Sterling K. Brown Gets Real With Drew Barrymore About Life As A Black Actor

Sterling K. Brown is digging deep into his EGOT dreams and career as a Black actor.
The “American Fiction” star was genuinely shocked when he earned an Oscar nod for his performance in the acclaimed new satire, but equally pleased that he was one potential award closer to his wish: winning at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award each.
Sterling said in an interview Monday that he first started thinking about that exclusive club after winning three Primetime Emmys for his performances in “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” (2016) “This Is Us” (2017) and “Lincoln: Divided We Stand” (2021).
“After getting a few Emmys or whatnot, you realize, all right, that’s a quarter of the way to the EGO. Let’s see if we can figure out ways to get the other ones,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “But I didn’t think that it was going to necessarily be from this role or this film.”
He continued, “I’m fully aware that it is a marathon and not a sprint. I’m here for the long haul. And so the fact that the nomination came with this project is very pleasing because I think the project is awesome.”
The comedic drama, which director Cord Jefferson adapted from Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,” centers on a hopeful Black author who finally gets recognized — but only after the stereotypical “Black” novel he writes out of frustration garners buzz.
The film is nominated for five Oscars, including nods for Jefferson and actor Jeffrey Wright.
While Brown previously said Robert Downey Jr. is likely to beat him in the Best Supporting Actor race, he’s glad his role is “expanding the collective consciousness and imagination of what Black life on screen can be” and said he’s “just happy to be a part of it.”
Brown delved deeper on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Monday and said “American Fiction” is a satire about “the narrow prism through which Black stories are frequently told” and the expectations white liberal audiences have of Black characters in literature and film.
Things became more playful when he was asked about his “most gruesome or favorite” on-screen death. For Brown, who started his career in 2002 with small roles in films like “Brown Sugar” and shows like “NYPD Blue,” the answer was easy but just as poignant.
“Oh, that’s a great question,” he told Barrymore. “As a Black actor, you die a lot on-screen, real talk. But my most favorite one was on ‘Supernatural,’ where I became a vampire hunter and I needed to die, but then I got bit by a vampire and so I had to die by being beheaded.”
While Brown added, “That was a good time,” he might have a better one at the Oscars.
The 2024 Academy Awards air on March 10.
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