I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart.

Bass Reeves was the first Black Deputy U.S. Marshal

west of the Mississippi River.

Today, he is the subject of lawmen, Bass Reeves.

The most watched series premiere on Paramount Plus in

2023. The star of the series is the main driver for getting the project on the

air. I'm talking about David O'Yelloo.

Because of his role in law men, Bass Reeves, O'Yellowo has been nominated for a

Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television

Movie or Limited Series, and he had been nominated for Best Actor in a

limited series at the Golden Globes. In this conversation first recorded for Washington Post live on January 10th,

O'Yellowo talks about how he first heard about Bass Reeves,

what it was like to work with his wife in a part weighted with personal and historic significance,

and why it was important to him to get Bass Reeves story on the screen.

We are very cognizant, we're very aware of the power of history, how it's told, how it's taught, how it's shown,

how it's seen, because it is a reflection not only of who we were but who we valued and who we value.

And it's about power. If you have the representation of that black man on that white horse as I insisted

we must have in all the marketing because that was the image I wanted to gift my six-year-old self.

If we can agree that there is something potent about that imagery,

something powerful about that imagery,

then we also have to accept that there is a reason why it is kept from us. You know I read that it took eight years to bring Laman Bass Reeves together to get it on screen.

Why were you so passionate about sharing his story?

...