The star was the latest celebrity exploring his family history (Picture: Getty)
Edward Norton expressed his discomfort after knowing that his ancestors were slave owners.
During the latest preview of PBS’ Finding Your Roots, which sees a bevvy of celebrities digging deeper into their family history, the Glass Onion actor is seen reacting to the news that his ancestors owned a family of slaves that included five little girls.
In the clip, the Fight Club star, 53, is presented a photo of a 55-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman, and five girls, aged, four, six, eight, nine, and 10.
Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr later told Norton that the family was owned as slaves, asking the actor: ‘What’s it like to see that?’
Norton replies: ‘The short answer is, these things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it.
‘It’s not a judgement on your and your own life but it’s a judgement on the history of this country. It needs to be acknowledged first and foremost, and then it needs to be contended with.’
‘Everybody should be uncomfortable with it’ (Picture: REX)
Norton has starred in blockbuster hits including Fight Club (Picture: Fox)
Norton continues: ‘When you go away from census counts and you personalise things, you’re talking about, possibly, a husband and wife with five girls – and these girls are slaves. Born into slavery.’
Gates Jr adds: ‘Born into slavery and in slavery in perpetuity.’
‘Yeah,’ Norton responds.
‘Again, when you read ‘slave aged eight,’ you just want to die.’
Benedict’s family was reportedly paid millions during the abolition of slavery in the country (Picture: Getty)
According to reports, Norton is a descendant of the wealthy Rouse family.
His grandfather, James Rouse, was a businessman and a real estate mogul who redesigned American cities in a way that is still recognizable today.
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This comes after the news that Benedict Cumberbatch’s family have reportedly been placed on a list of wealthy descendants that could be faced with a reparations fight with the Barbados government.
After the country sought independence from British monarchical control in 2021, officials have supposedly begun a campaign to seek reparations from descendants of former slave-owning families and plantation holders.
The Doctor Strange actor and his family have been placed under the watch of the island’s government after the star’s ancestry came to light.
It has been reported that the 12 Years a Slave actor’s seventh great-grandfather owned the country’s northern Cleland plantation in 1728.
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‘These things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them.’
