Envelope Screening: ‘American Crime’ team felt ‘emotional responsibility’

“American Crime,” ABC’s drama about the racial and cultural tensions surrounding the brutal assault of a young white couple, covered delicate and racially sensitive territory. But creator and executive producer John Ridley said he and his colleagues knew the series also had to be entertaining without being preachy.

“Everybody here felt a responsibility to have an emotional honesty to what we were doing,” said Ridley. “I also think that to everybody’s credit, this was obviously subject matter in and of itself, whether it’s race, faith or class, are not traditional in terms of what we consider entertainment.”

Ridley added, “But how it’s delivered, through the language of cinema, which everyone used in presenting it, that can be — and there’s no reason why it can’t be — entertaining. And engaging. That’s the operative perspective that everyone here was working with.”