Marchánt Davis is an actor who is no stranger to playing roles related to law enforcement, whether as a Black power preacher set up by bumbling FBI agents in Chris Morris’s bleak comedy The Day Shall Come or as one of the two FBI agents interrogating NSA whistleblower Reality Winner in Tina Satter’s gripping Reality. Davis deftly portrays R Wallace Taylor, the FBI agent who questioned Winner without reading her Miranda rights using what many have described as unethical techniques. The script of Reality was drawn from the transcripts of Winner’s interrogation on 3 June 2017. Davis stresses that the film is fully vérité, and it does not provide much in the way of character or narrative arcs. Instead, it offers a raw, white-knuckled insight into that one moment in time. Davis has a keen interest in Reality beyond just his role in it and has found the information that he learned from the role to be fascinating. He notes that Winner did commit a crime, and the agents at her house were simply doing their jobs. He also points out that the film is rife with grey areas, and the viewer’s interpretation is dependent on their individual perspective. Davis’s other work includes increasingly splashy roles on Broadway, where he often seeks to evoke the multiplicity of Black male identity. He also recently published a children’s book, A Boy and His Mirror, about a Black boy who learns to feel comfortable in his own skin after being taunted by classmates about his hairstyle.

Important points:
– Marchánt Davis plays R Wallace Taylor, an FBI agent who interrogates NSA whistleblower Reality Winner.
– Reality is based on the actual FBI transcripts of Winner’s June 2017 interrogation.
– Davis notes that the film is fully vérité and offers a raw, white-knuckled insight into that one moment in time.
– Davis has a keen interest in Reality beyond his role and has found the information he learned from the role fascinating.
– Davis often seeks to evoke the multiplicity of Black male identity in his work.
– Davis recently published a children’s book, A Boy and His Mirror, about a Black boy who learns to feel comfortable in his own skin after being taunted by classmates about his hairstyle.