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As an undercover cop in ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ Adam Driver takes it personally

Promoting Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Adam Driver gave a brief interview saying that, growing up in Indiana, “there were always Klan rallies, like, every summer.”

A few historians in Indiana pushed back, accusing Driver of indulging in hyperbole … until they checked newspaper archives and discovered that the Klan was active in the St. Joseph County area during Driver’s youth there in the ’90s.

“I heard about that peripherally,” Driver says of the debate. “That I was making it up. It was very strange. Now, I can’t keep track of every summer, but my point was that it was frequent. I didn’t understand why it was questioned.”

Were you surprised that people expressed skepticism about white supremacists in the Midwest?
I understand that for people in Indiana, there’s a sensitivity about not being painted with a broad brush as being a haven for racists, which it is not. But to say there is no Klan presence throughout Indiana is frustrating. I was always aware of it. In my own neighborhood, there were people down the street from me.
Flip’s complicated relationship with his own faith and heritage is one of the more interesting aspects of the film. Was that part of the appeal of playing him?
Apart from working with Spike, that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to do the film. I love the idea of your heritage becoming important to you at different times in your life. Flip doesn’t internalize his job, maybe to self-preserve. As an actor, I can understand that. But also, as an actor, I know that you have to be invested at a certain point. And when Flip goes undercover and has to say these terrible things out loud, it affects him. I don’t know how it couldn’t. So he has to face those questions. Maybe he has to take it personally and that’s not a bad thing. It’s empowering.

Read the full interview on

Los Angeles Times

here.