Exclusive: LeVar Burton Talks ‘Roots,’ Trekkies, Strangest Fan Encounter & Working With Laurence Fishburne
LeVar Burton is a Hollywood institution (and a very cool guy).
Spreading the love of reading for decades as host of Reading Rainbow, keeping Trekkies of the world glued to the screen during his time on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and blowing us all away in his breakout role as Kunta Kinta in the 1977 miniseries Roots, Burton’s talent has really stood the test of time (and genre).
Most recently, he played himself opposite Laurence Fishburne’s Doc Rivers in the FX limited series, Clipped, and he’s already onto his next project: being the host of the new CW reality competition series premiering Oct. 3 at 9pm, Trivial Pursuit. We recently sat down to talk about how nerds have taken over the world, his weirdest fan encounter, and what he still has from the set of Roots (among other things).
What do you get recognized for the most?
It depends, and I can generally tell if it’s a Roots fan, a Reading Rainbow fan or a Star Trek fan. It’s situational. Depends on where I am. I’ve got to say though, that these days, more and more … The generation of adults now who grew up on Reading Rainbow, they are legion. They’re everywhere. They’re everywhere. And it’s kind of crazy.
But Star Trek too! I went to my chiropractor this morning and I mentioned I was talking to you today, and he got really excited, and I learned he was a secret Trekkie.
Your chiropractor? Well there you go. There are a lot of secret Trekkies. There really are. And not so secret anymore, because with fandoms, you can be out and proud with your fandom. You could be as nerdy as you want. Nerds have inherited the earth.
2002 by Paramount Pictures/Courtesy: Everett Collection.
They have and it’s great.
I got to say, being a huge nerd, I’m pretty happy with the turn of events.
What was your weirdest fan encounter, and was it a Trekkie?
My strangest fan encounter was probably a Trekkie. They asked to sign a body part so that they could then get it tattooed. That doesn’t happen every day.
Which body part? Because William Shatner had a fun answer for that one.
I think he has actually signed a breast.
Yes! That’s what he told us.
Mine was a leg, but still. An unusual request. They’re going to get this tattooed. That’s forever! That kind of messes with your mind. Why would somebody want this on their body?
Because they are huge fans, obviously. Plus, then they can show everybody that their leg got signed by LeVar Burton.
I did a movie with Steve McQueen, his last movie, The Hunter. We were standing underneath the El train in Chicago and Steve McQueen draws a crowd. And so I’m signing autographs and I look over and Steve’s not signing. After it was all over, and the crowd had dissipated, I said, “So Pappy, what’s with not signing autographs?” And he said, “Birdie,” (I called him Pappy because Papillon was my favorite McQueen movie and he called me Birdie because of Burton) “over time, I’ve learned that what people are looking for is the story. They want a moment. I’d rather shake a hand and look in their eyes and say a kind word rather than be buried in the writing of something. And that piece of paper, it’ll get crumpled up and put in a kitchen drawer someplace, but the story will remain. It’s the story that they’re after now.”
He was famous enough, he was a big enough movie star. He can say, “No autographs.” Not everybody can do that, but I get it. What they’re after is the story and the signature on the leg and the tattooing of the signature. That’s a great story.
Paramount
I just saw you on Clipped the other day playing yourself. Did you actually run into Doc Rivers in a sauna?
No, I’ve never met Doc Rivers. I thought it was a beautifully clever device that Gina Wells, the writer [of Clipped] used in terms of giving the audience insight into Doc’s frame of mind. I loved it. And who doesn’t love Lawrence Fishburne? I love Fish and as long as we’ve known and loved one another, we’ve never worked together before, so that was a special treat.
You’ll forever be remembered for your role in Roots. Do you still have anything from the set?
Oh, I have the chains that I wore on my ankles. They were a gift from production.
Courtesy of Everett
That’s amazing! Is there anything you remember from filming the movie that maybe people don’t know?
In the whipping scene at the end of hour four, when Punta finally submits to the name Toby, we had to shoot that scene twice because the first time I just could not relax enough to have my back to this man with a whip in his hand. I was too skittish, too jumpy. I was not ready. I was not prepared. So they brought him back a couple of days later and I spent the morning with him the whole first part of the day, watching him do his tricks and just getting a sense of how much of an expert this man was with this tool. I had to develop trust in him. Having just met him when we first tried to film it, I had no trust at all. So it just didn’t work. I had to be still until the lash came on; I couldn’t be anticipating the lash.
I don’t know many people who could be completely comfortable standing on an egg crate with their back turned and the tip of that whip is moving at 120 miles an hour. I had to know that man knew what he was doing and he could wrap that whip around my body without piercing flesh.
Remind Check out Trivial Pursuit, a new reality competition based on the board game, on The CW starting Oct. 7 at 9pm.
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