Ashton Sanders plays main character Bigger Thomas in the new film adaptation of Native Son, the Richard Wright novel.
In the classic 1940 novel Native Son, 20-year-old Bigger Thomas dreams of a life beyond his impoverished Chicago neighborhood.
As in the book, the new Native Son movie begins with Bigger killing a huge rat in his house, where he lives with his siblings and their single mother. His troubles accelerate after he gets hired as a driver for the Daltons, a wealthy white family.
But this time, the story is set in contemporary times. The new retelling of Richard Wright's novel debuts on HBO this Saturday, April 6. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote the screenplay. And the adaptation was directed by artist Rashid Johnson.
