Spike Lee talks police brutality with Jimmy Fallon, hopes Americans will vote 'Agent Orange' out in elections
Director Spike Lee was on Monday night's episode of 'The Tonight Show' to walk him through his upcoming short film '3 Brothers'. The interaction started on a fun note with Lee jokingly saying, "Black Don't Crack" after host Jimmy Fallon refused to believe that the former is 63 years old.
Later, Fallon spoke about '3 Brothers' and about the impact the film had on him. The film focuses on the deaths of Radio Raheem, Eric Gartner and George Floyd and contains imagery and video from the actual deaths of George Floyd and a couple of other Black men along with some reenacted scenes. The movie first premiered during Lee’s appearance on CNN's 'I Can't Breathe: Black Men Living and Dying in America' on May 31, anchored by Don Lemon.
Fallon asked Lee if he could play the short on his show as well to which the director obliged. Before Fallon could play it, Lee took the time to reveal that Radio Raheem is a fictional character from his 1989 movie 'Do The Right Thing', however, his murder in the film was inspired by the real-life killing of Michael Stewart, a graffiti artist who died in 1989 after spending several days in a coma which resulted from New York City's transit authority police who "jumped on him" and held him in a "stranglehold".
Lee also mentioned that he participated in the protests in Brooklyn on Sunday and that it's not just black and brown people but everyone partaking. He stated that he's "very enthusiastic that people around the world were galvanized by the horrific murder" of George Floyd who he referred to as"King Floyd". Lee is also hopeful that people will come out to vote and say "hell no to Agent Orange...you gotta go". Lee also mentioned that he believes the upcoming elections will be the most important in the history of the modern world. He also observed that if Donald Trump gets elected to office again, it will directly mean that "the world is in peril".
In a televised press briefing on June 6, Trump had mentioned, "We all saw what happened last week. We can't let that happen," referring to Floyd's death. Shortly after he mentioned that he hoped Floyd was looking down right now and saying "this is a great thing that's happening in America right now". These comments were a part of White House's briefing that came 11 days after Floyd's death and sparked confusion as to why Trump thought it was a great day for Floyd. Speaking about this Lee mentioned, "Just don't say nothing. Stop. You should not be talking about our brother."