NEW YORK (AP) – In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Nate Parker was unapologetic for a 17-year-old rape case that has surrounded his film, “The Birth of a Nation.”
In excerpts from the interview to air Sunday shared exclusively with the Associated Press on Thursday, Parker said he was “falsely accused” and declined to make any apology. The woman who made the accusation killed herself in 2012. Parker said he feels “terrible that this woman isn’t here.”
Parker instead argued that his film, about Nat Turner’s slave rebellion, deserves more attention than himself and the rape accusation, made when he was a student at Penn State. Parker was acquitted in the case.
“I think that Nat Turner, as a hero, what he did in history, is bigger than me,” said Parker. “I think it’s bigger than all of us.”