Steve McQueen Talks New Amazon Anthology Series 'Small Axe'

2020-11-17T19:14:44.000Z

"There were people who pulled out of '12 Years a Slave' because they didn't think it would make any money," McQueen said, "but the fact of the matter is we made over virtually $150 million outside of the United States, which tells you how hungry people were for that kind of narrative."

"They didn't expect that," he continued. "It made 57 million in the United States box office. We exceded our DVD sales for the year in one week. That's when people used to buy DVDs."

McQueen said that it was at that moment when Hollywood realized that it could cash in big with stories about Black people told by Black filmmakers.

"Just go back and look before '12 Years a Slave' and after," McQueen began. "From a direct result of that 'Moonlight' was made and 'Selma' was made because it was made by the same producers. And the only reason they were able to make it was because of '12 Years a Slave' being a financial hit because they were trying to make those movies for a long time, but they couldn't until '12 Years a Slave.'"

The award-winning director says he doesn't care to look back on his legacy

"Mangrove" is the first film in McQueen's "Small Axe" collection. Kieran McCarron/Amazon Prime Video

Although McQueen has spent over three decades as one of the most sought after film directors and visual artist — he is still the only person ever to win both an Academy Award and the prestigious Turner Prize for visual art — he told Insider that he isn't interested in pondering his legacy.

"You don't mind yourself that's just bull----," he said. "It's one day at a time. My mother used to say it to me all the time. Before my first day of shooting 'Small Axe,' I couldn't sleep. I stayed up all night. I was nervous. So you know, it's work that's all."

Despite his current move to the small screen and the alarming number of movie theaters forced to close due to the pandemic, McQueen told Insider that he thinks when it is again safe to congregate in large crowds, there will be a "cascade" of people rushing back to movie theaters.

"There's going to be a stampede into the cinemas," he said, "because since day one we've been sitting around campfires and telling stories as a community, sharing stories, and I think the cinema is a space that we want to see something with a community of people."

"There's a lot of talk about people saying people are getting used to watching things on their laptops or on their phones, but once they go back to the cinema, it's an experience you can't emulate."