Lee Daniels' The Butler, starring a chain-smoking Oprah and James Marsden, is in theaters now. The director sat down with Larry King to talk about how his personal experiences as a gay black man greatly influenced the depiction of civil rights issues in his political film about a White House butler, as well as the continued stigma surrounding homosexuality in the black community:
"Black men can't come out. Why? Because you simply can't do it. Your family says it. Your church says it. Your teachers say it. Your parents say it. Your friends say it. Your work says it. So you're living on this 'DL' thing and you're infecting black women. And its killing us. The black culture and the hispanic culture have a thing about [homosexuality]."
Watch an interview clip below:
And here's the trailer for the movie:
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