Brown won an Emmy for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson, and another for This Is Us. He now appears in the film American Fiction. He spoke with Terry Gross about losing his father, how his feelings about the O.J. Simpson case changed, and prejudice he faced in Hollywood. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people.
Where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
It looks like my guest, Sterling K.
Brown is about to be in the cultural zeitgeist again.
He co stars in the new movie american fiction, which is on many critics ten best lists and is likely to be nominated for oscars in the popular miniseries the people versus OJ Simpson, about one of the most controversial trials of the 20th century.
Brown played Christopher Darden, one of OJ Simpson's prosecutors.
Brown won an Emmy for that performance in 2016.
He won another the following year for his performance in the popular NBC series this is us.
That series brought many viewers to tears while shooting this is us.
He managed to get away long enough to play a small but important role in Black Panther.
He was nominated for an Emmy for his guest appearance on an episode of the popular comedy series Brooklyn nine nine, which satirized tv series about police detectives.
Let's start with his new film, American Fiction.
It stars Jeffrey Wright as a college professor and novelist whos black.
He writes fiction thats pretty obscure, like a novel based on the greek tragedy the Persians by Aeschylus.
No one wants to publish his new novel.