Speaker 1: M h. You're listening to playback a Variety I Heart
Speaker 1: radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards editor Chris Tapley.
Speaker 1: Probably I'll yeah, we're gonna record your hot new single,
Speaker 1: so go ahead and there nobody like that. Hey, how
Speaker 1: are you man? I'm tired. Yeah, I'm tired. Um busy.
Speaker 1: I would say week, but then probably month and then yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean for you, Oh yeah, crazy, it's thanks for
Speaker 1: coming back on. Yeah, of course, thanks for coming here
Speaker 1: to do it for sure. Uh, we're recording. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna dive right in. We have Ava Daverna here today.
Speaker 1: I'm back. You're back. You actually are the first return guests. Yes,
Speaker 1: you get that distinction this year. Um, I'm want to
Speaker 1: pull up my questions here. Movies called Wrinkle in Time.
Speaker 1: You've probably seen the marketing everywhere because it's one of
Speaker 1: those movies that's uh just larger than life. It's a
Speaker 1: Disney movie. It's everywhere. And uh, first of all, how
Speaker 1: are you feeling? I mean, do you have have you
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to have perspective on everything? Are you
Speaker 1: still kind of like close to it and not? I
Speaker 1: think so? I mean, you know, I made a kids
Speaker 1: movie and um, you know it's what I wanted it
Speaker 1: to be. Um, you know, the industry doesn't make movies
Speaker 1: like this anymore, like those youth fantasies like Never Ending
Speaker 1: Story Escaped, Witch Mountain, Page Master, like all these things.
Speaker 1: Is that you know, we're just so cool when we
Speaker 1: were younger. That allows a bit of spectacle for a
Speaker 1: kid to enter into and learn a little about themselves.
Speaker 1: And uh so yeah that's what I made. You know,
Speaker 1: I love what we did, and it was just a
Speaker 1: beautiful time making it. So yeah, I mean that's the
Speaker 1: perspective I have. Yeah, well, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: that you talked about. You know, I saw it last night,
Speaker 1: and at the beginning you spoke about, you know, wanting
Speaker 1: to kind of go into a child's mind, essentially go
Speaker 1: back in and you know, what's the movie you would
Speaker 1: have wanted to see. So something that I thought about was,
Speaker 1: you know, it's obviously very different from your other movies.
Speaker 1: So what kind of new creative muscles did you exercise
Speaker 1: as a storyteller on this one? Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: was still able to focus on the things that meant
Speaker 1: something to me, like, um, it's just a kind of
Speaker 1: equality and parody and you know, the way that we
Speaker 1: treat each other in the society, but just just to
Speaker 1: do that for a much younger audience, Like I don't
Speaker 1: see this as being very different from my intention in
Speaker 1: the film Some thirteen or Queen Sugar, the story that
Speaker 1: I want to tell, but this is just too a
Speaker 1: younger audience. Um. And so it was able to kind
Speaker 1: of put a lot of that in the mix and
Speaker 1: the story. UM. But I think what I was able
Speaker 1: to exercise in myself was just getting in touch with
Speaker 1: the kid in me, which is something that especially with thirteen,
Speaker 1: it was a hard time for me. Making it did
Speaker 1: damage to me, you know it well, because it was
Speaker 1: you know, watching thousands of hours, yeah, thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of racist, violent footage, you know, really interrogating the systems
Speaker 1: that we live under and that we don't even aren't
Speaker 1: even conscious of the ways that we oppressed each other
Speaker 1: and um. And so it was personal, it was emotional,
Speaker 1: it was dramatic to make it, um and to construct
Speaker 1: all of that and steep myself into so like you know,
Speaker 1: reggling time was a bit of self care and that
Speaker 1: and then to do that, I had to tap into
Speaker 1: something that wasn't hardened and it wasn't cynical. Um, it
Speaker 1: was childlike and it was joyful. And you know, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's uh, it's just so critical and cynical
Speaker 1: that I find myself even being in this era that
Speaker 1: we're living in. You know, I go online looking for
Speaker 1: the worst. What do you say today? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, what you tweets? And it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I could have gone down that whole dark you know,
Speaker 1: I was mentioned and I was talking to Gambaldatoro about
Speaker 1: the same thing. It's like, sometimes art can help you
Speaker 1: guide you through turbulent times, especially for the artists who's
Speaker 1: just like super sensitive. We're all sensitive, but it hits
Speaker 1: me hard and and so yeah, this film saved me
Speaker 1: in that way a lot. Yeah under the weather, you
Speaker 1: got some No, my voice is just deep and scratched
Speaker 1: like this. No, no, no, it sounds like maybe you've
Speaker 1: been I was talking holler and a lot, talking a
Speaker 1: lot maybe. Uh. You know, a lot has been made
Speaker 1: about the budget of the film, first hundred million dollar
Speaker 1: movie made by a woman of color. Those Uh, that
Speaker 1: fanfare is great, obviously, glass ceilings, et cetera. I'm just
Speaker 1: curious if you get tired of hearing it's like that first,
Speaker 1: this first that I don't we tired of hearing it
Speaker 1: because I know that's something that a lot of people celebrate.
Speaker 1: I do, um, you know, regret that it's in a
Speaker 1: context of such I don't know, fanfare, or in a
Speaker 1: context of it being a good thing when it's really
Speaker 1: pretty tragic that it's two thousand and eighteen and these
Speaker 1: firsts are happening. You know, I don't take it as
Speaker 1: a mantle of you know, proud distinction, and I'm the
Speaker 1: first person, first woman of color in two thousand, seventeen
Speaker 1: and eighteen, to make a film at this price point,
Speaker 1: or to win Sundance or to get the Globe nominating,
Speaker 1: you know, or whatever they are, because it really means
Speaker 1: we haven't done this in decades and decades and decades
Speaker 1: before that, even though that they were women who were
Speaker 1: completely capable, ready and deserving of it. And so it's
Speaker 1: something that Hollywood does where it's trumpets its first without
Speaker 1: really acknowledging that the first means that there was a
Speaker 1: lot of neglect that went into that. And so that's
Speaker 1: what I hear when I'm when I'm introduced. Know, if
Speaker 1: I walk out on the stage and it's first this
Speaker 1: and first that, and it's applause for it. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like, golly uh, there's a disconnect there for me. Um.
Speaker 1: And yet I know it makes it makes people proud
Speaker 1: who are on the other side of it, who are
Speaker 1: less privileged, because it means that you know that first
Speaker 1: has been done away with and now a door might
Speaker 1: be open for me though, you know, whether it's me
Speaker 1: or Perry Jenkins or de Rease or Jordan Peel or
Speaker 1: or or um. You know, Nicky Carroll's about to make
Speaker 1: the next hundredmillion dollars from it's Disney with mulan or Ryan.
Speaker 1: You know, if you can name everyone that's doing something
Speaker 1: new on two hands, that's not change. You know, that's
Speaker 1: that's a trend. That's a moment, and it's a beautiful one,
Speaker 1: but it's not a changing of systems. And that's like
Speaker 1: that's what's needed. And so it all has to start somewhere.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is the start. But it's not like we
Speaker 1: haven't had these moments before. So the question is do
Speaker 1: we let it be a moment or do we let
Speaker 1: it become the way we do business? And um, it's
Speaker 1: still a question. I had a question later I'll just
Speaker 1: jump to because we're this is kind of in that area,
Speaker 1: you know, after Selma and the Oscar is So White.
Speaker 1: That was a big driving point for that, uh, And
Speaker 1: so I wanted to just ask you how you feel
Speaker 1: about how far we've come, how far we have to go?
Speaker 1: And I guess you just kind of answered that question
Speaker 1: just in terms of the awards sphere as well. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's it's it's um. You know,
Speaker 1: we know like in the awards circuit in the season, uh,
Speaker 1: that that their ebbs and flows. So it's just becomes
Speaker 1: a question of, you know, is the studio system and
Speaker 1: is the independent kind of ecosystem supporting these stories? You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's so many levels. It's production, it's studio executives,
Speaker 1: it's the agencies, it's you know what I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the uh, it's the all those layers
Speaker 1: to even get to a place where you can start
Speaker 1: to look at the complexion and the tenor of the academy.
Speaker 1: So it's it's systemic. That's why, you know, when the
Speaker 1: academy is kind of you know being uh, you criticized
Speaker 1: so heavily. There's something to look at there with the makeup,
Speaker 1: but it's also disingenuous to say it's the only thing wrong. Yeah, symptomatic.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's, it's, it's, it's, it's. It has
Speaker 1: many many arms. As Sponster, this movie wrinkling time, very colorful,
Speaker 1: very psychedelic in a way. Actually some I heard a
Speaker 1: guy behind me say you should have popped an edible
Speaker 1: before he went. But it made it an interesting trip.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk about what what inspired the
Speaker 1: visual look of the film, in the effects and all
Speaker 1: of that. Just tell me about that. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: just thinking of a feminization of fantasy. You know, look
Speaker 1: at the Avatar or a Lord of the Rings, and
Speaker 1: these are big fantasies that are kind of not kind of,
Speaker 1: but are through a male gaze. I love those films, uh,
Speaker 1: And I wondered what it would look like to play
Speaker 1: with those worlds and those those those people and um,
Speaker 1: those creatures through the eyes of a woman who's as
Speaker 1: I did, saying, I want to make this film like
Speaker 1: a girl, the girl in me, you know, I love
Speaker 1: be dazzled eyebrows and hair and gowns, and played with
Speaker 1: that and you know, big color and uh, talking flowers
Speaker 1: and how would they move and what does the creature
Speaker 1: look like? And you know, I wanted to look like
Speaker 1: a leaf and because you know, just just um, you know,
Speaker 1: just all of the touches that felt maybe more maternal
Speaker 1: or more feminine. Um, you know, as you go through
Speaker 1: the story of a girl, I think the question is,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, people, audiences, critics, whatever, you have
Speaker 1: been trained to see films in a certain way. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, more masculine, male tropes, narrative troopes. You know.
Speaker 1: I heard someone said, I wish there was some more action.
Speaker 1: I wish there were Well, this is about the heart
Speaker 1: of a girl, so the first thirty minutes you're gonna
Speaker 1: get to know her. You sit down and you're gotta
Speaker 1: get to know this black girl and her issues and
Speaker 1: uh and so those rhythms and that layering, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a different um, a bit of a different vocabulary. UM.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to attach visuals to it that
Speaker 1: felt like they were married to that pace and that
Speaker 1: kind of what I was trying to do is a
Speaker 1: more lyrical approach to a book that people told me
Speaker 1: straight up as unadaptable. This book is unadaptable. There's been
Speaker 1: a movie before that tried to be faithful to it.
Speaker 1: Um that Madelon Langle even said you didn't like Um,
Speaker 1: that didn't do a lot for the whole this is
Speaker 1: adaptable training and uh and so it really was about gosh, okay,
Speaker 1: this is a kid's book and they say it's unadaptable.
Speaker 1: But Disney is saying I can make the girl girl
Speaker 1: of color? Is that worth doing? And for me the
Speaker 1: answer was overwhelmingly yes. If there was a risk, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's not a risk. It's for kids. You know,
Speaker 1: I think people, like I said, I think people think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be so much in space, you know, is
Speaker 1: that kids over at It's like it's a kids movie.
Speaker 1: God just let let the children have a little fun. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: On that question of design and inspiring the look, you
Speaker 1: know with the costumes and stuff, was that pure imagination
Speaker 1: or did you what kind of research was involved? If
Speaker 1: anything kind of developed that. I found this amazing brother
Speaker 1: name Buckle Delgado, and uh, he and I just went
Speaker 1: down the rabbit hole with Kim Kimbell who's the hair designer,
Speaker 1: and the three of us there him with thick Spattish
Speaker 1: accent and me and her from South Central and Compton
Speaker 1: talking about hair and makeup and it was too much fun.
Speaker 1: But really the idea was to take from cultures all
Speaker 1: over the world, so you'll see Latin American references and
Speaker 1: African references and Asian references, and the costumes, particularly when
Speaker 1: Mindy k you know, we're looking from hair from ancient
Speaker 1: Egypt and we're looking at you know, uh um, you know,
Speaker 1: traditional Mayan dress and it's just so fun to see
Speaker 1: can we do a collision of cultures? And that wasn't
Speaker 1: Mindy's thing, And then with each missus there was a
Speaker 1: different idea, you know, of all of Oprah's costumes are
Speaker 1: very much different um iterations of armor, the whole warrior vibe,
Speaker 1: and then Reese's you know always you know, it's very
Speaker 1: flower like, just kind of playing with the durability of
Speaker 1: flowers but also the beauty of them. So all those
Speaker 1: cool design I do is that people don't even want
Speaker 1: to hear about. You know what I love to hear
Speaker 1: about here about talking about is GARYT. Guillermo. I've gotten
Speaker 1: like six different shape of water talks and I just
Speaker 1: sitting back, I am moderated one, and I got hooked
Speaker 1: on him and I just go and sit in the
Speaker 1: back and sneak out because he talks about the craft.
Speaker 1: It's a way that's so intoxicating. Um, this is what
Speaker 1: we love talking about. Yeah, okay, good, but this is
Speaker 1: the place totally. I want to talk about Oprah's hair
Speaker 1: actually in that one big I do, I do what Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot of afro futurism, you know,
Speaker 1: in in in that approach to her hair. I love
Speaker 1: this whole embrace of I feel futures futurism in cinema
Speaker 1: we see a lot, and we've seen a lot in literature,
Speaker 1: which I grew up with, and a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: fine arts. We have fine a lot of black fine
Speaker 1: artists around the world. They're doing interesting things, certainly music
Speaker 1: to Neil Mna just dropping this incredible thing. And Prince
Speaker 1: was an afro futurist. Um. But of course Ryan and
Speaker 1: in uh with Black Panther and so in this it
Speaker 1: was really good idea of like this afro futuristic taking
Speaker 1: the idea of freaking aesthetic that it had been somewhat
Speaker 1: um um you know, uh Damford and smothered by colonization,
Speaker 1: slavery and saying, what what would that have matured it
Speaker 1: into it that have been allowed to run free? And
Speaker 1: what does it look like in the future, And particularly
Speaker 1: because you don't see characters like that, you know, black women,
Speaker 1: you know, elders, you know, queen like black women in
Speaker 1: sci fi and so what does she look like? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I was looking at references trying to find things,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know when we were first I was
Speaker 1: looking for women of color and sci fi and you know,
Speaker 1: I found like Whoopi Goldberg in Star Trek episodes where
Speaker 1: she was you know, she was. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to find them. And that's you know, two decades ago.
Speaker 1: So to really think about that and to convince Opra
Speaker 1: to wear blonde hair, which was not a stretch, I said,
Speaker 1: I'd like to put you in a something beyond say ish.
Speaker 1: She said, of course you do, and yes, yes, And
Speaker 1: then you know Reese in her red hair and just
Speaker 1: pull with all the toys that you get when you
Speaker 1: make a movie like this. Yeah, all that tactile stuff
Speaker 1: is great. And Oprah's big white hair and that would
Speaker 1: kind of gave me like a future Frederick Douglas vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I take it. That's a good reference. Um, let's talk
Speaker 1: about storm Read, your lead. This uh young actress. She
Speaker 1: seems to have a lot of poise on the screen.
Speaker 1: And I just you know, you worked with her previously,
Speaker 1: but just talk about working with her and tapping her
Speaker 1: for this role. And they say, never worked with kids,
Speaker 1: never work on water, never work with animals. So you
Speaker 1: work with kids here, so well, yeah, but when you
Speaker 1: have storm Read, you know you're working with a girl
Speaker 1: who's really of course she's aptly named. Um you know
Speaker 1: she we the whole thing hug hung on finding the
Speaker 1: right mag and uh. And so for me, you know,
Speaker 1: working with her was similar working with David O Yellow
Speaker 1: in Selma and just their approach, Um, you know, very
Speaker 1: holistic approach to the work. Some actress come in and
Speaker 1: they it's like jazz. They just want to kind of
Speaker 1: feel it in the moment. Um, I'm actually really study
Speaker 1: and kind of delve deep. David is like that. Storm
Speaker 1: is like that. Um. You know, one day she came
Speaker 1: up to me. It only happened once, and she said
Speaker 1: it was she did great work that day. She came
Speaker 1: up to me afterward and like tears tears in her
Speaker 1: eyes and said, I hate to ask you this, but
Speaker 1: that whole day was no good. I was like, what
Speaker 1: do you mean. She's like, I wasn't there. I wasn't
Speaker 1: I wasn't feeling it. I was I wasn't telling the truth.
Speaker 1: I was pretending. And uh, it's a thirteen year old girl.
Speaker 1: And I said, it's the first day you felt like
Speaker 1: that because and she's like yeah, she said, I think
Speaker 1: when you go back and look at it, you'll see.
Speaker 1: And I did and she was right. And so we
Speaker 1: went back and we did it again. And and that's
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old girl was really in tune with
Speaker 1: you know, the special talent that she has inside of her.
Speaker 1: So she's a really really beautiful girl. I don't have
Speaker 1: children by choice, you know, my films are my children
Speaker 1: and so um so I've never been like as close
Speaker 1: to a child than my own niece as I have
Speaker 1: the Storm and it's been a real gift to me.
Speaker 1: Uh a little just to venture out a little bit.
Speaker 1: Something I've actually wanted to ask you for a minute is, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're very distinctly a star. Your voice,
Speaker 1: your personality. Uh, you you are you are this public
Speaker 1: facing icon, I think at this point. But you come
Speaker 1: from a world you make a face, you don't think,
Speaker 1: so that's my my perspective on Twitter. But just you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're Lord. I think you're larger than life and
Speaker 1: uh and I think that's a good thing. And but
Speaker 1: you come from the world of journalism, PR documentaries, kind
Speaker 1: of behind the scenes, out of the spotlight rolls. So
Speaker 1: I'm just curious if if this stage of your career
Speaker 1: has felt daunting at all to you. With that in mind,
Speaker 1: I think probably not, because I don't think of it
Speaker 1: that way. I don't. I don't. I don't feel it
Speaker 1: like that. Um So, no, I do. I do know that,
Speaker 1: you know, like when something like the La Times they
Speaker 1: went Disney happens, when there was a little kur fruffled
Speaker 1: are about critics and and all that stuff. Um, I
Speaker 1: do feel like in those moments, it's nice to have
Speaker 1: a platform to be able to say something when something
Speaker 1: needs to be said on my own heart and things
Speaker 1: that I believe in, to have the privilege of having
Speaker 1: a microphone in front of me sometimes to be able
Speaker 1: to say things. Sometimes you get into positions where you're like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, probably better if I didn't say anything, But
Speaker 1: you've got a microphone in front of you and or
Speaker 1: you have a platform, and you feel like sell out
Speaker 1: for not saying something to your own self, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: so sometimes those are the times where I feel like wish,
Speaker 1: I wish I might be didn't have a mic in
Speaker 1: front of me, because then I'd be safer. Um. But
Speaker 1: but now I don't think about it too much or
Speaker 1: in a bad way. You wake up feeling a responsibility
Speaker 1: every day is that to do? No? No, No, It's
Speaker 1: just like in some intense time, you feel like usually
Speaker 1: sometimes you're on the red carpet, or sometimes people are
Speaker 1: tweeting you what do you think? And then you know
Speaker 1: or um, you know, people were asking or interview requests
Speaker 1: come in and you're like, do I have to speak
Speaker 1: to everything? And the answer is no, thank you for
Speaker 1: speaking to us, thank you for speaking with us. But
Speaker 1: but but yeah, so that that gets a little tricky sometimes,
Speaker 1: but overall, you know, just a Girlston's like everybody else.
Speaker 1: I feel like you mentioned Black Panther. I feel like
Speaker 1: we should talk about Black Panther. I mean, the movie
Speaker 1: is crushing it and you just saw the news about
Speaker 1: the second weekend, it's gonna be one o eight. What
Speaker 1: do you think about this moment? He's my um, dear dear, dear,
Speaker 1: dear friend from long before. Yes, we edited across from
Speaker 1: each other, but before then, I mean just we've been
Speaker 1: friends for a while. Was at his wedding. Um, I
Speaker 1: love him and loves Zincy, his wife, and you know,
Speaker 1: it just makes me it's like it's happening to a
Speaker 1: family member. UM. So I think of him with it,
Speaker 1: and I think of then you'll get to do and
Speaker 1: all the power that he has now that it's with
Speaker 1: a really really good brother, a really good person to um,
Speaker 1: you know who deserves to have if you're gonna give
Speaker 1: anyone that kind of power and influence and write your
Speaker 1: own ticket, do whatever you want. If I was anyone
Speaker 1: I could have chosen for it to go to, I
Speaker 1: would have chosen him. So us me happy, happy. We
Speaker 1: had him on the show just last week. We've actually
Speaker 1: got a couple of your friends. We've got David next week.
Speaker 1: So yeah for Gringo. So yeah, it's a big, big
Speaker 1: a friends reunion here on the show. Lady Good But yeah,
Speaker 1: Black Panther, I mean, it's it's such a cultural moment,
Speaker 1: pop cultural moment even, and it's uh, you know, seeing
Speaker 1: you hyping it for your friend and for yourn't even
Speaker 1: help myself. Disney was like, you're good, you need any
Speaker 1: materials assets? I was like, huh, maybe, like do you
Speaker 1: want some extra social media tools? I was like, huh,
Speaker 1: They're like what you're talking about so much? I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize how much I was tweeting about
Speaker 1: it because every time I see something, i'd be I mean,
Speaker 1: this has been for months. I've been on fire for it,
Speaker 1: so anyway, and then when they said that, I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I'm not gonna be used for you know,
Speaker 1: they weren't saying that, but it was kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I guess this is how you feel. People thought Disney
Speaker 1: was making me do it. I realized, but I guess,
Speaker 1: but I just was excited and I am. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, it's great. Could I just you know,
Speaker 1: you were originally attached to that movie briefly. What what
Speaker 1: didn't work for you on that, Well, what didn't work
Speaker 1: for me is what worked for me was recalent time.
Speaker 1: You know, that seems about the more opportunity, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell a story of this girl with
Speaker 1: glasses and curly hair who understakable yeah, who moves to
Speaker 1: you know. We we were able to move the story
Speaker 1: to South Control Away, which is not for where where
Speaker 1: I grew up. Curl doesn't feel actually special, but ends
Speaker 1: up being very special and and uh, you know, doesn't
Speaker 1: think that she can do the things that she wants
Speaker 1: to do in life, but it's somehow able to do them.
Speaker 1: And I related to all that. So it just spoke
Speaker 1: to me deeply. And the idea that out of all
Speaker 1: the work that I'm trying to do and what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to leave behind with my name on it, um,
Speaker 1: there has to be something out there that that talks
Speaker 1: to kids. You know. I have a niece who was
Speaker 1: thirteen years old, and I see her. I watched her.
Speaker 1: I see her trying to figure out the world. I
Speaker 1: see her listening to watching CNN like at Christmas and
Speaker 1: we're all the adults are talking about She's the only
Speaker 1: kid in the family and she's trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: How does she fit into it? When she hears these things.
Speaker 1: She asked me about doctor the other day and dreamers
Speaker 1: and in park Land and you know, she'd been on
Speaker 1: the earth for thirteen years, the whole earth, Like she
Speaker 1: came into their thirteen years ago and they are here
Speaker 1: in the midst of this caiod of time just trying
Speaker 1: to figure it out. And so, you know, I thought
Speaker 1: of her so much as I was making and it's
Speaker 1: like the story is who you are is enough, and
Speaker 1: you know, keep focused on good. You know, like Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama says, when they go low, we go high. You know,
Speaker 1: not to make it political, that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's just saying that there's a a pivoting towards positivity
Speaker 1: just in your day and as as you go through
Speaker 1: this world. And if kids can get that early, if kids,
Speaker 1: if if Caucasian boys can get the message that you
Speaker 1: can trust a black girl. In the movie, you know,
Speaker 1: Meg who's the black girl, says to Calvin, do you
Speaker 1: trust me? Like that? When I watched that and it
Speaker 1: makes me tear up even still, it catches me sometimes
Speaker 1: she says him, dude, you trust me? And there's a
Speaker 1: beat and he says yes. In that for a black girl,
Speaker 1: for a brown girl, big fucking deal. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're privileged to be on the other side of that,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. You've seen that your whole life, people
Speaker 1: just trusting you and thinking that people that look like
Speaker 1: you are to be trusted and to lead. Um, but
Speaker 1: if you've never seen that, I cannot think of another
Speaker 1: film where girls not a Jedi, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: who's not a superhero, just a girl you know, is
Speaker 1: leading a group of boys in that way. And he
Speaker 1: was able to ask those questions, to be asked, those
Speaker 1: questions about trust and respect. And it's given that, you know,
Speaker 1: I did that every with that every day on set,
Speaker 1: you know, in these studios. It's like, what if some
Speaker 1: of these guys could have seen that when they were
Speaker 1: twelve and eleven, so that I didn't have to deal
Speaker 1: with it later, now, you know what I mean? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you may not be in the Me Too movement,
Speaker 1: and you may not need types up, and you may
Speaker 1: not need Black Lives Matter if you just teach kids
Speaker 1: that are not of color that the quote unquote others
Speaker 1: are just like them, worthy to be trusted and followed.
Speaker 1: So that's what this film is. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: that of the Black Girls Code Group. It was a
Speaker 1: bunch of these girls that were flowing in from Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and Oakland, and they just had a really visceral reaction
Speaker 1: to those images, and I just think, God, they're nourishing
Speaker 1: to more than girls of color. You know, That's why
Speaker 1: Panther is nourishing to more than black people, because people
Speaker 1: that are not black, you know, Caucasian people are able
Speaker 1: to see that and see, you know, black people as heroes,
Speaker 1: and that does something to the culture as well. And
Speaker 1: so you know, these images for young people are or
Speaker 1: what I'm hoping to get out there, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's all a stew of those ideas. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to my kid being old enough to take them.
Speaker 1: I want to buy them, buy him a Black Panther
Speaker 1: figure that they were sold out at Target the other day.
Speaker 1: Give them something at some point. Yes, yes, what's next
Speaker 1: for you? This is a silly question when you're promoting
Speaker 1: something that's massive, But what's next for you? I'm casting
Speaker 1: right now, You're already onto it. It's going to be
Speaker 1: that one. Okay. I wasn't sure if it was that
Speaker 1: one or the bunch of stuff out there that I
Speaker 1: was thinking about. To Park five is just the one
Speaker 1: that was really all my heart. That I had to do,
Speaker 1: and I just always try to let that lead. What
Speaker 1: what is the story that I'm gonna tell right now?
Speaker 1: What what do I have to do right now? So
Speaker 1: I sent to part five. Um, you had the writer's
Speaker 1: room going while I was in post of Wrinkle. Um,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm rewriting some stuff and doing my writing
Speaker 1: three of the five episodes and uh then so we're
Speaker 1: casting our breakdown just went out for the five Boys,
Speaker 1: which is really hard to find those five young boys. Um,
Speaker 1: they were thirteen and fourteen when they were convicted of
Speaker 1: a crime they didn't commit and sent off to all
Speaker 1: of these uh, horrible places. And so um told me
Speaker 1: doing that yet the next five hours for Netflix and
Speaker 1: we start that in the summer, Bread for Young Shooting
Speaker 1: it ever told anyone of these things, I'm breaking the
Speaker 1: news with you and Chris Davley. That's what happens. That's
Speaker 1: what happens. But yeah, I'm gonna work on it with
Speaker 1: Brad this summer and we're just gonna get back into
Speaker 1: it and you know, tell these stories of these families.
Speaker 1: It's really the families. Um, but it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful story. I was gonna ask you how you're gonna
Speaker 1: uniquely frame it, so you're gonna go into the family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at each boy kind of is the highest center for
Speaker 1: an hour, so they each get their own hours as
Speaker 1: the film is progressing. Um, so the case is progressing,
Speaker 1: but each hour, another boy is more more prominent until
Speaker 1: you get to the to the fifth to the fifth boy.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, I can't wait to see that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you, And for now everyone should go see Wrinkling time.
Speaker 1: It opens March night. Take your kids or take your
Speaker 1: kids inside of you. Just pick up some kids somewhere
Speaker 1: and just bring them. Donate to some kids, you know,
Speaker 1: donate to some kids. There you go, you've got a
Speaker 1: program going. No fill up change in. This nonprofit social
Speaker 1: justice organization saw the film and said, kids have all
Speaker 1: kinds to be able to see this, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of kids that can't afford it. So if you
Speaker 1: want to give a ticket to a kid, you got
Speaker 1: to give a child. The universe dot com you could
Speaker 1: buy tend a ticket and they'll connected to a kid
Speaker 1: someplace where there's no movie theater and there's no possibility
Speaker 1: that we've seen the movie. There you go. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you got a chance to put all those ideas on
Speaker 1: such a big candidates. So congratulations, it was fun and
Speaker 1: check out the movie. Everyone, thanks for coming on the
Speaker 1: show again. Appreciate thank you.