Adam Driver Describes What It Was Like To Wear A KKK Hood In BlacKkKlansman

Adam Driver is nominated for his first Oscar at this year's Academy Awards for his portrayal of Flip Zimmerman in BlacKkKlansman. And like several Oscar-worthy roles, inhabiting this character — a policeman who supports the infiltrate a Ku Klux Klan chapter with detective Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington) — required him to do some pretty uncomfortable things.


In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Driver recalls thinking the movie told "an unthinkable story" from the very first time he saw the script. "As soon as you begin reading something, you can't help yet begin working on it a little he mentioned. "It's like, 'Can I pull it off?'"


One such memorable challenge from filming the Spike Lee-directed movie was if he (along with several other actors) had to cheer while watching lynching scenes in Birth of a Nation. Each person felt uneasy, nevertheless that gets lost in the minutiae of working on something. You are working on your character, and you can't think about how it feels. It isn't your job to feel anything, it's your job to tell the story," he said.


Despite that mindset, something about that moment felt wrong. "Putting on a KKK hood, you feel like you understand what that is," Driver mentioned. Nevertheless then any time while you are wearing it, what it symbolizes is for now from everything I believe in that it doesn't feel right."


Even the perfect actors have human moments once their roles require them to act with hate.