Nate Parker Offered No Apologies for Rape Accusations on ‘60 Minutes’

Sunday night on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper interviewed Nate Parker, the writer, director, and star of The Birth of a Nation, the independent movie telling the story of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion that has become a lightning rod for criticism in the months since its Sundance debut because of the rape allegations brought against Parker when he was a Penn State student in 1999. Parker has been wading through controversy and criticisms for the past few months, particularly after Variety ran an article revealing that his accuser later fell into psychological problems before committing suicide in 2012.

Parker’s few media appearances since the controversy bubbled up had been criticized as playing-the-victim, and his refusal to take responsibility for whatever actions he committed at age 19 has rubbed many the wrong way and have The Birth of a Nation teetering precariously from its once solid perch as an Oscar frontrunner. When viewed through that lens, it’s hard to see how Parker’s 60 Minutes interview will help. Certainly not with those who are looking for some kind of contrition from Parker. Cooper’s interview doesn’t beat around the bush and gets right to it. Does Parker feel guilty for “anything that happened that night”? Parker: “I don’t feel guilty.”

Parker remained steadfast about his legal status: “I was falsely accused,” he said. “I went to court. And I sat in trial. You know I was … I was vindicated.” Parker was choked up as he said that last part, as he was when he spoke of how terrible he feels for the family of his accuser that she is dead. But he doesn’t see he has anything to apologize for (though he does bring up his Christianity when Cooper asks if he thinks he did anything “morally” incorrect that night).

Cooper’s interview was also instructive when it comes to how The Birth of a Nation is likely going to have to weather another, different kind of controversy. Once the talk of Parker’s rape accusations ceased, talk turned to the brutal nature of his film’s subject matter. Cooper’s voiceover mentions “some residents” of the Southampton, VA, town where Turner’s rebellion took place, “were worried that Nate Parker’s film would open old wounds.” At another point, Cooper makes sure to remind the audience at home that women and children were among those who died at the hands of Turner and his fellow insurrectionist slaves.

Whether this is merely concern-trolling on Cooper’s part or it represents an undercurrent of white protest awaiting the film’s release remains to be seen. But, yes, it looks like white people, who have managed to lionize every bloody armed conflict that the United States of America has managed to get itself involved with throughout its long history, may indeed be fixing to have a problem with a movie about slaves who, for even just two days, rose up and killed their oppressors. You’d think that something as abominable as slavery wouldn’t be seen as a controversial impetus for bloody revolution. But you also wouldn’t have thought that Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the civil rights movement would have been controversial either. But you can tell that to Ava DuVernay, whose Selma saw its Oscar campaign besieged by accusations that it didn’t give Lyndon Johnson enough credit for his own contributions to civil rights.

Clearly, one way or another, The Birth of a Nation is shaping up to be the controversial film of fall 2016.