Keegan-Michael has sung praises to Netflix for backing a Christmas film which stars predominantly actors of colour.
He plays the villain Gustafson in the musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, about a spirited and intelligent little girl (Madalen Mills) who helps her jaded inventor grandfather (Forest Whittaker) and finds his Christmas spirit after one of his prized inventions, is stolen.
Speaking of the movie, he called the director of the film David E. Talbert “absolutely historic.”
“Sitting outside of the process of acting I very often would get the feels because I’m just going, ‘Look at what we’re doing.’ I thought it’s revolutionary.”
He expressed his joy of being a part of a film which wasn’t scared to put Black actors in a Dickensian period, adding that it was a pleasant change from the expected ‘urban’ setting.
He continued, “Something that I loved about the film is how we get this representation visually. It’s the Kente cloth that’s sewn into the Victorian petticoats, it’s the women wearing hairpieces, but still wearing a long gown, a Victorian gown, and that the fusion of those two cultures together was something I thought was amazing.
I really would like to say kudos to Netflix for just for taking this chance and saying to David, ‘We’re going to let you make the movie you want to make with the faces that you want to make it with,’ and that means millions of children, and millions of children of colour around the world are going to be exposed to this.”
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey will be premiering on November 13th on Netflix.
