Amidst the sea of famous faces in the crowd at yesterday’s Democratic National Convention, none were as filled with palpable unbridled enthusiasm than Brooklyn’s own Spike Lee. The legendary filmmaker spent the day at Chicago’s United Center watching the various speeches unfold, talking to attendees both random and of equal Hollywood stature, and photo-documenting his experience for GQ. In conversation the next day, Spike was still riding on a high.
“There’s such thing as bad energy too—but there was none of that last night,” Spike said over the phone on Wednesday afternoon. “Last night was rarefied, the energy was off the charts.” One clip in particular showed Spike posted front and center as Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” rang off in the arena. “That’s our Brooklyn brother, Bed Stuy,” Spike said. “Every state had their song. Lil Jon turned it up too for Georgia, every state was reppin. But you know, we’re not gonna play no Beach Boys for New York, now,” he chuckled.
The highlight of Tuesday’s events was the same for Spike as it was for mostly everyone else who watched: the titanic, back-to-back speeches from the Obamas, with him agreeing with the general consensus that Michelle slightly outperformed her husband. “This is conjecture but I’m sure they compared notes beforehand. But [Barack] knew what the deal was, because our sister Michelle was firing,” Spike laughed with his trademark impish cackle. “Michelle brought it back home, talking about the deep, deep loss [in 2016.] It was an electric night, and I’m glad I was there in person.” (As for the big, bold DOUG sign Spike was spotted carrying, he relented that he didn’t know much about “Dougie Doug” before his speech last night but,”He’s married to my sister, so I gotta give him love.”)
Spike echoed Michelle and Barack’s sentiments that good vibes and surging polls notwithstanding, the race is far from over. “We gotta do everything we can to make sure this isn’t close,” he said. “Because if it’s close, you know what they’re gonna do. When they start doing the okie-doke, the rooty-toot, then they go on the three S’s, which are”—at this point Spike paused, almost as if waiting for me to fill in the blanks, before letting out a Spike Cackle™ and resuming—”Subterfuge. Skullduggery. Shenanigans! That’s their plan, we saw this move already. Like Obama said, we’ve seen the sequel and most times, they’re way worse. And what I liked about that too is, you know, my brother’s a cinephile. And [going to see] Do The Right Thing was their first date, so you know how I roll with em!”
His laughter gave way to a sobering return to laying out the stakes of what lies ahead for these last few weeks. “Until the clock says 0:00, until there’s three outs in the bottom of the ninth… I’ve seen too many—I was at the game in Shea Stadium, last row, when Mookie hit that ball. I know firsthand that it’s never over til it’s over. I’ve seen it again and again, teams get happy, celebrating before the game’s over… that could be curtains. I’ve seen it courtside, Madison Square Garden, Reggie Miller,” Spike let out a wistful chuckle as if the memory of that historic Knicks loss still stings to this day. “It’s happened too many times. Until the whistle blows, it’s not over.”
Spike is one of few filmmakers to depict—with subtlety and nuance, that is—how a MAGA mindset might take hold over the average American, via Delroy Lindo’s (woefully non-Oscar nominated) turn as a scorned veteran turned Trump supporter in Spike’s most recent film Da 5 Bloods. “He feeds on the worst in human beings,” Spike said of the former President. “Cheat, steal, lie. That’s the game plan. He’s been doing that his whole life. Look at his track record, the guy doesn’t tell the truth. And he just hopes that if you keep lying, people will believe it. But people got to get hip to that game plan. It’s not new. America has to be smarter. We can’t keep going for the okie doke, the flim-flam.”
