Steve McQueen recounts own experience that inspired '12 Years A Slave'

12 Years A Slave creator Steve McQueen was moved by his own experiences with Hollywood execs to make a film about slavery.

Speaking in an onstage screen talk at the London Film Festival, McQueen recalled how he was received by Hollywood execs after the success of his 2008 film Hunger, starring Michael Fassbender.

“So I went to Hollywood and I went to the studios and I think people thought I was white because I did Hunger,” McQueen shared.

“I took these meetings and they were all looking at me funny. But during those meetings it became apparent to me that slavery happened here. It’s something that really happened here. And I thought to myself I want to make a movie about slavery,” he continued.

He went on to say that Obama’s presidency had a huge impact on opportunities for Black filmmakers.

“I know for a fact that if President Obama wasn’t in office that movie wouldn’t have been made. It was an in,” McQueen said.

He added: “It was before Oscars So White. My proudest feeling after 12 Years A Slave was that a lot of Black filmmakers got opportunities to make their movies. Because it was a blockbuster. It made loads of money from a very small budget. So a lot of movies got made because of it.”

McQueen’s latest film Blitz is set to open the London Film Festival. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan as Rita, who sends her 9-year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan) away from London during the Blitz. George then begins a perilous journey to find his mom, while she frantically looks for him at the same time. The film will stream on Apple TV+ on 22 November.