Above photo: Tiffany Boone and Andre’ Holland as Gwen Fontaine and Huey P. Newton in a scene from Apple TV+’s “The Big Cigar”
By Kharisma McIlwaine
The Black Panther Party was a source of controversy from its inception on October 15, 1966. The controversial organization, founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Elbert Howard as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was created with the intention of uplifting and protecting Black people. By exercising their Second Amendment rights, they actively resisted police brutality through armed self-defense while creating initiatives centered on Black nationalism, Black Power, and socialism. With chapters in several major cities including Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, the revolutionary Black Panther Party was also responsible for creating a myriad of education and social programs and a free breakfast for children program, which is still used in many schools across the U.S. today.
But despite of all the incredible work done by the Black Panther Party to enrich the community, they were demonized for their resistance. At the center of the US government’s witch hunt to destroy the organization was the FBI’s quest to take down one of its founding members, Huey P. Newton.
Based on an article of the same name written by Joshuah Bearman, Apple TV+’s “The Big Cigar” tells the story of the FBI’s attempts to arrest Newton by any means necessary, and of his escape to Cuba with the help of his Hollywood filmmaking friends. Written by Jim Hecht, Bearman and executive produced by NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrios,, “The Big Cigar” features an incredible cast lead by André Holland as Newton, Tiffany Boone (Gwen Fontaine) P.J. Byrne (Stephen Blauner), Alessandro Nivola (Bert Schneider), Marc Menchaca (Sydney Clark), Moses Ingram (Teressa Dixon), Rebecca Dalton (Jessica), Olli Haaskivi (Arthur A. Ross), Jordane Christie (Bobby Seale), and Glynn Turman (Walter Newton). Tiffany Boone, Janine Sherman Barrios, and Jim Hecht spoke with the SUN about their experience of shedding a new light on Newton’s story.
“The Big Cigar” follows the life of Newton before and during his escape to Cuba to avoid prosecution after being falsely accused of the murder of a 17-year-old prostitute. After constant FBI surveillance and numerous violent interactions, Newton made plans to leave the US for Cuba with the help of his friend and Hollywood producer Bert Schneider. Hecht shared why it was important to share this aspect of Newton’s story.
“I’ve always been very political,” Hecht said. “In college, I was obsessed with participatory democracy, civil disobedience and social movement as a way to sort of change and get on the agenda. So, I learned about Huey there. After that, I sort of had a realization that I thought the best way to change the world, at least for me, was through media because of the experiences I had up until that point in my life with the things that affected me and the way that I saw the world. I went back to film school, and that’s where I stumbled onto the story. iIt just combined all these aspects that were super important to me — radical politics, protests, social movements, fighting back and the 70’s Hollywood. On top of that, you have this amazing character at a point of crisis in his life that’s engaging in crazy caper. For 25 years, it’s just been, ‘If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?’ and it was this.”
Barrios echoed a similar sentiment on the importance of crafting a through line while retelling this aspect of Newton’s life.
“It all started in the writers’ room with the original pilot, and then in the room when we talked about the other episodes,” he said. “We wanted to make sure you contextualize Huey. A lot of us think Huey and the Panthers spoke truth to power by carrying arms, using the 2nd Amendment to their benefit and then going on the state capitol, or policing police and getting gun control for the first time changed by the Republicans because it was like ‘Black people with guns… we’re not doing this.’ That’s what we all thought it was about, but as you go on the journey, you discover that Huey wanted to start social programs to actually get equity in Black communities.”
“He wanted kids to have a meal before they went to school, because statistics show that if you are hungry sitting in a classroom, you cannot learn,” Barrios continued. “That was a basic thing — but that basic thing, that basic desire to have change, is what made the FBI make him one of the biggest targets in American history. The truth is that friction with the government is what turned him into being paranoid. They try him over and over again on cases he was acquitted for, and ultimately, when things got so tight (where this story picks up), he felt like he had to flee Oakland, and run to LA and Hollywood with his relationship and friendship with Bert Schneider. They made this fake movie to get him out of the country. For me, I thought if you can tell a caper story that can get this internet, Instagram, TikTok crowd in their seats, you might be able to also contextualize the Panthers and teach them at the same time. It’s entertaining, it’s teaching, but it doesn’t feel like medicine.”
During a great deal of Newton’s turmoil on his quests to escape to Cuba, Gwen Fontaine was by his side fighting with him. Fontaine was married to Newton from 1974 to 1983. Tiffany Boone shared what it was like taking on the role of such an iconic historical figure.
“I just scoured every book that I could find that had her name in it,” Boone said. “She’s a very, very private person, so there’s not a lot out there about her which I think is purposeful. So, I just found everything I could find, read everything I could find, looked for every picture, and put pictures all around my trailer of her and her kids. I still have a folder in my phone to this day that just says Gwen Fontaine.”
Throughout the limited series, the audience can see the strength and softness Boone perfectly balances while depicting Fontaine. The scenes between Boone and Holland are palpable and the chemistry undeniable.
“André and I worked really hard to build our relationship,” Boone said. “We had a lot of conversations between us and the writers about making their love story complicated, but also gentle and beautiful. There were a lot of dinners and drinks between André and I while we were trying to figure out who are these two people together. A lot of times, when people think of The Panthers, they don’t always think of women.
They think of Huey and Bobby… they don’t think of all the women that ran the party, but they kept this thing going. It was important to show that she’s a boss, that she’s smart, that she knows how to stand up for herself and stand up for him. She knows how to watch all these people around him — she knows how to do all of that. At the same time, I think it was important to see a Black Panther woman who is also fragile, vulnerable, gentle and knows how to live in her femininity… that’s who those women were. They weren’t just one kind of woman — none of us are. So, it was really important to me to show that dichotomy there and to show that in their relationship.”
“The Big Cigar” successfully takes the audience on a journey into the life of Newton specifically in a way that allows viewers to learn so much more about him than the information that is generally known or taught.
“Here’s the thing — I’ve done research on them before,” Boone said. “I did a show in the 70’s where I wanted to learn more, so I read the books, I did the things — but there’s so much more to learn. You can never stop learning about this. It’s one thing to read it in a book, or even watch it in a documentary, but specifically being able to watch André figure out who this man was — André is such an honest actor and so pure, it made me understand Huey in a whole different way. I know he’s not Huey, but his figuring it out and working through it made me have so much more respect and compassion for him. I think I learned so much more about the humanity of these people that we just don’t get to see.”
I really hope people that think they know about the Panthers come away being even more curious to learn more,” Boone said. “I hope they come away thinking, ‘I want to hear more about this little piece’ or ‘I thought I knew who Huey was, but who is this fine man with his shirt off on top of the cars?’and ‘Who are these women? You see Moses (Elaine), who plays another woman in the party that you go, ‘Wait — was that a real character? If so, who was she, and who was Gwen Fontaine?’ I just hope that you see these little pieces of people and go and learn more about them.”
The first two episodes of “The Big Cigar” were directed by award winning actor Don Cheadle. The first three episodes of “The Big Cigar” are available to stream on Apple TV+ with a subscription with new episodes of the six part series released every Friday.
Leave a Comment