Best Of: Sam Waterston / A Civil Rights Leader Who Investigated Lynchings

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2022

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Waterston joined the cast of Law & Order in 1994 on a one-year contract. He wound up staying 16 years, until the series wrapped in 2010. Now the show's back — and so is he. We talk about working into his 80s, Grace and Frankie, and how the 1984 film The Killing Fields changed his life and career.

Also, David Bianculli reviews Julia, a new HBO series about Julia Child.

And White Lies author A.J. Baime tells the story of Walter White, a light-skinned Black man whose ancestors had been enslaved. For years White risked his life investigating racial violence in the South.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From WHY and Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend.
0:03.7	I'm Dave Davies and for Terry Gross.
0:06.1	Today, actress Sam Waterston.
0:08.3	The original law and order series is back,
0:10.7	and he's back in the role of District Attorney Jack McCoy.
0:14.2	Waterston also co-stars his former Secretary of State George Shultz
0:18.0	in the new Hulu series The Dropout.
0:20.6	Also, writer AJ Bame tells us the remarkable story of Walter White,
0:25.2	a civil rights activist who risked his life investigating lynchings in the deep south.
0:30.2	White was descended from enslaved ancestors and was proud of his black identity,
0:34.7	but his fair skin enabled him to move easily among rural whites and get stories of racial violence
0:40.2	that shocked the nation. White went on to head the NAACP.
0:44.5	Bame has a new book about White.
0:46.8	And David B. and Cooley reviews Julia, the new HBO Max series about Julia Child.
0:51.9	The original NBC series Law and Order, which ran for 20 seasons before ending in 2010,
1:00.2	is back, and with it, our guest, Sam Waterston, who returns to the role of District Attorney Jack McCoy.
1:07.2	Waterston has appeared in more than 100 movies, TV shows, and theater productions,
1:12.1	and at 81, he's still busy. He co-stars in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie,
1:17.4	as one of two men who leave their wives to pursue their love for each other.
1:20.9	The series' final season wraps up this spring.
1:24.0	And Waterston plays former Secretary of State George Schultz in the new Hulu series The Dropout
1:29.6	about Elizabeth Holmes, whose blood testing company Theronos collapsed in fraud charges.
	...

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