On Tuesday, September 15th, season two premiere week of “Tamron Hall” continues with Marvel movie hero Chris Evans and Golden Globe® and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker and actor Mark Kassen, who joined Tamron to discuss their new video-based civic engagement website “A Starting Point” geared towards encouraging Americans to vote and become active in their local communities.
On what inspired Evans and Kassen to dive into politics with their new campaign “A Starting Point” and the timely launch of their partnership with Close Up Foundation to bring ASP content to classrooms, Mark shared: “We need a place to have a conversation that’s not combative and hopefully now we can have a platform where people can access their leaders. We see more people wanting to get their voices out there and so many have already registered to vote on our site.”
Evans also opened up about the tragic loss of fellow Marvel actor Chadwick Boseman, who recently passed away from stage three colon cancer on August 28th. On processing the loss, he said: “It’s been tough for everybody. His cultural impact is immeasurable. It’s heartbreaking and his legacy is incredible.”
Later on, Chris shared how he feels after his viral tweet that both broke the Internet and brought awareness to his voting initiative, saying: “It was an interesting weekend full of lessons learned and lots of teachable moments. Things happen… it was embarrassing, you got to roll with the punches. I will say I have some pretty fantastic fans who really came to my support.”
Award-winning actor Samuel L. Jackson and his wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson also joined Tamron to discuss their new EPIX docu-series “Enslaved,” what inspired them to dig deep into tracing their roots, and how the journey gave them “a sense of belonging.”
During the interview, Samuel opened up about the loss of dear friend and award-winning actor Chadwick Boseman, saying: “I was trying to remember the last time I had seen Chadwick. It was at the Marvel premiere and we were talking about a new project I wanted to work on together, but he told me he wasn’t going to be there. It’s gut wrenching to lose someone that is so important to the culture. He imprinted and impacted society in such a way, especially the Black community. To lose him I think I would’ve waited to tell my kids until they were older because it’s devastating.”
On the importance of “Enslaved” and what it meant to trace her family’s roots, LaTanya said: “I want everyone to understand that Sam is only just our way into the story. This story is a general story about all of us who were taken and forced into immigration and hopefully it will ignite some flame that will encourage all of us to want to look deep into our history for ourselves.”
