How Boots Riley and Don Cheadle Stole Blockbuster Season
Don, have you seen that sort of political momentum come from anything you’ve worked on or been a part of? Cheadle: My entry point to a lot of activism that I got involved with came after Hotel Rwanda, and having congressmen and women, Democrats and Republicans, come to a screening at MGM. [Then US House of Representatives members] Ed Royce and, I want to say, Donald Payne asked me to accompany them on a congressional delegation to Chad, because we couldn’t get into Sudan or Darfur, to discuss what was happening there, and they thought that the film was—not a one to one, but it had a lot of similar dynamics to what was happening inside of Sudan, and they wanted to bring attention to it, and they said they think this film could do it, and would you come with us? And I was like, Of course. So I went and Paul Rusesabagina, who I played in the movie, came, and John Prendergast. We all went and then snuck into Darfur after the congressmen …

