Barack Obama, Kevin Costner and Kate Winslet Among Star-Studded History Talks Speakers

A slew of stars and influential figures, including former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, converged at the academy museum for A+E’s History Talks, drawing upon the past while offering inspiration for the future in a series of weighty conversations.

Kate Winslet, Kevin Costner, Kerry Washington, Nicole Avant, John Legend, Eva Longoria, Chuck Todd and a handful of historians and experts were among the other speakers during the A&E Networks event.

The Bush conversation was off-the-record. Meanwhile, Obama and Malcolm Gladwell spoke at length, touching upon a variety of topics including the importance of storytelling, the Reconstruction era and the Affordable Care Act. The pair stayed away from conversation about the current presidential race.

Obama told a story about his grandmother’s younger brother, just a teenager at the time, being part of an army unit that liberated a concentration camp during World War II. The former president used the story in part to highlight the importance of storytelling, a larger theme for the day.

“My grandmother used to tell me that when this 18-, 19-year-old Uncle Charlie comes home, he goes up into the attic and he basically doesn’t talk to anybody for six months,” Obama said.

“There’s also not a name for that at the time, so imagine a child basically witnessing that horror, coming home to Kansas and it’s not being talked about,” he continued. “There’s no story there. There’s nothing to help you make sense of what you saw and what occurred and you don’t talk about it, and that’s the power of stories.”

The former president also got candid about the country’s initial thoughts on the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” as the pair called it during the conversation. “I was surprised it took so long to become popular,” Obama told Gladwell, before adding a touch of self-deprecating humor. “It didn’t help that we botched the website.”

Winslet spoke about her upcoming film Lee, about photojournalist Lee Miller, that has been nearly a decade in the making, according to the actress. The actress passionately spoke about the project and its subject throughout the conversation, along with biting commentary on the way people speak about and to actresses.

“People will say to me, ‘Oh my God, so you were so brave in this performance. You had no makeup, and you kind of look really kind of crappy.’ And I think, do we say to the men, ‘You were so brave, you grew a beard?’” Winslet questioned, receiving laughs and cheers from the audience.

“And then there’s another one,” she continued. “‘How do you juggle being a mother and having a career? Do we say, ‘How do you juggle being a father and having a career?’ I mean, we’ve got to change this dynamic.”

When asked about how roles have transformed her, Winslet offered a hesitant response. “I sometimes struggle with talking about the actor’s process because at a certain point, we’re not finding a cure for cancer,” she said.

“We’re not saving lives. We’re not doctors and nurses on a COVID ward,” she continued, before explaining that sometimes “you just have to go there” for certain roles.

Costner spoke about his love of the American West, sharing an anecdote about his first experience with westerns. “I was seven years old, [at] a little boy’s birthday party,” the actor and director began, explaining that they drove from Santa Paula to L.A.’s Cinerama Dome for How the West Was Won.

“It was a four-hour movie, so it’s no surprise mine are three,” Costner joked, referencing his latest project Horizon: An American Saga. The first of four films was released over the summer, with the second expected in August before it was pulled from the release calendar for now.

Other highlights of the event, which was created by A+E Networks Group president and chairman Paul Buccieri, included Washington and Avant speaking about their new Netflix film The Six Triple Eight. The period film, which Avant produced and Washington starred in and produced, focuses on a predominantly Black women’s army battalion in World War II. “The whole country was kind of in a fog of disconnect and miscommunication, and these women came in and saved the day, saved the fight,” Washington said of the film’s subjects.

L.A. school Roybal Film and Television Magnet, co-founded by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and CAA CEO and co-chairman Bryan Lourd, was mentioned through the program, as the school had 100 students in attendance. Lourd spoke to the crowd about the school early in the day. In addition to Buccieri, high-level executives from several studios and networks were in attendance, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, CBS president and CEO and Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks and Disney co-chairwoman Dana Walden.

The program wrapped up with a conversation between Longoria and Legend, speaking about raising their voices and their relationship with activism. Legend also performed a short set, including a Bob Marley cover and his hit song “All of Me.”