As Chicago native Karimah Westbrook prepared for her role as the wife and mother of the first black family to move into the fictional Suburbicon — in director and co-writer George Clooney’s new film of the same title (opening Friday) — the actress looked to history for inspiration.
by Bill Zwecker for Chicago Sun Times
The project was sparked by the true story of Daisy Meyers and her family moving into the all-white planned community of Levittown, Pennsylvania, in 1957, so Westbrook first turned to Meyers’ memoir of that period, “Sticks and Stones.”
“I learned so much from reading her book,” said the actress, seen earlier in “Badasssss” and “The Rum Diary.” “You can understand how Daisy came to be known as the ‘Rosa Parks of the North,’ ” for sticking it out in Levittown for five years, despite constant harassment, intimidation, hostility and all kinds of racial bias.
