"Lee Daniels' The Butler" is the latest movie from the Oscar-nominated director of “Precious”. It’s a sweeping look at America during the volatile Civil Rights Movement, as told from the point of view of a silent eyewitness inside the White House.

StageBuddy sat down with Lee Daniels and cast members Forest Whitaker, Terrance Howard, and Cuba Gooding Jr. to discuss the Civil Rights Movement and the emotional pull of "Lee Daniels' The Butler".

StageBuddy: How do you see the role of the butler, do you think he’s an unspoken hero?

Cuba Gooding Jr: There’s something to be said about a man who leads by example, and his example in this case was to show strength and accessibility, and yet be a silent observer of workings that affected not only him and his family, but a nation of people at a time when blacks weren’t thought of to be intelligent or capable of holding coherent thought. He was a man that was processing what was going on around him, and engaging in a social life with his friends and his wife, but at the same time being representative of his race in a way that could be dignified and professional.

Lee Daniels: I think what Cecil did was right, it was the right thing to do. He served his country well by getting white people to trust him, and by being subservient and passive, and white people trusted black people because of that. And I think that his son was just as right by being in the streets fighting for our freedom.

Forest Whitaker: These guys [the household staff].. by their dignity and the way they worked changed the way they saw a whole community. Because when you see somebody and you don’t know them, but then you acknowledge them, by acknowledging them you start to get some understanding, and then you can have some compassion, and if you have compassion, then maybe you can even move into forgiveness or love. All those things are stepping stones to be able to be healed. Like in the film, there’s my wife and my son, and we loved each other in the core of it and we’re trying to heal. And the country is still trying to heal and be all it should be.

Terrence Howard: This country, the US, is a very young country, but what we have failed to do, we are starting to make reparations towards it now. No one can say that a black man can’t become the president, or a woman, and I believe the very next president of the US will be a woman. And as a result, mankind will see what they can accomplish, and stop holding others back saying they can’t do more.

If we can do that as a human race, put aside our personal inadequacy that we project onto other people, then maybe we can see the things that shine out of them. Maybe we’ll see maids and butlers and servants as really something greater than our own perception of them - because we don’t want to see ourselves in that position, we treat them differently.

StageBuddy: I think in part that’s why we connect with the characters so much because we felt for them, like when your son decides to go to the war in Vietnam, and everything that you’re going through we’re also going through with you.

Forest Whitaker: There are a lot of people here who are young and don’t know the history... so it’s nice that we get to be part of something that allows it to be emotional to you, and you can relate to it.

Lee Daniels: I did the movie because of the father and son story... because my son and I sometimes fight, and I think the father and son story is a universal story and it’s a love story, really. The Civil Rights Movement... wasn’t here at the forefront of the story. It wasn’t until the bus scene that I realized this was a very serious story about a movement, not just white kids, but black kids, that were on that bus, that were fighting for freedom.

StageBuddy: Oprah plays your wife in the film, how was it working with her and getting her back into acting?

Forest Whitaker: She was working on the part for a while, she found somebody to work with that she trusted, that Lee had suggested, this acting coach. She was doing this amazing work, honestly. I was really excited to be in the scenes with her because the scenes we were doing felt so real and so true. I never felt like it was false, I always felt like we were together. We were friends but this allowed us to try to find a comfort level that was much deeper than that, to try to have intimacy, you know that you would buy, that you would say “they’re a couple.” Even if we’re sitting at opposite ends of the table, even if I’m pouring tea at the counter, they would say “I know them, that’s my grandma and my granddaddy.”

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" opens in theaters on August 16th.