12 Years a Slave, opened in limited release this month, with incredible reviews. Critics say it brilliantly captures the unforgiving essence of pre-Emancipation Proclamation America. Jay Huguley plays a compassionate Sheriff in the film. He’s best known for his role on ABC’s Brothers and Sisters and the HBO series Treme. Jay spoke with The Celebrity Café about the film and other recent work.

TheCelebrityCafe.com:Well, Jay you’re involved with many different projects right now. I’m going to begin with 12 Years a Slave. There is a lot of buzz about this movie produced by Brad Pitt. You’ve got an all-star cast including Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti and yourself amongst others as well as an impressive partnership of writers and the director. What were your initial thoughts signing onto this project?

Jay Huguley:Well, signing onto it was the easiest part. I had wanted it so bad. The auditioning part was a little harder. I had seen this director’s [Steve McClain] movies and think he’s one of the best artists working in the business right now. I just wanted to work with him so badly. I read for it, made some changes, read again. I just crossed my fingers and I got it. I was thrilled!

TCC:12 Years is based on the true story of Soloman Northup, a northern black man kidnapped into slavery. Did you do a lot of research to prepare yourself for the historical drama?

JH:You know, I had about ten days before I started so I did as much research as I possibly could. I very quickly read the book, it’s Northup’s first hand account. That helped a lot. Once I got down to New Orleans (we shot in rural Lousianna) I went to the New Orleans Public Library and looked at old images. I read as much about the slave trade as I possibly could. You get to set and you have the most amazing hair and makeup people, costume designers, and you arrive on a real plantation from that time period and a lot of your work is done. You really are able to immerse yourself very quickly and easily.

TCC:We’ve seen slavery being depicted quite often in television and film recently.
12 years is getting extraordinary reviews. What sets this movie in particular apart from the rest?

JH:My first impression after having seen the movie for the first time [at the New Orleans premiere] was that you really get the sense that a director has finally come around and told the truth. This is not the beautiful, well-lit version of slavery. This is a depiction of the darkest part of American history. We have to never forget, we have to own that it happened. It was awful and you know, the director finally came along and made it not pretty and told the truth. You really get the sense when you are seeing the film that you are watching something very unique. He focused a lot on the work being done which I’ve never seen in a slavery movie before. From the cotton picking to the cutting of the sugar cane, all the actual work that was done on these plantations – it really gets you into the story. I didn’t see these things on Roots or some of the other movies.

TCC:Like you just mentioned, it doesn’t shy away from the horrific details of what really occurred. Your cast members have said that to cope with the emotional toll of the film, you’d all get together and engage in different light-hearted activities to distress. What kind of things did you guys do? Was it hard to separate yourself from the brutal accounts portrayed in the film? I imagine the tone on set was pretty dark.

JH:Well, actually not the case! There was surprisingly a lot of joy on set. I think there had to be. We set a tone on set where people are not inhibited, they’re not afraid to make mistakes, and we all knew that we were part of something very, very special and a story that needed to be told. I had a very specific time down there, just a few days on set, and some of the other cast members had a much longer period of time that they were working and living in New Orleans. But no, I think the stories had so many dark components to it that you had to create a lot of joy on set. There was a lot of hugs and encouragement.

TCC:Do you have any experience from shooting in particular that you felt you really connected with the story? Knowing that this was based on true events, was there any time where you really go into character?

JH:Yeah, my character is very much in the book. He’s a sympathetic man. There really is no explanation as to why he is a sympathetic man. But I just did as much research on the period as possible and the attitudes. Once you do that, and get in a great hair and makeup artist chair who greases up your hair and makes you look like you lived in the 1800’s. It really does a lot of the work for you. As an actor, you have to remember that this was just a man that was living during his time in the middle of nowhere and he had a job to do.

TCC:I’m going to completely switch it up on you now and bring up Ravenswood, a spin-off of ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars. A mysterious teen-drama. It only premiered a few weeks ago and has been picked up for another 10 episodes. I know that you tweeted, “Great week working on 'Ravenswood',the smartest, most talented group of actors I’ve worked with in a long time!”

JH:“It’s true!”

TCC:That definitely says a lot! Tell me more about filming.

JH:It does say a lot. I’ve been acting for maybe 25 years now and a lot of your work experience, whether a good or bad experience, is the cast. Your out of town sometimes, very long hours, and you spend a lot of time with the people. These are mostly actors in their twenties and I just found immediately that they are the smartest, funniest, most interesting, talented group of young actors I’ve ever worked with. I think that’s a testament not only to them, but to the producers. They chose a great, smart, talented cast.

TCC:It’s excellent that you could be part of that and have a great experience on that project. I’m going to wrap it up now and discuss Treme,/i>. You were part of the series, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, last year and came on again for the finale recently. The show has received both critical praise and the approval of New Orleanians. Tell me about your experiences shooting in New Orleans. I know that you shot in Louisianna for 12 Years – same setting, but two completely different projects.

JH: Yeah, and two different periods of time. This is very much modern day shot in the city of New Orleans, where as 12 Years a Slave was way out in the country, close to Baton Rouge. But Treme was created by David Simon who created The Wire, one of the best shows on TV. [Treme] is just really smart! They have a great director. Each episode is pretty much its own feature film. And the story line is so interesting. I’ve been very lucky the last couple of years to work with smart, talented people. I always wanted to work with David and work on something that is the quality that Treme is. I got really lucky!

12 Years a Slave is out now in limited release. You can also see Jay in the series finale of Treme, which premieres it’s final season on HBO this December.