Todd Bridges Thought Slavery Was ‘Fair’ Until His Role in ‘Roots’

The TV miniseries Roots was groundbreaking and won nine Emmy Awards for its realistic depiction of slavery in the U.S.

Based on Alex Haley’s family history in his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, the eight-part series premiered in 1977 on ABC. It followed the story of a West African teenager named Kunta Kinte who was snatched from his village, sold to slave traders and transported to America.

Todd Bridges, who is best known for playing Willis Jackson, on Diff’rent Strokes, had a role in the series as an enslaved child named Bud Harvey.

Bridges, 60, shared a story about working on Roots during a recent interview on “The Patrick LabyorSheaux” podcast with former child actor Patrick Labyorteaux.

“I didn’t even know about slavery until I was in Roots,” Bridges said in the interview (at the 6:05 mark).

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Labyorteaux, who is white, appeared shocked and asked how it was possible for an African American not to know about slavery.

“I’m serious,” said Bridges, who was born in San Francisco.

“It wasn’t taught in school. When I moved to L.A. and appeared in Roots that’s when I learned about slavery. I’m not gonna lie.”

Labyorteaux asked Bridges to explain what he meant.

“I didn’t understand the cruelty of it, how cruel it was, was what I didn’t know,” said Bridges. “I thought that everyone had a fair chance and a fair shake, no matter what. That just wasn’t the case.”

The actor noted that his experiences on the set of Roots helped him better understand racism and why diversity, equity and inclusion programs were and are still needed in the U.S.

“That’s why we needed affirmative action and DEI to get us jobs because even though, if we were the most talented, it didn’t matter,” said Bridges.

To this day, Roots remains one of the highest rates programs to ever air on television.

In 2016, TheWrap looked back on the miniseries and reported that it was watched by more than 100 million viewers over eight nights.

The series featured an all-star cast that included — just to name a few — LeVar Burton as a young Kunta Kinte. John Amos played the older version of Kunta Kinte. James Earl Jones portrayed Alex Haley, Leslie Uggams played Kizzy Reynolds, Madge Sinclair played Bell Reynolds, Ben Vereen was Chicken George, Louis Gossett Jr. played Fiddler, Ed Asner was Capt. Davies, Robert Reed portrayed Dr. William Reynolds, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs played Noah, and Cicely Tyson was Binta.

Later on the podcast interview, Bridges and Labyorteaux talked about race and casting when they were kids.

Bridges said while there were a lot less roles for Black kids, he still got a lot of work, especially in commercials, because of his positive attitude.

“Usually my personality got the commercial,” he said.

It may also have helped that his dad was an agent and his mom was a manager and acting coach.