IMPRINT Interview With Classically trained actor Omar J. Dorsey from OWN’s Queen Sugar

IMPRINT Entertainment had the amazing opportunity to conduct a interview with actor Omar J. Dorsey. You may recognize him from films such as The Blind Side, Selma, Django: Unchained and most recently Ava Duvernay and Oprah Winfrey Network’s dramatic television series, Queen Sugar. Dorsey is from Decatur, Georgia which is about twenty minutes outside of Atlanta. “I moved from Atlanta fifteen years ago. There wasn’t too much work out there so I moved to Los Angeles to get larger roles,” he continued “I filmed The Blind Side and Selma in Atlanta and I try to come back as much as I can.” When asked about his thoughts on Atlanta becoming the new mecca for entertainment he replied, “Atlanta was always a music scene even back in the day,” he reminisced, “I would hang out with other artsy kids around Little 5 Points all the time and I saw the growth beginning, I saw the seed being planted.”

Dorsey will soon be gracing the silver screen opposite Miles Teller and Amy Schumer in
the Dreamworks/Amblin Entertainment drama, Thank You For Your Service, which examines how post-traumatic stress disorder affects American servicemen and women returning home from war. You won’t catch Dorsey only on television or only in movies but on stage as well, the multifaceted actor was recently seen in the west coast version of Barbecue. Barbecue is a raucous comedy that skewers our warped view of the American family. “I pick the best roles that will feed me as an artist,” said Dorsey, “I try not to do things I’ve already done, I want diversity in my work.”

Dorsey gave us some insight on his views with acting on television verses film. “With
television you get to grow with that character since day one. I’ve grown with Hollywood. Its important to have a good relationship with the writers. You talk about how you want to develop your character in the beginning and 4 or 5 months later you see it on paper in the script. With film you smash it out for two months then move on to something else. I think now people relate more to tv stars more than movie stars, it used to be a time when being in movies was bigger than tv, now it’s the other way around. If I had my preference I would choose television.”

Dorsey currently plays Hollywood on Ava Duvernay’s show Queen Sugar, but this isn’t
the first time Dorsey has worked with the talented director. “Working with Ava is a collaborative effort. We’ve been friends for 4 years and this is our 4th year working together. She listens to me,” he continued, “She knows what she’s doing when she puts together a cast [Selma.] No one knew who we [cast members] were before that movie yet we had been working ten to twelve years prior to that. She believed in me. I didn’t even have a fan base at the time but she didn’t care. You have to have so much drive, there’s no privilege in being a black woman director. I look up to her.” Dorsey also mentioned how much he loves playing Hollywood, adding that “it is my heart.”

In the interview Dorsey revealed what his most challenging role was in “Django:
Unchained. I was in Louisiana for 5 months shooting. I looked at myself in the mirror one day and I just started crying because this is what my ancestors looked like 400 years ago,” he continued, “I don’t think I could ever play a slave again, it brought a lot of out of me.”

Dorsey is keeping busy for the rest of the year with projects lined up left and right. He
will be in Halloween where he will be playing a jerk sheriff who doesn’t believe Mike Myers is really dead. He said, “It’s really scary, you’re going to laugh at some parts but you’re going to be really scared too.” He has 3 movies that he’s doing back to back. “I can’t really talk about them right now but I will say that I will be acting in a film about Mike Brown and Ferguson,” he ended graciously with, “I’m fortunate enough to be playing leads now which is so different.”