The ‘This Is Us’ star is the first black actor to win the Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama category in 75 years.
Sterling K. Brown is reflecting on his historic night at the Golden Globe Awards.
The This Is Us actor went into the history books on Sunday when he became the first black actor ever to win the Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama category since the inception of the awards show, a fact that wasn’t lost on Brown.
“It’s been 75 years and I was the first. I was shocked. I did not know this was the case,” Brown told ET’s Kevin Frazier backstage following his win. “Hopefully it won’t be another 75 years until somebody else does, but if my presence can open doors and can inspire someone ‘cause it take -- you have to see something sometimes first before you can envision for yourself. So if they can see me walk across that stage allows them to see themselves walking across that stage, happy to be a part of it, man.”
In addition to This Is Us, Brown is gearing up for a pretty busy year, with Black Panther, The Predator and Hotel Artemis all coming out in 2018. How is he handling the day-to-day grind?
“One day at a time,” he said, adding that maintaining “balance” is important to him. “Go and do a film, I go spend some time with my two little boys and my wife and then I go do a TV show and then I come home and do another film. But I’m always making sure I’m coming home ‘cause what coming home feeds me and allows me is the ability to go back out into the world and try to do something beautiful.”
Also on the docket is Brown’s upcoming guest spot on Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is significant because he was the first black actor to win the Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy since Andre Braugher did it in 1998 for Homicide: Life on the Street.
“All of my scenes were with Braugher and with Andy Samberg, and I'm a fan of the show. But to sit and talk with Andre Braugher, fellow Stanford grad -- he's a Julliard man, NYU -- to have somebody who traversed the path that I gone through and talk to me about what life has been like on the other side, it’s invaluable,” Brown said of his time on the Brooklyn Nine-Nine set. “We don’t have mentors like that that frequently. When you find one, you just try to hold onto them and not wear them out.”
Brown also spoke about what he hopes his two young sons, 6-year-old Andrew and 2-year-old Amare, take away from him as they grow older.
“What I believe the universe holds for all of us is it can be and should be a friendly place. Now, oftentimes to the antithesis of that we come up against things that scare us and try to close us off and make us small and fearful,” he said, “but my children do not have a spirit of fear, of power, love and of sound mind and I want them to walk through the world with boldness, knowing they belong each and every place that they step.”
With his first Golden Globe win, Brown shared where he’ll put his latest hardware: in a glass display case in the garage. “It’s an extended living space -- it’s real nice!”
RELATED CONTENT:
