Entertainment_Weekly_Issue_1456_March_10_2017

One Legend Plays Another

Underground exec producerJohn Legend steps in front of the camera as abolitionist Frederick

Douglass on WGN America’s historical series (returning March 8 at 10 p.m.).BY CHRISTIAN HOLUB

MARCH 10, 2017 EW.COM 61

then they decided Mike should

record it all again in a Scottish

accent.... [When I finally saw some

footage] I said, ‘This movie is

going to be huge.’ ”

6

DEXTER 2009

Lithgow returned to TV and won

an Emmy as the murderous Trinity

Killer in the Showtime drama’s

fourth season. But he wrestled with

some darker scenes, such as the

notorious bathtub murder.

“The very first thing I shot was that

ghastly scene—I’m in a bathtub

with a beautiful young woman,

both of us are nude, and I cut her

femoral artery and she bleeds to

death in my arms. It was a frighten-

ing thing to do. But our intent was

to horrify people, so I went there.”

7

THE CROWN 2016

Lithgow won critical praise for his

portrayal of Churchill, which culmi-

nated in a tour de force episode in

which he sparred with painter Gra-

ham Sutherland (Stephen Dillane).

”As a young man, I wanted to be a

painter. I’ve been waiting for the

moment when I could actually play

someone who paints on stage

or on screen, and finally I got it.”

8

TRIAL & ERROR 2017

Lithgow will next appear in this

parody of real-crime documentaries,

playing a man accused of killing

his wife. The role reunites him with

3rd Rockwriter Mike Schiff.

“It’s just as daring as3rd Rock—it

feels very much like the whole

experience of making this flying

leap, taking this outrageous

premise, and finding an ensemble

of separate people who are all

on the same page comedically.”

Somehow, in

between raising his

infant daughter

Luna, preparing a tour for his

recent album Darkness and

Light, and riding along on

the awards-season tour as a

costar ofLa La Land, John

Legend still found time to

make history. The executive

producer of WGN America’s

Underground, the story of

fugitive slaves fighting for

freedom in the years before

the Civil War, will make an

onscreen appearance as none

other than the legendary abo-

litionist Frederick Douglass.

The social reformer’s role

on the show is not as large as

fellow revolutionaries like

Harriet Tubman (Aisha Hinds),

but his brief appearance in

the episode airing April 5

givesUnderground’s heroes a

taste of hard-won wisdom.

In addition to being an

escaped slave, Douglass was

one of the most photo-

graphed men of the 19th

century—which, happily, gave

Legend plenty of visual

cues to draw upon and also

tied into Douglass’ advice

for fellow fugitives. “He under-

stood the importance of

strategy,” Legend says. “He

understood the power of

image and of story to human-

ize the slaves and to show

how evil the institution was. If

it weren’t for him showing the

human worth of slaves, we

might not have seen abolition

happen when it did.”

Underground feels particu-

larly relevant to the modern

moment, thanks in part to its

use of contemporary music

by artists like Kanye West, but

even Douglass himself has

unexpectedly been in the

news lately, via Donald

Trump’s puzzling comments

at the beginning of Black

History Month (oddly, he said

that Douglass is “somebody

who’s done an amazing job

and is being recognized more

and more”). Though Legend

chuckles at the president’s

confounding pronounce-

ment, he agrees that modern

Americans still have a lot to

glean from Douglass. “These

things we’re fighting about

now, they all have historical

context that we can look back

on and try to learn from,”

Legend says. “We didn’t know

we were going to have a

second season airing during a

Trump presidency. But I think

the show will teach us not only

how important it is to under-

stand our history but also

how inspiring some of these

actions of our forefathers

were. They were extremely

challenging times, and these

people found the courage

to fight back. I think that can

be inspirational for all of us

who believe that something

needs to change in America.”



Alano

Miller,

John

Legend,

Chris

Chalk, and

Jake

Dellinger

FIRST

LOOK

FFIIRRSSTT

LLOOOOOOKK

8

Frederick Douglass

LITHGOW: ROBBY KLEIN/CONTOUR/GETTY IMAGES;

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE

: WARNER BROS./PHOTOFEST;

3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN

: PHOTOFEST;

SHREK

: DREAMWORKS;

THE CROWN

: ALEX BAILEY/NETFLIX;

TRIAL & ERROR

: TYLER GOLDEN/NBC;

UNDERGROUND

: STEVE DIETL/WGN AMERICA; DOUGLASS: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES