Steve McQueen, the director of Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave, joined Arsenio Hall on the host’s late night talk show and shared his thoughts on the film’s success and detractors.
Hall presented McQueen with a quote said by polarizing film critic Armond White, in which the writer called the movie “torture porn.”
White later allegedly heckled McQueen as he stood onstage accepting his best director award at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
He was heard calling McQueen “an embarrassing doorman and garbage man.” He also screamed, “F**k you. Kiss my a**.”
McQueen reportedly did not acknowledge White’s outburst at the time .
However, during his appearance on the late-night talk show, Hall asked the director to share his thoughts on such critiques of his film.
“It’s one of those things when where you make a movie like this, your going to get a lot of things thrown at you and because this kind of film hasn’t been made before,” McQueen said. “I wanted to give a real portrayal of slavery. Why hasn’t it been done before? I don’t know.”
He added: “I think now people are willing to engage and look at a history, possibly for the first time in a way that they haven’t done before.”