Created, co-written and expertly directed by Ava DuVernay, the four-part Netflix limited series When They See Us chronicles the notorious case of the five teenagers of color from Harlem – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise – who became labeled the Central Park Five, after being accused of a violent rape in New York in the spring of 1989. After being questioned as teenagers and pressured to confess, they were convicted and sentenced and served between 6 and 13 years in prison before their exoneration in 2002, and watching their journey will break your heart, turn you into a sobbing mess who’s angry at the injustice of it all, and inspire hope.

During this phone interview with Collider, co-stars Niecy Nash (who plays Korey’s mother, Delores), Michael K. Williams (who plays Antron McCray’s father, Bobby) and Marsha Stephanie Blake (who plays Antron McCray’s mother, Linda) talked about how deeply affected they were by the story of When They See Us, realizing just how false the narrative about these young men truly was, what most angered them and inspired them about everything that happened, the heartbreaking scene between Niecy Nash and Isis King, why they loved working with Ava DuVernay, and what they hope audiences take from seeing this.

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Collider:  Really tremendous work from everyone in this. Everything about the way this story is told was just beautifully and thoughtfully handled, and it’s something everybody should truly be proud of, on every level. Before this project came your way, do you feel like you knew about this case, and who these men were and the details of this story, or was that also very eye-opening for you?

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS:  The main thing that I didn’t know was how grossly mistreated they were. All we had to go on was the narrative that we were getting from the press, which was that they signed a confession and admitted to it. When you read the scripts and saw the narrative, and how the police department so grossly broke the law, I didn’t know those things had happened, specifically with the interrogation process.

MARSHA STEPHANIE BLAKE:  It’s interesting, I thought I knew this case better, and then after reading the transcripts and the script of the four-part series, I realized that I didn’t really know anything. There was so much information that was kept from us, as the public, and so many things that were told to us that were lies or bending of the truth. There were so many levels of misconception that happened. As a child, I remember the fear in the community and the fear in my house, but also feeling like I knew these kids had done something. They may not have done that, but they did something. I feel like that so often is what we hear, but the truth is that they had done nothing.

NIECY NASH:  Now, we’re at a point where we have to judge what we hear because everything that we we’re told is a lie. This is the first time these men have been able to get their story told through their prism and their experience. We only knew what we were told, and we were all told a whole bag of lies. As it turns out, none of what they were accused of and none of the things that they served time for was anything that they ever actually did.

This story is as inspiring as it is devastating. Seeing who these men are, after everything they were put through, is inspiring, but there are also so many moments watching this that make you angry and that feel so tragic that it hurts.

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Image via Netflix

When you read this and really dug into the story that you’re telling in the film, what most angered or upset you and what inspired you about it?

BLAKE:  For me, it was the strength of the moms. I play a mom, so I specifically related to that, and their absolute conviction of knowing that their children were innocent. The love they held onto and their strength was inspiring. But there were also a lot of moments that I had to put the script aside. It took me a long time to actually read through everything. I still haven’t watched it. It’s a very difficult thing to get through. And to imagine that this happened to real people and still happens to real people, it’s a lot to think about.

NASH:  I was inspired by the resilience of these men, to go through what they went through and come out on the other side. I had the opportunity to spend time with them, and could see their joy and their light, in spite of everything that has happened. The thing that makes me angry is that they were babies and their youth was stolen from them, all for a lie. Families were destroyed, all for a lie. That’s the thing that makes me angry.

WILLIAMS:  The resilience of these five men and their families, and the level of love they have for each other as families, is inspiring. I’m in awe of them and their ability to smile, after all that they’ve been through. What makes me angry is the lies that we were told, as a community. We didn’t have social media for them to voice anything. It was just what we saw on the news and what we read in the papers. When you look back now, it makes me angry that I was so blatantly lied to. And while these five young men were left to rot in prison, the real culprit was left to violate two other women. Where’s the honor for Miss Patricia? This was such a fumble, across the board.

Niecy, the scene that really tore my heart out was the one between you and Isis King. What was that moment like to shoot?

NASH:  That was a very hard scene to shoot. At that point in time, what I tried to convey, in my performance, was that this mother was in fear. She was really in fear of her son transitioning and going out into the world, and it was something that she could not protect him from, as far as any pain or backlash or embarrassment that he may experience. She did not know how to properly communicate that fear and vulnerability, so she masked it with anger and frustration. It was very challenging. I took that actress in my arms and said, “I want you to know I’m about to say some things to you. Know that it’s in character and to tell this story, but my heart is with you, as a human being, and everything that you face, every day, when you walk outside.”

This project came to be when one of these men, Raymond Santana, reached out to Ava DuVernay because he felt that she was the person to tell this story. How did you find the experience of working with Ava DuVernay, throughout this production?

NASH:  We love us some Ava. We love her, all the way around. At one point, each of us thought that we were her special favorite, only to find out that we all are. We absolutely loved working with her. She definitely made us feel cared for and covered, and like she was in it with us, at all times. This is one of the first jobs we’ve ever been on that provided crisis counseling for us, at the end of the day, if we needed it. She took really good care of us.

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Image via Netflix

This case is a textbook example of racial bias. It could be about any group of young men or women from similar backgrounds and that look a similar way. What do you hope audiences take from seeing this?

BLAKE:  The hope is that people will start looking at people of color as human beings, rather than as animals. The hope is that you will first see a human being, before you jump to any conclusions about what you think they may have done, and that if you are a person of color, that you won’t go away feeling helpless. We want people to feel hopeful. We want people to feel a call to action. We want people to feel galvanized to go out there and do something, and to advocate for themselves and for each other. Anger is an emotion that will come out of this, but we don’t want that to be the only emotion you feel. We want your anger to lead to something a little bit more productive.

When They See Us is available to stream at Netflix.