Clarke Peters Interview
Bonhoeffer (2024) is a gripping feature film starring Jonas Dassler, Clark Peters, and David Jonsson. The film is set during the regime of Adolf Hitler and the assassination of Hitler. As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jonas Dassler) gets swept into the epicentre of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide.
TNBFC's Jasmine Bernard-Brooks sat down with Clark Peters to discuss the inspiration behind his role and the process of filming a turning point in history.
TNBFC: How did the film come to you, and what drew you to the film in general?
Peters: The film came to me just as a job. In the beginning, it was titled 'God's Spy,' and I really liked the concept of God's Spy because we need them today. We shot this long before the world was in the turmoil that it is in now. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to what is happening now, but as we can see, it was necessary to have God's spy. I didn't know who Bonhoeffer was until I looked him up and was very impressed. I was aware of who Adam Clayton Powell jr was, but I wasn't aware of who his father was.
When I researched him, I thought, 'Oh, this is just the voice I want to report.' These are the clothes I want to wear, and so I said yes, and here we are having this interview.
TNBFC: How was it then connecting to the character of Reverend Powell, researching him and understanding his huge influence on Bonhoeffer?
Peters: First of all, all I had to do was look him up online. I started with his son, who was around when I was coming up in Harlem. I was well aware of the energy that the family was putting into the world and the changes that they were putting into the world. I was really impressed that he should have that type of influence on an individual: to encourage them and inspire them, especially when considering the lengths that Bonhoeffer went to for justice and for what is right. I wish that there were more people like that—like both of them. To be inspired by somebody like Powell would be just wonderful, or to have the platform that Boenhuffer had, as well. I have to say that this thought has changed in the past six months. It now feels like we need to have something like that voice again. Unfortunately, somebody was saying we don't have leaders like that, and it made me wonder, 'Why do we need leaders?' Why do we need an individual? I think that the necessary change—which I think Clayton Powell was offering Bonhoeffer—is that the individual has got to change if you want to see this world change. Be the change you want to see, and I believe that is what he was offering Bonhoeffer as well. It's hard for people to understand the concept of God—all around you—whether one believes that this entity or being is omnipresent or whether one feels like God is in a specific place that emanates everything that we see here now. Regardless of where you place God, making sure that an individual has some relationship with the concept of God is what'smissing today. I think that everyone enjoys breathing in and breathing out. What are you breathing in, and what are you breathing out? What kind of intelligence has created this? If you enjoy your life, say so and acknowledge that you did not create this yourself. It's necessary to have that kind of gratitude, and if one spent time in those nether regions of spirituality, you wouldn't have time to think about who you were going to hurt next, whose money you were going to take, or who you were going to put down. You wouldn't do what you do to the Earth. You are the Earth.
TNBFC: When you were studying the relationship between bonheoffer and powell did you find a lot of things out there about them, or were there a lot of blank spaces.
Peters: I'm in the throes of looking at a lot more of the Afrocentric history and the influence that people from the continent had on the world that we still see today, but we don't recognize this because it has been erased. I just came back from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Everyone knows Albuquerque. But no onelooks at it as something that started in the Moorish times of Spain. This name comes all the way from the 15th century. When I look at the architecture of some of the indigenous people, I see the same architecture in West Africa, in Mali. I think this is not a coincidence, and so the erasure of Africa from our lives puts me in this state and leaves people of European descent completely lost because when they realize thatthey have been lied to, what are they gonna do? What is that reaction going to be? James Baldwin said that when black people begin to wake up to who they are, who knows what's going to happen? That could be a violent reaction; that could be a very sorrowful reaction; that could be a reaction of humanity saying, 'Well, hey, now you know. What are we going to do about it? How are we going to move forward in this world? The influence of Clayton Powell on Bonhoeffer is enormous. We know Newton had some influence on Einstein. Hello? To the victor goes the spoils. The victor writes history. The sad thing is that the victor, in this instance, has allowed their ego to subdue their intelligence and their humanity, and that's a sad thing. The results are where we are today when we have a man who wants to buy a whole nationand when a man can say things that are absolutely absurd. It's not just on one side of the ocean. It's not just in America. He's mad, but I think there's madness here too. Having said that, it feels like that's the order of the day. That confusion is the order of the day, and somewhere in there, I think that it does leadus back to the point that if you are a thinking human being, you might ask yourself for some help. When asking for help, you recognize that there isn't a human being on this planet who can help you without any divine intervention. I can't put my faith in any human being whatsoever.
TNBFC: I know that you have worked in both the US and the UK, but it would be great to hear the differences you've seen between the two, especially for actors and black creatives.
Peters: When I came here in 1973, there were only two black faces on the boardings in theatre: Larrington Walker was one, and George Harris was the other. They were both in either Hair or Jesus ChristSuperstar. The participation of black actors was sort of underground. There was a black theatre co-op at the time. Roofis Collins, I think, was the man running it. Out of that came some wonderful actors—who, unfortunately, very few of them are still with us now—but they laid the groundwork. They did things like the Desmonds, which is a TV series here, and that was also concurrent with what was happening in the States with the rise of black TV shows. The thing that always bothered me, and still does to a certain degree, is that they had to come in at a point of humor and comedy. George Harris was the first black detective. I think that Idris came up with something maybe ten years ago where he was a black detective. But see, we’ve forgotten that George started this in the 80s. It’s taken this long for interest to come back with it again, so it always looks like one is just beginning or just breaking through rather than building on what has been before. That's the same thing that's happened in the States, as well as in the black exploitation films. They were always just pure entertainment. They were not there for you to be intellectually stimulated. Things are changing bit by bit. I'm wondering if they're changing because someone feels like it's coming to the end. I pray that's not the case. I hope that Nollywood takes the baton and diversifies into more things, not just Afrocentric but more geared towards the diaspora. We are so divided in the diaspora, and that has been done by design. If we recognize that it has been by design, then we can do something about it. It's about all of us finding some way to be together, and we cannot do it with outside help. We have to have the dialogue ourselves.
TNBFC: You've said what's going on at an industry level, but in your career, what do you hope to grow and expand in?
Peters: I hope there will be more roles for senior actors like myself that are hopefully going to be harbingers of some wisdom, of some comfort, of some love. We've been through the whole era of pimps and whores and all of that kind of stuff. I hope that in the future, we will be more; we'll be able to tellmore of our own stories and, in telling our stories, to share them not only with Africa and the diaspora but with the world in a way that serves everybody. In a way that isn't going to be offensive or put any community off–whether it's Asia, Europe, or even Africa, I hope that the future allows us to have a more homogenized kind of storytelling where everybody has something to say and also this whole thing about being colorblind–to hell with that. Just tell the story as it is. If it's a character that happens to be in history a man of European extraction, let him be that, but make sure that we can tell our own stories where the European mind is not there. Mansa Musa, for example, was the richest man in the world. He upset nations because he was giving money away to the point where it upset the economy of small villages, cities, and towns on his way to Mecca. That ain't gonna happen with somebody else that we know; he ain't giving nothing away. So, as far as going forward, I hope we can tell good stories that serve, firstly, the diaspora and, secondly, the rest of the world. We really need to focus on consolidating our art and resources. I think that film, theatre, and actors as storytellers can do that.
Bonhoeffer will be out in UK and Irish cinemas from 7th March 2025. For more information and to book tickets go to www.bonhoefferfilm.com