During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Black Panther star Sterling K. Brown emotionally revealed why he decided to go back to using his main name after his father passed away.
Brown, 49, explained that he initially preferred to be called by his middle name, which is Kelby. He said he, however, eventually decided to switch to his main name when he turned 16, adding that it was a way of honoring his deceased father.
“I went by Kelby until I was 16 years old. My dad’s name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr., I’m Sterling Kelby Brown,” the This Is Us star told Clarkson, per PEOPLE. “I’m Sterling Kelby Brown but I wanted my own name, and it felt like Sterling was like an old man’s name,” he explained.
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Brown said his father’s passing was the reason behind his decision to revert to going by his main name. “Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn’t heard his name for five-and-a-half years, I was like, I kind of just want to hear that name again, so I asked people to call me Sterling,” the 49-year-old revealed.
Brown and Clarkson became visibly emotional, with the host saying the actor’s gesture was “so sweet and beautiful.”
READ ALSO: How ‘Black Panther’ depicts complexities between Africans and African-Americans
This isn’t the first time Brown has opened up about his father’s passing. During a 2019 interview with TODAY’s Willie Geist, Brown said that he felt the “the whole dynamic of fathers and sons is one that resonates with me and is resonating really strong right now.”
Brown also shared some memories of his late father and touched on the last time he saw him. “I remember, like, really specific things,” he said. “Waking up that morning and going into the kitchen, and my mom being on the phone, calling the paramedics and asking me to put clothes on my dad, because he was naked in the bed and his body was stiff.”
“He looks at me over the railing and he winks, just winks,” he emotionally recalled. “They carry him out the door, last time I saw him.”
Brown also said that his late father filled him with “so much love” when he was alive. “So while the time was short, it was everything that I could’ve hoped for for 10 years.”
