Lester Holt Interviews Spike Lee And The Real Black KKKlansman
In an interview that aired Monday on NBC Nightly News real life BlacKkKlansman Ron Stallworth tells Lester Holt that David Duke called him yesterday to talk about the film.
Here’s how the interview went:
Lester Holt: I can’t interview you without asking about the David Duke interaction. How much of that was real? You had a phone friendship with David Duke?
Ron Stallworth: I wouldn’t call it a friendship.
Holt: So what did he want to talk about? When he got down to business what did he want to talk about?
Stallworth: He wanted to talk about the fact that he’s concerned about how he is going to be portrayed in this film. He’s only seen the trailer and the trailer makes him off to be a buffoonish cartoonish idiot.
Holt: Is that a fair description of how he’s portrayed in the movie?
Stallworth: In some areas, yeah. Spike made him look kind of stupid, but he was stupid in how this whole thing transpired 40 years ago.
For me, 40 years ago, with a high school diploma and 20 college credit hours to con him the way I did and make a fool out of him, it was funny back then. It’s still funny to me now.
He complemented Spike. He said ‘I’ve always respected Spike Lee.’ Which surprised the heck out of me.
Lee: That’s a compliment I don’t need.
Watch the video below: