He was cast in a major motion picture and surrounded by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, but portraying a narrow-minded nemesis wasn’t exactly the pivotal role Stan Houston had in mind. In fact, when the GA native was first offered the part in Selma as Sheriff Jim Clark, he turned it down. Twice.
“[The role] really changed me because it was a pretty dark part,” Houston said by phone, shortly after the Civil Rights drama garnered its Academy Awards nomination for best picture. “I still lived where Mr. Clark came from [in GA] also, so I was hesitant about how I would be perceived. When you watch me [in character] doing those stern looks and gritting my teeth, I was visualizing that old general, Jimmy Lee Jackson, and how he would grip the baton and command his troops. It kept me from going to that dark place.”
Portraying a staunch segregationist was hard enough, but right before filming the emotionally-charged courthouse confrontation, one of Selma’s most explosive scenes, director Ava DuVernay pulled Houston aside and gave him a startling command: “I want you to say what Sheriff Clark said [when Oprah Winfrey’s character, Annie Cooper, knocked him down at the bridge]…..’Get that [expletive] woman.”
“I really didn’t want to and was like, ‘please don’t make me say that,'” Houston says.”But Ava had investigated the dialogue and was as historically accurate as she could be. DuVernay is on her way to become the next Steven Spielberg.”
Selma wasn’t the first big film for the 47-year-old—-he was also seen in 2013’s Devil’s Knot with Stephen Moyer and Reese Witherspoon—but Selma is the one project that continues to resonate on multiple levels, especially with the anniversary of that historic freedom march with Dr. King, now known as Bloody Sunday, coming up on March 7. Houston revealed that he plans to join cast members in Alabama to honor the historic event and was forever transformed by what he experienced.
“During filming, [the cast] learned about each other’s cultures, ate together everyday and most of us still talk a couple of times a week. We also met the guys who were on the front line, the men and women who actually marched with King, which makes it real. Dr. King is not only a statue or a holiday, he was a simple preacher who was forced to the forefront and then he became the voice of the movement.”
Despite the personal difficulties that came with embodying Sheriff Clark, Houston is proud of how his work has affected moviegoers and hopes that more people will witness it for themselves. “I think everyone should see Selma because it could change your heart for the better. I’ve seen people walking out of the theater, without a dry eye in sight, becoming more accepting and willing to learn about others. I’ve even heard viewers saying things like, ‘Maybe I should start voting again.’ They died for all of us, your rights and mine. We’re all cousins, you know?”
There are more parts in store for Houston—-he’s a regular in Hulu’s online series “A Free Bird” and a part of WeTV’s upcoming series, “South of Hell”—- but the actor still remains in awe of the reaction from one of the film’s greatest supporters, his own 4-year-old son.
“When my wife and took him to meet the cast, our son asked David Oyelowo [the actor who played King], ‘Do you love me?’ And David, with that proper British accent of his, bent down and told him, ‘Well yes, your father is a very special friend of mine so I love you too.’ So then he says, ‘Mr. David, you’re my hero.’ That’s what Selma does for kids….. they come out with a different perspective of the world. And that’s a pretty big step forward.”
