Lakeith Stanfield has revealed that portraying the FBI informant William O’Neal in Judas and the Black Messiah took a toll on his mental health.
Stanfield has opened up about his challenging role in the film, which chronicles how O’Neal infiltrated the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton.
However, there was one scene in particular that prompted Stanfield to get therapy once filming had concluded.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
Daniel Kaluuya plays Hampton in the film and, near the end, Stanfield’s character drugs the activist.
“In the scene where I had to poison him, a lot of it didn’t end up making it to the final cut, but we shot [me mixing it in] Kool-Aid, and I had to go through all those emotions,” Stanfield told Level.
“With somebody like Daniel, who I just respect as a human and an artist, as Fred Hampton, it felt like I was actually poisoning Chairman Fred Hampton.”
Read more - Judas and the Black Messiah: Daniel Kaluuya stars as Black Panther Fred Hampton in first trailer
He added: “So sometimes your body thinks that’s real, everything you’re putting it through. It’s no wonder I’ve been feeling so stressed out and having panic attacks. I realised going forward before I step into something like that again, maybe have a therapist. I’ve found this really cool therapist. It’s great and perfect for me right now. Hopefully, it continues to be the case. It’s helped me a lot…”
Speaking about the project, director Shaka King previously said: “To me, the movie is, in a lot of ways, the capitalist in William O’Neal and the socialist in Fred Hampton… and the coward in William O’Neal and the revolutionary in Fred Hampton.
“I try to attach judgment to both of those ideologies but most people fall somewhere in between. You want to make a movie where the audience watches it and [walks] away questioning, ‘Where do I fall between those two?’”
Judas and the Black Messiah is out in the UK later this year.
