group of people that are as interested in this story in our history and future in our present, as I am.
It's just really gratifying to be able to give the world another piece of history that they didn't know. My hope is that it makes people curious to find more stories that aren't in the textbooks, to be honest with you. And again, not justified devastated stories but stories that are uplifting, stories that encouraged us and remind us who we are or inform for the first time of who we are. it's the power of media to have the responsibility of telling this type of story and to see it through to the end.
Have we seen the last of the Lyon family?
Trai Byers: I think the Cookie spin off could pick up where we left off? I think that's viable. It could very well be what the people have to look forward to as far as family back again.