It’s tough to be a teenager in any case, but Jaden Michael felt quite the responsibility while making the Netflix limited series “Colin in Black and White.”
His bosses: Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay and former 49ers quarterback and noted social activist Colin Kaepernick, the series creators. His assignment: portraying Kaepernick, one of the most polarizing figures of the last few years.
No pressure there.
“I was afraid he could fire me if I did a bad job,” Michael says with a laugh in a video chat with The Chronicle. “But he’s the sweetest person ever, and he made a very safe space and made me feel very comfortable.”
Michael plays Kaepernick as a high school student — through four formative years at Pitman High School in Turlock (Stanislaus County). Along the way, the young mixed-race Colin experiences racism, slights and just plain ol’ resistance to his dream of playing quarterback. He also falls in love for the first time.
The six-episode series drops on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 29.
“我预计的时候也说了,该做的也做了,科林will be on the Mount Rushmore of social activism in sports,” said executive producer Michael Starrbury, who ran the writers’ room and penned two of the half-hour episodes, in a separate video chat. “The idea (of the series) was never to convince anyone who is not a fan of Colin to become a fan of Colin. It’s, ‘Here’s some more information, something you may not have known about him. Maybe it’ll change your mind, but even if it doesn’t, at least you’ll be more informed about him.’
“But really, it’s a coming-of-age story. It’s a slice of America.”
“科林黑白”也星星Mary-Louise Parker (“Weeds”) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”), who play Kaepernick’s adoptive parents, Teresa and Rick Kaepernick; and Kaepernick himself: He narrates the series, sometimes walking in and out of the production in scenes shot by DuVernay, who also directed the first episode.
But all that star power doesn’t outshine Michael, who turns in a nice, subtle performance as young Colin grows and matures from age 14 to 18. One could easily see Michael, who is 6 feet 1, growing into a 6-foot-4 NFL quarterback.
“For me it was important to address his relationship with his family,” said Michael, who turned 18 this month. “It was important to know what his relationship was like with his adoptive parents. … It was sort of surprising to me that he loved his parents so much, and couldn’t imagine better parents, even through their mistakes and their faults, and he realizes they did the best that they could and they really did love him.”
Michael said he fasted to get super-skinny for his freshman and sophomore scenes before bulking up — and training — to play Kaepernick in his later prep school years, when he starts to shine as a college prospect.
“I threw like a nice 50-yard pass. It was great! I was like ‘Yeah, NFL!’ ” Michael said with a laugh.
Starrbury thought he nailed it.
“I think Jaden’s great! He ended up being good at both — acting and football,” Starrbury said.
Michael, who started as a child actor, is becoming a leading man as he transitions into adult roles. He starred in the Netflix horror comedy “Vampires vs. the Bronx” before making “Colin in Black and White”; he also headlines an upcoming Amazon Prime series, “Harlan Coben’s Shelter,” based on Coben’s young adult mystery. (His dream role: a live-action Miles Morales, the character who stars in the animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”)
His teenage years couldn’t have been more different from Kaepernick’s, but when the NFL star took a knee with the 49ers in 2016 during the national anthem to protest police killings of people of color, 12-year-old Michael noticed. The social justice movement that Kaepernick unleashed struck a chord with Michael because his mother had brought him up to do charitable work. He has worked with UNICEF and gave a speech at the United Nations on World Children’s Day in 2017.
“Growing up, my mother gave me an allowance, and I had to separate the allowance into different ‘banks.’ So a percentage of that money had to go to charity. So I was always thinking, ‘Which charity do I want to donate to this month? What is it that they do and why do I support them?” Michael said. “Every Thanksgiving, my mom and I go to church and give our time to feed the homeless, and build kits for those in shelters. And I’ve been very interested in politics, and like having mature conversations and having difficult conversations.
“I knew a lot about Colin and respected what he stood for. For me, he was a little bit of a role model. I’ve always thought it was important to give back, and I think Colin is the manifestation of someone who gives back.”
What would he like people to understand after watching “Colin in Black and White”?
“I hope people can learn to respect one another,” Michael said. “I feel like the media attempts to create and idealize people. Remember, Colin is human. And he’s a human with merely an opinion. Maybe if we can come to an understanding to just listen to one another. … Maybe we can have cumulative respect and cumulative listening, and maybe we can work towards a more prosperous future.”
“Colin in Black and White”(TV-14) premieres Friday, Oct. 29, on Netflix.