"I Could See On His Face, That Shock": Spike Lee Says He Told Obama About Charlottesville Violence

As Spike Lee preps for the release of his forthcoming film BlacKkKlansman, the acclaimed film director recently spoke with TIME magazine about the movie, America's current political climate, and why he ended up using numerous videos from the Charlottesville rally last year as the ending to BlacKkKlansman.

READ: Suspect In Charlottesville Car Attack Faces Life In Prison

While discussing the use of Charlottesville footage, Lee revealed that he broke the news of the violence that occurred during the rally to Obama. The director recalls watching the protests on TV and going to tell Obama about it as he was playing golf on a course near Lee's house.

"I said, Mr. President, did you hear what happened in Charlottesville? He hadn't," Lee said. "I could see on his face—that shock. It was Aug. 12, year of our Lord, 2017."

"I saw this horrific act of homegrown, red, white and blue, cherry-pie terrorism," Lee said in regards to the violence that took place at Charlottesville, which is why he ended up including it in the movie.

The rest of the interview can be read here.

In related news, David Duke recently called Ron Stallworth, the man whose Lee's film is inspired by, to talk to him about how he's portrayed in the movie.

"He wanted to talk about the fact that he's concerned about how he's going to be portrayed in this film," Stallworth said alongside Lee during an interview with NBC's Nightly News host Lester Holt. "He's only seen the trailer and in the trailer, it makes him off to be a buffoonish cartoonish idiot."

But the conversation took an unexpected turn when Duke told Stallworth that he's "always respected Spike Lee," to which the famed director responded, "That's a compliment I don't need."

Source: TIME