Sterling K. Brown On Why ‘Is God Is’ Role Appealed To Him

With his sinister new role in Is God Is, Sterling K. Brown was eager to work with writer/director Aleshea Harris on her feature debut.

The Oscar nominee, who plays the Monster in Harris’ thriller, explained that he was excited to work on the “incredibly creative” film from the Pulitzer-nominated playwright that lets Black women be “hella messy” on screen.

“So there’s the macro and the micro,” he told Rolling Out. “I love Black women, and I love seeing Black women win, right? I thought this was an incredibly creative script, something different and new, and I think that we, as a community, have been asking for creative and new stories, right? And I feel like the more diverse the landscape of stories are that we get to tell, the more people will stop putting us into a box in terms of what a Black movie is, what a Black story is. We are everything, and so the opportunity to do everything is something that excites me.”

Brown continued, “Aleshea (Harris) wrote a play, then she adapted the play, and she directed the play, and I think she did so brilliantly. I also love the idea that Black women get a chance to be messy in this film, like hella messy. I feel like oftentimes we’re asked, in many stories, to be voices of reason. Sort of the sensible side component of a larger story, and that’s not the case in this. That is exciting to me.”

Based on Harris’ 2018 off-Broadway play of the same name, which received three Obie Awards, Is God Is follows twin sisters Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), who were burned as babies in a fire. When their disfigured mother, whom they refer to as God (Vivica A. Fox), summons them to her deathbed, she instructs them to kill their father, the Monster (Brown), who set the blaze years ago.

Now playing in theaters, Is God Is also stars Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson and Josiah Cross.