Family Double Date Premiere Night: (l to r) Angela J. Williams (mom), Tyler James Williams, Anastasia Baranova (girlfriend) and Le’Roy Williams (dad). Photo: @angelajwill
Acting is a family affair for Tyler James Williams. This year marks twenty years as a professional actor as the now 24-year-old began his career at age four. Both his younger brothers Tyrel Jackson and Tylen Jacob are actors too.
Tyler James spent five years on Sesame Street and played a young Chris Rock in the hit series Everybody Hates Chris. He’s had many more television roles and most recently can be seen on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. His mom is a singer/songwriter but it was his dad that Tyler James had conversations with about his latest role in the new film DETROIT.
Tyler James Williams on “Sesame Street” from 2000-2005 and on “Everybody Hates Chris” from 2005-2009. Photo: @willtylerjames
Tyler James stars as part of the ensemble cast in the film about the riots that rocked Detroit in the summer of ’67. While it’s been fifty years since, some of the themes feel all too familiar. Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow [The Hurt Locker, and Zero, Dark Thirty] tells the powerful story of one of the darkest moments during civil unrest.
Since Tyler James’ dad served as a New York City police officer for more than twenty years, we were curious to the conversations had between the two once signed on to be part of the film. Tyler James shared:
Well the first conversation we had when I found out I was going to be doing this was asking him if he knew anything about the incident. What was really surprising is that he did not. Especially for him because he taught in the academy for ten years. His whole thing was, this would be something that we would want to know so we can directly teach against it. The fact that he didn’t know it, especially as a black cop teaching other cops, is really incredible. Especially being in New York, you know we’re not that far away from Detroit.
Also, as far as doing it… I think it’s just a conversation that you very rarely will hear from the families of police officers who were not directly influenced in an incident. Like in this particular incident, you have the families of the three officers. You don’t necessarily hear from the families of all the other officers in the area, how upset they are with the three and that’s kind of my father’s perspective, which is, “Yes there are good cops out there.” He made a career of 22 years doing that. But the big issue is absolute power corrupts absolutely and when you have absolute power, you’re not holding people accountable. We’re not holding people accountable and that’s his issue. Whether it’s cops, whether it’s religious leaders, whoever. No one should feel like they can do something and then just ultimately get away with it.
The Williams Family // Photo: @angelajwill @willtylerjames
Tyler James reflected on the impact his dad has had on him with a sweet Father’s Day tribute a few years back. Here’s what he said on Instagram:
Photo: @willtylerjames
DETROIT opens nationwide Friday, August 4.
