Director/Actors Discuss 'Stonewall' with Joe & Mika

On Tuesday Producer/director Roland Emmerich and two of the film's actors, Otoja Abit and Jonny Beauchamp, came to MSNBC's Morning Joe to talk about "Stonewall," Emmerich's latest film that comes to theaters this week, with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Asked by host Joe Scarborough as to why he chose the subject matter, Emmerich said: "Several reasons, first of all, how little people know about it in our LGBT community. Secondly, I was made aware of the plight of homeless gay youth in our streets, which is still a problem. And the fact that once in a while you want to do something close to your heart."

Movie audiences that know Emmerich from his blockbuster titles like "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow" are likely surprised to see him associated with a such a small-scaled project with a cast mostly of unknowns; but the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969 is a subject close to the out director's heart.

Asked why he chose to recreate the event, Emmerich explained he did so for a number of reasons. "First of all, how little people know about it in our LGBT community. Secondly, I was made aware of the plight of homeless gay youth in our streets, which is still a problem. And the fact that once in a while you want to do something close to your heart."

Addressing the riots themselves, Emmerich explained that the "Stonewall riots spawned the modern gay liberation movement. It was the first time that gay people stood up and went against police. The customers of this one bar. It was the biggest dance club then. It was Mafia ran, like all these gay bars. And just one night, for whatever reason, they had enough. It had a huge impact."

In the film Emmerich and his screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz's take real-life individuals who were involved in the riots and puts them in a fictional story about Danny, an 18-year kid from Indiana who comes to New York after his parents learn that he is gay. The reason why Emmerich chose to use this fictional character in telling the story brought him back to his original impulse to make the film.

"Because I kind-of felt I wanted to tell the story of the Stonewall riots, I wanted to tell the story of homeless youth. Like homeless kids, they don't have any people to promote them. It was also a little bit that whoever at that time were activists, they stood a little bit by and looked at it from the outside."

New York actors Otoja Abit and Jonny Beauchamp play two of the marginalized characters for whom the Stonewall Inn was a hang-out, despite the frequent police raids. Abit plays real-life Martha P. Johnson, a trans-and-gay activist in the years after Stonewall; and Beauchamp plays Ray, a street hustler who befriends Danny. It is Beauchamp's first role, one that he pursued upon reading the script. "I read the script twice actually the first time and I just thought to myself, I don't know what I got to do, but I got to do this film. I am actually a gender studies minor in college and was pretty privy to the Stonewall rebellion and some of the key players like Martha P. Johnson."

Abit acknowledged not knowing who Johnson was when he read the script, but quickly learned of her importance. "She was a very big gay activist at the time. She was one of the pioneers of the trans movement. And for myself, learning more about her, I didn't know that much about her growing up and I felt terrible being a guy from New York City growing up and walking the streets of New York and not realizing that this big icon in the trans community, the LGBT community and also the black community - she wasn't known. And I was happy to bring her name more to the forefront now. And even with the controversy people are now researching her and learning more about her. And I hope now if there's a young kid out there like myself that didn't know about her would now about her now in 2015."

And for such a New York story, Scarborough was surprised that Emmerich didn't shoot the film in Greenwich Village.

"We actually tried," Emmerich explained. "We were very na�ve to want to shoot this on the location. But it just wasn't possible. So we built it inside in a huge train depot in Montreal."

"It has an amazing look too, it really seemed like walking around New York City," added Abit.

"We are both from New York City and I've hung out downtown, Christopher Street, my whole life, so to walk on the set every morning and see the Village Cigar sign was amazing," said Beauchamp.