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Speaker 1: Calling all my sweeties to the forefront. I'm your host, Christopher,

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Speaker 1: and this is a keeping positive, sweetish show. A sweeties,

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Speaker 1: you already know what time it is.

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Speaker 2: It's your weekly dose of joy, a real talk and

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Speaker 2: a little soul work.

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Speaker 1: On the side.

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Speaker 2: I have been so excited about every single guest that

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Speaker 2: we've had this season. We've had nothing but Jim's dropped

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Speaker 2: every single episode and today will be no different. He

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Speaker 2: is a writer, director, producer of work that has spanned

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Speaker 2: over different generations. We all love his characters. We root

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Speaker 2: for them, we've cried with them, and we've grown with them.

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Speaker 2: You may know him from films like Best Man, Girls, Trip,

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Speaker 2: Night School, His Family.

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Speaker 1: Please give a very.

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Speaker 2: Warm welcome to Malcolm d Lee. Malcolm, how are you

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Speaker 2: feeling good?

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Speaker 3: You fresh off the flight of glad?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So this is the second stop on your book tour. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the first one was amazing. So I guess I got

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Speaker 2: some big shoes to feel for tonight.

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Speaker 4: Oh, you'll be fine.

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Speaker 3: It's gonna because it's no pressure, you know, let's just

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Speaker 3: let's just have a conversation.

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Speaker 1: I love it.

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Speaker 2: So let's everyone knows you from your Best Man film

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Speaker 2: and the television series Girls Trip, which was one of

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Speaker 2: my favorite Oh my gosh.

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Speaker 1: And then I heard that may be doing another one.

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Speaker 1: As soon as I heard, I was like, I need that.

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Speaker 4: We're working on it, working on it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and Space Jam the legacy. People know you from that,

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Speaker 2: but I want to know who Malcolm is.

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Speaker 1: Where are you from?

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Speaker 2: Tell us your journey to get to the best man

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Speaker 2: that has a movie that we've all grown up to

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Speaker 2: and watched for years.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. I was born in Queens, New York. I was

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Speaker 4: raised in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 3: I grew up with both my parents and my brother

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Speaker 3: and I for dominantly white private school since the fifth grade.

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Speaker 3: From twelfth grade I went to and I was the

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Speaker 3: only black male in my class.

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Speaker 4: Uh from fifth to twelfth grade.

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Speaker 3: Ended up going to Yeah, Yeah, it was it was

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Speaker 3: interesting existence uh and then went to UH to Georgetown

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Speaker 3: University undergrad went to n y U Film School.

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Speaker 4: And always had a love for the fine and.

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Speaker 3: Performing arts, you know, from a very early age. And

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Speaker 3: what those you know, prep schools did for me was

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Speaker 3: exposed me to film and television, very early animation, video making.

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Speaker 3: And I always like to act and write and draw,

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Speaker 3: you know, create little scenarios with you know, action figures

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Speaker 3: and things like that.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, that's that's you know I grew up.

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Speaker 3: I grew up like, you know, like that, and you know,

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Speaker 3: participating in many different arts endeavors, and you know, I

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Speaker 3: think it was certainly encouraged by my family. I think

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Speaker 3: they kind of said, let me explore, Like you know,

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Speaker 3: my mom would put me in art classes and and

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Speaker 3: things like that. And she was a medical records administrator.

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Speaker 3: She transitioned to be a college professor later on. My

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Speaker 3: my father was a school teacher and musician.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, and so we grew up in a limestone

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Speaker 3: in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: Very nice.

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Speaker 4: I love that.

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Speaker 2: So wow, it's similar to me in my childhood. I

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Speaker 2: grew up predominantly white community, was one of the few

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Speaker 2: black kids from kindergarten all the way to the twelfth grade,

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Speaker 2: and then moved to d C. You went to Georgetown.

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Speaker 2: That's when I was like, WHOA, a whole new world.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

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Speaker 2: No.

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Speaker 3: I mean even going to Georgetown like that was more

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Speaker 3: black people than I'd been around in my life. And

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Speaker 3: then it was Howard was right across the you know,

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Speaker 3: right across town. So yeah, if I wanted to you

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Speaker 3: know see more I can, I can, I can, you know, experience,

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Speaker 3: and it was all at the time it was still

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Speaker 3: known as Chocolate City.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, I would say primarily good, good, happy childhood,

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Speaker 3: you know, pretty well adjusted and you know, kind of

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Speaker 3: felt like I knew what I wanted to do when

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Speaker 3: I was undergrad I mean I got to work with

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Speaker 3: my cousin Spike.

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Speaker 4: Very early Spike Lee' that's my cousin. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Wow, you know that bline all right.

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Speaker 4: Now, you know. Yeah, So I got to work with

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Speaker 4: him very early on.

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Speaker 3: He was in film school in the early eighties and

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Speaker 3: living in my parents' basement.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 3: And so I got to see very early on the

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Speaker 3: emergence of the you know, great American and now world

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Speaker 3: renowned filmmaker who I didn't know what time was going

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Speaker 3: to be that right, and but he demonstrated that it

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Speaker 3: was possible to have a career in this industry. And

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Speaker 3: you know, I got to work with him really from

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Speaker 3: She's Got to Have It On through Malcolm X and

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Speaker 3: Clockers and Girls six and so that was you know,

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Speaker 3: great education and a great encouragement from him to you know, uh,

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Speaker 3: be creative and right black film and you know and

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Speaker 3: and and really kind of demonstrating how powerful the moving

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Speaker 3: image was, particularly when it came to black people. So

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Speaker 3: it's not something you we that should be taken lightly

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Speaker 3: because that you know, movies, television shape attitudes and culture

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Speaker 3: and uh and can affect people's views of.

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Speaker 4: You know, humanity. So I've always taken that very seriously.

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Speaker 3: In the in the legacy that that my family has

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Speaker 3: come from, it has very much been that. You know,

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Speaker 3: my father's side of the family, he had six brothers

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Speaker 3: and sisters and they all went to HBCUs they all

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Speaker 3: played instruments. The instruments skipped my generation. I don't play

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Speaker 3: anything but the radio. And so you know, uh, that

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Speaker 3: was a legacy that that that that that was that

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Speaker 3: I came from. Education was important and because they had

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Speaker 3: seen one filmmaker come out of the basement, they were like, now,

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Speaker 3: you know, why don't you pursue that?

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Speaker 4: And you know, and I was encouraged to do.

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Speaker 2: So, okay, I love that. That is fascinating. Wow, So

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Speaker 2: Spike Lee is in your basement. I wanted to ask you,

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Speaker 2: growing up around predominantly white people and in a predominantly

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Speaker 2: white community, where did you find the inspiration to write

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Speaker 2: the way you write for our culture and our community

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Speaker 2: because it is it hits home every single time.

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you, well, you know, I was living my

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Speaker 3: neighborhood that I live than was black, you know, and

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Speaker 3: I you know, I'd play ball, you know, down at

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Speaker 3: the local playground, you know, and there's plenty of you know.

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Speaker 4: I play a black experience.

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Speaker 3: And it was like that was that was like the

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Speaker 3: duality that I was living, you know, like you know,

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Speaker 3: being you know black, you know, trying to be black

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Speaker 3: enough for my from my neighborhood, and trying to be

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Speaker 3: you know, at least a model minority for the white folks,

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Speaker 3: you know.

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Speaker 4: And so.

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Speaker 3: That was the kind of the the you know this

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Speaker 3: you know you talk about coach switching. That was doing

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Speaker 3: that very very ry on. But you know what what

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Speaker 3: it afforded me and what it allowed me to think

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Speaker 3: was like, you know, I saw you know a lot

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Speaker 3: of different size of the world, you know, Jewish kids,

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Speaker 3: Christian kids, boss speak kids, whatever, and you know, you know,

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Speaker 3: and also wealthy kids. And so have an experience that

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Speaker 3: not only in fifth through twelfth grade, but also in

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Speaker 3: college gave me a wealth of experience. And then also

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Speaker 3: going to college. You see different kinds of black people too, right, Like,

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Speaker 3: so like brothers from Texas and Atlanta and from California,

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Speaker 3: and you know, the DC area, and there's lots of

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Speaker 3: different dialects and lots of different you know way you know,

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Speaker 3: more rains and ware people speak. So you know, I

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Speaker 3: observed all of that and became friends with lots of

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Speaker 3: different kinds of people and different kinds of black people,

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Speaker 3: which you know, and and my experiences that yours sound.

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Speaker 4: Definitely influenced and was inspired.

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Speaker 3: By my relationships that I made it at Georgetown. And

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Speaker 3: so what I was finding, particularly in movies about black

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Speaker 3: people or not even about black that had black people

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Speaker 3: in it, you know, it was very.

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Speaker 4: Kind of.

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Speaker 3: Very very narrow depictions, yes, right, you know, so there

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Speaker 3: was the you know, there's the hood brother, there's the

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Speaker 3: quirky friend, or there's always the sassy girlfriend, and it's

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Speaker 3: like and then particularly when it came to educated brothers,

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Speaker 3: they just like forgot they were black. They had no

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Speaker 3: cultural specificity of blackness, so they would like check their

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Speaker 3: atnicity of the door. And that's somehow that meant because

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Speaker 3: you're educated, you're speaking the King's English, you are you

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Speaker 3: know one way, you have a bat up year behind

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Speaker 3: and you're just like, you know, you just you aspire

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Speaker 3: to be white, right, which is like not my experience

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Speaker 3: and not these parents are the people that I went

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Speaker 3: to school with. So I was like, this is not

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Speaker 3: this is not real or not authentic to me. And

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Speaker 3: so I drew all my experiences to create characters that

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Speaker 3: I thought were more authentically you know, presented, and you know,

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Speaker 3: movies that preceded The Best Man, like Loved Jones and

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Speaker 3: Soul Food even waiting to exhale at least for the

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Speaker 3: women you know, were true were depictions of the black

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Speaker 3: people that I interacted with.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.

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Speaker 2: Take us to when the idea of Best Man came.

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Speaker 1: Where were you?

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Speaker 4: It's an interesting question. Now. I had done after film school,

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Speaker 4: I'm sorry, before film school.

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Speaker 3: In between film school and undergrad, I went to do

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Speaker 3: a screenwriting program at Disney. I got a fellowship. I

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Speaker 3: wrote two scripts, my first two screenplays there. When I

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Speaker 3: went to film school, did a couple of shorts. I

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Speaker 3: wrote three more screenplays. That fifth one I was determined

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Speaker 3: to make right. It was called Feast and Famine. It

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Speaker 3: was a romantic comedy, very much in the vein of

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Speaker 3: like an Annie Hall or When Harry Met Sally, a

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Speaker 3: classic New York love story.

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Speaker 4: And you know, I wanted to make the movie.

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Speaker 3: I was trying to raise money for it, and so

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Speaker 3: when I couldn't do that independently.

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Speaker 4: It was really difficult.

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Speaker 3: And I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna

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Speaker 3: write something so commercial that I'm going to sell it,

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Speaker 3: and I'm going to use the money that I sell

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Speaker 3: that with to make Feast and Famine.

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Speaker 4: And that script was the best man.

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Speaker 3: And so I was in the midst of writing it

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Speaker 3: and I was just like, oh, I can direct this,

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Speaker 3: but and I will say I knew how it was

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Speaker 3: going to be commercial. Was I knew that there was,

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Speaker 3: you know, a dearth of movies about black or a wedding, right,

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Speaker 3: like the wedding movies are very popular at the time.

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Speaker 3: And so I was like, Okay, I got to do

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Speaker 3: a movie, a wedding movie with black people in it.

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Speaker 3: And because I hadn't been one to date at that time,

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Speaker 3: and I love ensemble movies, and I wanted to have

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Speaker 3: a very clear react structure, and there was built in

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Speaker 3: set pieces your bachelor party, you're the fellows hanging out

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Speaker 3: one night, the rehearsal dinner, the you know one all

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Speaker 3: and the wedding itself, and then I knew that was

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Speaker 3: going to have a magic prop in there that was

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Speaker 3: which was the book that keeps getting passed around.

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Speaker 4: So I.

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Speaker 3: Made sure that I had all of the the elements

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Speaker 3: of you know, a commercial movie before I wrote it.

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Speaker 4: And so I wrote it. I was like, Okay, this.

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Speaker 1: Feels right awesome.

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Speaker 2: Now how long did it take from writing The Best

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Speaker 2: Man to it actually getting green lid?

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Speaker 4: Remember finishing the script?

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Speaker 3: It was, you know, I was up early one morning

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Speaker 3: and I was and I just finished it and I

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Speaker 3: was in my parents' basement.

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Speaker 4: I walked upstairs, said this ain't it.

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Speaker 3: I don't know what they want. And I was going

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Speaker 3: to be like, either become a teacher or go to

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Speaker 3: law school. And because you know what what I was

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Speaker 3: trying to make, they weren't trying to make, and so

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Speaker 3: I am I would say that was I knew I want.

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Speaker 3: What I wanted to do was time it. I'm trying

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Speaker 3: to remember now. I wanted to time the finishing the

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Speaker 3: script by the time the movie's Soul Food came out.

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Speaker 4: Got it now.

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Speaker 3: Also being strategic about how I was going to approach it,

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Speaker 3: and I thought if Soul Food would was going to

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Speaker 3: be successful cause I had read about, you know, the

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Speaker 3: movie in a trade magazine and I remember thinking, yeah,

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Speaker 3: like it's even though what I'm writing is not soul food,

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Speaker 3: They'll be looking for the next soul food type of

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Speaker 3: things that where black people are just doing, We're doing

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Speaker 3: more than just you know, being in the hood and

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Speaker 3: running from danger, you know what I mean. So I

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Speaker 3: was like, Okay, if this movie is successful with Nea

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Speaker 3: Long and Vivoca Fox and Vanessa Williams and Babyface is

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Speaker 3: going to be doing a soundtrack, this could do well.

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Speaker 4: And if that does well, that would bode well for

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Speaker 4: my script. So I was done with it by the

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Speaker 4: time Soul Foods.

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Speaker 3: Premiered at Urban World in New York and I think

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Speaker 3: that was fall of or late summer of ninety eight,

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Speaker 3: no ninety seven, Sorry, And then we went around to

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Speaker 3: a couple of different studios.

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Speaker 4: Spike had read it. He was like, this is the

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Speaker 4: this is the one. Wow.

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Speaker 3: And so we met with Columbia. He had a deal

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Speaker 3: there at the time. It's a funny story behind that,

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Speaker 3: but I'll get to that later. Then then I would say.

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Speaker 3: That was late mid fall, and then by the time

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Speaker 3: the Academy Awards came around, me landed at Universal Wow

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Speaker 3: in March of ninety eight, and they.

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Speaker 4: Said, we like this, we want to try to developing

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Speaker 4: and make it. Wow.

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Speaker 2: How did that feel in that moment when they said

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Speaker 2: finally Well, it.

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Speaker 3: Was funny because it was It's not that it doesn't

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Speaker 3: happen like that, because what happens is because in fact,

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Speaker 3: the first few students we went to they were like,

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Speaker 3: we like it, but it's not for us, right, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we don't need to do some development. And Spike is

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Speaker 3: being who he is, it's like, all right, later for y'all,

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Speaker 3: we're going someplace else. So I'm like, uh, maybe we

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Speaker 3: should listen, but he was like, nope, we're gonna find somebody.

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Speaker 4: This is this movie is gonna get made. It's okay, fine.

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Speaker 3: So we go to Universal and he says, okay, look,

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Speaker 3: we're gonna tell them they got to pay you for it.

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Speaker 3: If they want to do any notes, they gonna pay

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Speaker 3: for we right, and they don't like it, but taking

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Speaker 3: it away, I said, great, so we're gonna listen to

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Speaker 3: their notes.

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Speaker 4: So that's what happens.

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Speaker 3: So you know there was there were notes and they said,

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Speaker 3: here's a little money, and and at first I was excited,

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Speaker 3: but when you get like the money that they offer,

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Speaker 3: it's great. But like you see where Uncle Sam really

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Speaker 3: comes in and just I was like, that's what I'm

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Speaker 3: that's that's what I got. Okay, but fine. I was

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Speaker 3: living in my parents' basement.

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Speaker 4: It was all fine.

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Speaker 3: And did the rewrite and in about two months and

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Speaker 3: then I was green Lid.

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Speaker 4: Wow.

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Speaker 3: So that was exciting. The night that that that that

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Speaker 3: I found out that we were green Lid.

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Speaker 4: At a budget.

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Speaker 3: I think we were asking for seven or eight and

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Speaker 3: they said you can have it for nine. Oh wow, yeah,

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Speaker 3: because they looked at it and you're gonna need nine

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Speaker 3: and then we actually needed more, but we were like great,

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Speaker 3: So that was exciting.

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Speaker 4: Various. I remember where I was. I was in I

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Speaker 4: was in New York.

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Speaker 3: My girlfriend who's my who's my wife at the now,

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Speaker 3: and and another couple and we just came from a

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Speaker 3: restaurant and uh, I got the Did I have a

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Speaker 3: cell phone then or was it a beeper? I don't,

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Speaker 3: I'm I'm front remember I was on a payphone for

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Speaker 3: I was on a cell phone. I think it was

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Speaker 3: a cell phone now, yeah, And I got a call

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Speaker 3: from my executive at the studio says, yep, you're you're greenlit.

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Speaker 4: Let's go. We're best man. Though we did, we did

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Speaker 4: become them one of the box office.

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Speaker 1: How much of that one gross? After getting for nine million?

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Speaker 3: Then you years first weekend it made it's a budget

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Speaker 3: back and then it grossed about thirty four or thirty

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Speaker 3: five million.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, And that's a huge.

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Speaker 4: It was big. It was big. It was very big.

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Speaker 1: Was that even for that time for a black film?

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Speaker 4: Oh, it was very big.

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Speaker 3: Even the fact that we were number one that weekend

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Speaker 3: was shoote yeah, I mean no, nobody makes nobody gets

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Speaker 3: nine million dollars and like, oh you're number one.

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Speaker 4: That's unheard of today. It'd be like yeah, whatever dollars.

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Speaker 4: But it was.

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Speaker 3: And we beat out Fight Club and Martin Scorsese movie

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Speaker 3: and this this very popular movie that.

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Speaker 4: Actually Judd had done called Double Jeffardy. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 4: so it was it was, it was. It was a great,

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Speaker 4: great story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that shift?

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Speaker 2: Like where you were in your life at that point?

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Speaker 4: It was everything? Man?

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Speaker 3: Like I was like that was that that? After you

346
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Speaker 3: become what I like to say, is the prom queen.

347
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Speaker 3: Everybody wants to dance, right, everybody wants to meet. Everybody

348
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Speaker 3: wants to, you know, like, you know, give you projects.

349
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Speaker 3: They all want to say, hey, would you consider this?

350
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Speaker 3: YadA YadA YadA. So it was it was pretty fantastic.

351
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Speaker 3: And you you know, your head can get you know,

352
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Speaker 3: swollen and blow up and stuff and you and again,

353
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Speaker 3: you know, I'm young, I'm like just new to this business.

354
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Speaker 3: But when you start getting accolades and you think, oh

355
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Speaker 3: my stuff, don't think I'm good. Oh yeah, I mean

356
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Speaker 3: it's impossible not to write at whatever age you are,

357
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Speaker 3: or when you're first coming in the business. You know,

358
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Speaker 3: it's tough to like, you know, navigate all that absolutely

359
00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:15,320
Speaker 3: because they will.

360
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Speaker 4: They will.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure you've heard the saying they'll build you up

362
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Speaker 3: and they'll tear you down, and it happens, you know,

363
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 3: and sometimes I could be your own doing.

364
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Speaker 4: Like I wanted to be an author. I wanted to

365
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Speaker 4: be a writer director.

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Speaker 3: So if they were coming to me with a script

367
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Speaker 3: that they were like, well, we'd love you to direct this,

368
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Speaker 3: I'd be like, well, I didn't write that, so that's

369
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Speaker 3: not I do better than that, you know, or if

370
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Speaker 3: they want you to write something that you know, but

371
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Speaker 3: they don't want you to direct it.

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Speaker 4: I was just like, I'm not doing that either, But

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Speaker 4: that's shortsighted.

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Speaker 2: I learned that now, So now you would take the

375
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Speaker 2: opportunity to like.

376
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Speaker 3: Well now now I'm no, I'm post fifty now, so

377
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Speaker 3: I'm just like, now I'm gonna do what I want.

378
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:58,560
Speaker 3: But at that age you have to be much more malleable.

379
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:00,760
Speaker 3: You have to feel like you got to you gotta

380
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Speaker 3: kind of, you know, look at the entire landscape and

381
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,800
Speaker 3: you know, because what is popular today, what is working now,

382
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,280
Speaker 3: ain't gonna work in a couple of years, right, So

383
00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:15,800
Speaker 3: you have to like really kind of read the tea leaves.

384
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 3: You have to like, you know, learn to say, well,

385
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Speaker 3: maybe I can do something with this.

386
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Speaker 4: I mean, at a.

387
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Speaker 3: Certain points, you got you know, there's something that they'll

388
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Speaker 3: give you to be like, I don't know what the

389
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Speaker 3: heck I'm gonna do with this, right, But I think

390
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 3: that's the balance, right of trying to figure out, you know,

391
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,640
Speaker 3: one's career. But at the same time, it's like if

392
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Speaker 3: you don't go through certain things, you're not gonna.

393
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Speaker 2: Learn absolutely absolutely you said, what works now may not

394
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Speaker 2: work ten years from now. You created years from now, right,

395
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:52,359
Speaker 2: but you actually created something back then that still works today.

396
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,680
Speaker 2: How does it feel that you created something that is

397
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Speaker 2: still so relevant and resonates from me being in my

398
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:00,520
Speaker 2: teens at that time to me being a adult where

399
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Speaker 2: I can watch it and still like, oh my goodness,

400
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 2: I still get it.

401
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,240
Speaker 3: You know, I feel very fortunate. You know, my intention,

402
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:11,240
Speaker 3: this is no there is no lie. My intention in

403
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,840
Speaker 3: making The Best Man was to make a classic, to

404
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:15,840
Speaker 3: make a movie that you know, would stay in the

405
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,880
Speaker 3: test of time, that would resonate for decades and generations.

406
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,159
Speaker 3: And thankfully that happened, you know, thanks to I mean,

407
00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:25,560
Speaker 3: I think a large part to the where the script.

408
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:27,280
Speaker 3: You know, where we started with the script. You know,

409
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:29,320
Speaker 3: I wrote a good script and it was the right

410
00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:30,320
Speaker 3: script at the right time.

411
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Speaker 4: You know a lot of times when when when you

412
00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:33,840
Speaker 4: know films.

413
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 3: The zeit guys, they're like, oh, like that strikes a

414
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,560
Speaker 3: nerve and it's nostalgia, you know, from then on, so

415
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 3: people can't really see any other thing.

416
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 4: And so that was the intention.

417
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:49,040
Speaker 3: Was never the intention to do a sequel, or do

418
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 3: a television series or now even a book.

419
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:54,320
Speaker 4: You know, it was just like, let me just make

420
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:55,000
Speaker 4: a movie that's.

421
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,120
Speaker 3: Gonna that's be a one off, because I don't want

422
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:03,560
Speaker 3: to I did not want to repeat myself second time around,

423
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:04,959
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So when you know, so

424
00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,679
Speaker 3: there was talk of a sequel very early on, but

425
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:09,439
Speaker 3: I was like, no, I don't want to do that.

426
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:11,360
Speaker 3: I don't want to be a one trick pony, and

427
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 3: these characters need to live some life. I need to

428
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 3: live some life before I decide I want to tackle

429
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 3: this again.

430
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Speaker 4: So it just so happened that, you know, as they

431
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 4: would have it.

432
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 3: And as I said, around twenty ten twenty eleven, business

433
00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:30,720
Speaker 3: for me was very slow. And what was the big

434
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 3: thing then branding? What was my brand? The Best Man?

435
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 3: Everyone knew that I had done four of the movies,

436
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:40,920
Speaker 3: but they weren't as popular or as you know, kind

437
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,400
Speaker 3: of like memorable as The Best Man.

438
00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:45,840
Speaker 4: And I was like, I think it's time to start

439
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:48,280
Speaker 4: doing it. And I started like doing little.

440
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:54,159
Speaker 3: Notes and things on the sequel for years at that,

441
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:55,879
Speaker 3: but never really committing to paper.

442
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 4: And I was like, Okay, now's the time to try

443
00:21:58,119 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 4: to do a sequel.

444
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 3: And I pitched it to the cast and they were like,

445
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:03,160
Speaker 3: let's do it.

446
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you look back from over the years and

447
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,159
Speaker 2: you see the impact that you that you've made on

448
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,879
Speaker 2: our community, what is a part of your legacy that

449
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 2: means the most to you?

450
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 4: You know?

451
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:21,119
Speaker 3: Look, I love that black folks in particular love these depictions,

452
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,440
Speaker 3: right like it is my mission. I firmly believe it

453
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 3: is my mission on earth to show the humanity of

454
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:34,199
Speaker 3: black people and to normalize black life in America. You know,

455
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 3: I've always wanted to tell a universal story with black people.

456
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,400
Speaker 3: They all experienced the same human emotions, you know, and

457
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:47,480
Speaker 3: so with this's all though the stories are very universal,

458
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,360
Speaker 3: there's a lot of cultural specificity, and I always want to.

459
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:53,119
Speaker 4: Do that with my work.

460
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:57,000
Speaker 3: And I'm glad that people get it. It resonates people,

461
00:22:57,359 --> 00:22:59,680
Speaker 3: you know, feel it in here. They don't just you know,

462
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 3: laugh and smile and cry whatever like that. It's it's

463
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 3: a part of who they are and their you know,

464
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 3: their their DNA and you know that that it that

465
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 3: it resonates.

466
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 4: And it's great that you.

467
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 3: Know, every time Candy from Cameo comes on, everybody does

468
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:16,520
Speaker 3: the electric slid.

469
00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 4: I find that pretty amazing.

470
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 2: Right for sure. I love that when it comes to

471
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 2: your creative process. Do you wait on something to spark

472
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 2: or what what moves you? And then how do you

473
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 2: really go through that whole process When it comes to writing.

474
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 3: It's it's a mixed bag, you know, and I would

475
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 3: say it's changed, it's evolved over the years, you know.

476
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 3: Sometimes you know, I wait when I'm writing something, I'm like, oh,

477
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 3: you gotta wait till the mus hits me. Around three

478
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:45,679
Speaker 3: o'clock is when the music is going to hit me

479
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 3: and play a visit and I can start, you know,

480
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,640
Speaker 3: really getting creative. But then it gets to a point

481
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 3: where you realize, like this is a job, and you

482
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 3: know you're always going to write the crappy draft. You

483
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,879
Speaker 3: have to write the happy you have to because you

484
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 3: have to. You got to get to the end. Because

485
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 3: screenwriting and I'm and now I've found.

486
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 4: Out a novel. Writing it's all about rewriting, you know.

487
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 3: You got to get to the end and then look

488
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:15,680
Speaker 3: back and say, okay, oh that's terrible.

489
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 4: Oh well that's not so bad, and that's it, and

490
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:19,400
Speaker 4: then you just make it better.

491
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:26,280
Speaker 2: You find enjoying that process huh.

492
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 4: Yeah. Sometimes, oh sometimes it's fantastic.

493
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's like I find myself laughing when things things

494
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,240
Speaker 3: are are are supposed to be funny. I find myself

495
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 3: crying when when they're when they're emotional, you know, Yeah,

496
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 3: it's it's so that's very joyous, you know, but it's hard.

497
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,200
Speaker 4: It's a hard problem to get there, right.

498
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 3: But the thing I have to keep my mind of,

499
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 3: you guys got to keep plowing forward. And even if

500
00:24:54,800 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 3: you're gonna not write what's you know, the the story

501
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 3: that you're working on, you got to write something you

502
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 3: have to, like, you know, I've learned recently from a

503
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 3: writer friend of mine, like just at the beginning.

504
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 4: Of the day, start your brain dump.

505
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,719
Speaker 3: You know, I meditate first, I do a meditation and

506
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,480
Speaker 3: then you try to try to clear my mind and

507
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 3: then go ahead and write.

508
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 4: What's all my brain, what's on my head?

509
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,679
Speaker 3: So I can just get rid of that and then okay,

510
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 3: now I can get back to the page of it,

511
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 3: right and then like just and it ain't gonna be great.

512
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 3: It might be great, it might not be And some

513
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:34,919
Speaker 3: days are better than others.

514
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I think that's with everything you talked about.

515
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:41,679
Speaker 2: For some years, there was a time where it was

516
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 2: really slow for you. What were those moments like when

517
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 2: you realize you had to play the long game, and

518
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:48,719
Speaker 2: it wasn't just gonna come like you thought like it

519
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 2: was coming to nineteen ninety nine.

520
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 3: That was a long game too, you know. I mean

521
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to be a Bombers this time

522
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 3: I was nineteen. So by the time I was twenty five,

523
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,679
Speaker 3: and then in my third year of film school, I

524
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 3: was like, this ain't working like I you know, John

525
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 3: Singleton made Boys in the Hood by the time he

526
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 3: was twenty two. Orson Wells made Citizen King by twenty five,

527
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 3: Like what am I doing?

528
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: Wow?

529
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 4: Right?

530
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it is a long and you have to

531
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 3: just you know, what I've learned is you have to

532
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 3: be a little patient. You have to have perseverance, stick toitiveness,

533
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 3: you know, and then like I said, you gotta if

534
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 3: something comes along. Sometimes it's ridiculous. My age will give

535
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 3: me a script and I'm like, they want to make this?

536
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 4: What? What? What?

537
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: Why do they huh?

538
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 3: And so I remember there was one script there was

539
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 3: a star that was circling it and he was like

540
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:50,920
Speaker 3: a supposed to be a Kirk Franklin type, right, and

541
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 3: he's like.

542
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:53,920
Speaker 4: You know, he was very much kind of a task

543
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:55,680
Speaker 4: master and not a good guy.

544
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he ends up in purgatory.

545
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 4: He gets into the car accident in the purgatory and

546
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:04,879
Speaker 4: they're like, well.

547
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:09,199
Speaker 3: You can go to either heaven or Hell, or you

548
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,920
Speaker 3: can go back to this little white town and teach

549
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:13,600
Speaker 3: these white people gospel music.

550
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: And I was like, they want to make this.

551
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 3: They want to make this. They're like yeah. I was like,

552
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:25,880
Speaker 3: they want to make this. And so like you get

553
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,959
Speaker 3: those things happy, you know, and during those dry patches,

554
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 3: it's like you just got to try, you know, to

555
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 3: reinvent yourself, like I. And during that time, that's when

556
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 3: I started to move towards television.

557
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,120
Speaker 4: I'd written a specscript that didn't get.

558
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 3: Sold, and then I said, okay, let me say I

559
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 3: can make it a tell television show. And that kept

560
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 3: me aflip for a bit because I was able to

561
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 3: turn televis show and get a little bit of money.

562
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 4: And then that's when I came up when with the branding.

563
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 3: Thing with Best Man Holiday, and after that I was like,

564
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 3: I ain't saying no to nothing, but when when a

565
00:27:55,560 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 3: script comes in and it's they want me to do it,

566
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 3: and it's going and the train's about to leave the station,

567
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 3: all right, give me a week or two and I'll

568
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 3: just go and do it, because you can't. You can't

569
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 3: just squadw these opportunities when you're hot. You gotta like,

570
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 3: you know, keep hopping on it. But at the same time,

571
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 3: you have to have a life balance as well.

572
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:15,639
Speaker 1: Right, let's talk about that.

573
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 4: It's it's it's it's not.

574
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 3: It's just funny too, because you know, my wife keeps

575
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 3: me in check very much, you know, in terms of

576
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:27,879
Speaker 3: like making sure that I'm present, right, And at the

577
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 3: same time, she's like, yo, you got to go make

578
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 3: that money too, right, And I remember, it's so funny.

579
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 3: I had just done Girls Trip and it was it

580
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 3: wasn't coming out yet, but they had tremendous buzz, right,

581
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 3: and Universal wanted to make this movie Night School with

582
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 3: Kevin Hart. And I was like, and they gave me

583
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 3: a script and I I read it twice. I fell

584
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 3: asleep and I'm like, I can't do this, Like this

585
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 3: is not a good script, right, And but they were like, oh,

586
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 3: this is very important to the studio and blah blah,

587
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 3: blah blah.

588
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 4: They were gonna make it.

589
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 3: And I was just like, and I talked over my

590
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 3: wife and she was like, well, look, you gotta do

591
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 3: what you feel, right, And they were gonna pay me,

592
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 3: you know.

593
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 4: A good salary.

594
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 3: But I was like, you know, grocery was so hard

595
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 3: on a very hard year, between grocery and barbershop, and

596
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do it. I tell Will Packer, Uh,

597
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 3: you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna pass.

598
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 4: And I hung up the phone.

599
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 3: I was in my office and I called my wife

600
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 3: and she was like, I said, yeah, I passed. She's

601
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 3: like all that money, huh. I was like, but you

602
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 3: said call my heart, I said, call him back. So

603
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 3: I called back. I was like, yeah, yeah, yah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

604
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 3: I got calling back.

605
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 1: I mean, that is the layer. This is one like

606
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: that was saying when she says one thing, but she

607
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: really means another.

608
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 3: No, actually, you know she she just you know again,

609
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 3: she keeps me checking like you know, it's it's it's

610
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 3: all about checks and balance. It's like, okay, you know,

611
00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 3: think about it, but what is it gonna mean long term?

612
00:29:59,440 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 4: Right?

613
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 3: And again when you when you say no. And that

614
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 3: was the other thing too. Having done that movie that

615
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 3: was very important to the studio. I got my deal

616
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 3: at the studio. There's a whole the relationships that are

617
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 3: very important that needs preserved and cultivated. So it's that's

618
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 3: the long game.

619
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, did that in turn that deal with them? Did

620
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 2: that in turn help you with the Peacock deal?

621
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 3: For I was already in a a I'm sorry, A

622
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 3: television deal with Universal Television Studio is different.

623
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 4: But I've deal with with both of them right now.

624
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 4: So it's I'm one of their soldiers.

625
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: Love it, love it. That's working out good for you.

626
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 4: See, it could be better, but you know, I.

627
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 2: Think that's let's talk about that to just a state

628
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 2: of Hollywood. You know, we had the writers had a strike,

629
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 2: then that actors had a strike, and then transfer they

630
00:30:58,520 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 2: almost had a strike.

631
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: How has that one affected you?

632
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 2: And then when you say it could be better, I

633
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 2: think everybody in the industry feels like that's their answer,

634
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 2: it could be better.

635
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's a tough time right now,

636
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 3: I think, especially in the past two years, and then

637
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 3: you know, if you even count the pandemic, you know

638
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 3: before that that was very, very tough. A lot of

639
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 3: people are losing jobs. The industry is shrinking, especially after

640
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 3: the writer's track. There it is, it is, it's it's

641
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 3: a business. Contracting it and this happens, it goes through

642
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:36,320
Speaker 3: ebbs and flows yes, and so I would say that, yeah,

643
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 3: I mean it's it's it's a tough time and they're

644
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 3: very much running scared. You know, they're not just saying

645
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 3: yes to everything. They're not you know, like taking chances

646
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 3: on a lot of things. Right, they want the shore

647
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 3: fire thing. There's no such thing, by the way, but

648
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 3: they're relying very much on intellectual property that's.

649
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 4: Been successful in the past.

650
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: Right.

651
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 3: So that's why you see it in the Jurassic Park

652
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 3: being made mission impossible being you know, if you know

653
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 3: that there they fail, people are going to go to

654
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 3: those people are going to.

655
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 4: Show up, you know.

656
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 3: So that's what we're We're doing that and a number

657
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 3: of other things that we're trying to do. Original content,

658
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 3: trying to do you know, you know things like like

659
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 3: you know, book adaptations to to.

660
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 4: The screen and things like that too.

661
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 3: So you know, if it has a follow up, if

662
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 3: it has a built an audience, it's easier.

663
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 4: For them to say yes.

664
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: Right.

665
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 3: But even that, you know, the development process, finding the

666
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 3: right writer, finding the right producer, finding the right actors,

667
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 3: find the right talent, trying to find the you know,

668
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:35,959
Speaker 3: the schedules that will line up.

669
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 4: It's not easy.

670
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: It's not It's so true. Yeah, it's true.

671
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,760
Speaker 2: Talk about book adaptations, one of the questions we all

672
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 2: had was like, is he gonna make turn this book

673
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 2: into a series? Because he knows you're gonna do three books,

674
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 2: three books. This is the first one of the three.

675
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 2: How is the writing process for a script and a

676
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 2: book different?

677
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 3: I think, you know, they're similar in that you you've

678
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 3: got to have character, you have to have story. You

679
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 3: got the right scenes, you have the right dialogue, you have.

680
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 4: To create a world. However, with a screenplay, it's.

681
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 3: A lot more contained and a lot more restrictive. But

682
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 3: something great can come out of that. Right. But you

683
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 3: you have that that classic three act structure with your

684
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 3: you know, inciting incident and your engine that pulls you

685
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 3: through the second act and you know the the Daniel

686
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 3: Mall and the third act crisis or the end of

687
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 3: second act crisis and then the resolution and all these

688
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 3: are these are part of movie low. You have to

689
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 3: do these things, you know, they're they're they're exceptions to

690
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 3: that rule.

691
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 4: But with a book, you can kind of take your

692
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 4: time a little bit. There's a lot more expansive story

693
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 4: telling that goes on.

694
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 3: You get into these characters brains and psychees, and get.

695
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 4: To know them on an intimate level.

696
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 3: I mean, people think they know, you know, Harper, Robin

697
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 3: and Jordan, but they don't know some of their backstory,

698
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 3: their upbringing, They don't know where they where they came from. Really,

699
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,480
Speaker 3: you know, they might have some idea, but and what

700
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 3: they're there thinking is I mean, you only tell what

701
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 3: they're thinking when they tell you what they're thinking, right,

702
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 3: they say it on television show or a movie or

703
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 3: if they're doing voiceover.

704
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 4: But with the book, you're able.

705
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 3: To to get into their subconscious You're able to also

706
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:40,400
Speaker 3: take advantage of all kinds of the sense, all the senses,

707
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:41,320
Speaker 3: you know, the touch.

708
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:46,799
Speaker 4: The feel, the seed, and hearing, the taste. So you

709
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 4: know it. It's a fantastic, more expansive way of storytelling.

710
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 2: Absolutely what made you say it is time to write

711
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:56,720
Speaker 2: a book?

712
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 3: I love the written word from you know early on

713
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 3: and fantasized about writing a novel. Really yeah, because you know, right,

714
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 3: my screenplays I've always been too long, right, Like you know,

715
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 3: I remember my first draft of the Best Man was

716
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 3: like one hundred and.

717
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:17,760
Speaker 4: Thirty five pages.

718
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:19,879
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, and the studio was like, you got

719
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 3: to cut this down. So, you know, I played with

720
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 3: fonts and stuff and got it down to one twenty

721
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:24,880
Speaker 3: big mistake.

722
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:26,720
Speaker 4: Once they reset that thing.

723
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 3: They were like, oh my god, you've got to cut this.

724
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,839
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, well, you know, so I

725
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:37,080
Speaker 3: like having the you know, the breath of storytelling in

726
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 3: writing a novel, so like that was a beautiful process.

727
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 3: And I got to, you know, collaborate with a co

728
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:45,320
Speaker 3: writer named Jane Allen.

729
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 4: Yes, and she was established in the world.

730
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 3: I I, you know, I hadn't you know, had that opportunity,

731
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 3: and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do

732
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,000
Speaker 3: it myself. I do have a day job, and so I,

733
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 3: you know, I said, well, I want to try this thing,

734
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 3: you know how it could potentially work, but it was

735
00:35:58,480 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 3: it was time and also time to do it with

736
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 3: this these characters, and this was the This was a

737
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 3: kind of an easy Foray, or an easier Foray than

738
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 3: to create characters from whole cloth. There was a backstory

739
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 3: that existed, there's the characters that existed. There were circumstances

740
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 3: that you know, people were familiar with and even those

741
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 3: people who aren't familiar with it, I think can still

742
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,919
Speaker 3: vibe with the with the with the storytelling that goes

743
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:20,319
Speaker 3: on here.

744
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean it was it was time to

745
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:23,759
Speaker 4: do it, and I knew that.

746
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,320
Speaker 3: You know, it would be incredibly difficult to mount another

747
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 3: television show or movie with the storytelling that I wanted

748
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 3: to do, and to get all those actors back together,

749
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,439
Speaker 3: it would be very difficult. So I was like, well,

750
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 3: let me, let me give this a shot and try it.

751
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 3: And because the fans wanted more, you know, from these characters,

752
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:52,920
Speaker 3: I thought we were done after final chapters. And I

753
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,719
Speaker 3: think it was mainly because of how difficult it was

754
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 3: to wrangle everybody and get the studio to a pre

755
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 3: you know, this budget, and it's.

756
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 4: Just not easy. Yeah.

757
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,279
Speaker 2: Oh man, So does that mean we may not get

758
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 2: any more final chapters?

759
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,840
Speaker 3: Because right there written, you'll have it there and and

760
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 3: it's a very cinematic experience. You know, people are really

761
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 3: going to this is a deeper look at these characters

762
00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:21,240
Speaker 3: than we've ever experienced before.

763
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: I will say that we talked about this too.

764
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 2: When you read a book and then you go watch

765
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 2: the TV or film adaptation, the book is always better.

766
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to really die there.

767
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:34,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you know, look, when you're reading a book,

768
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 3: you have what you envision for, right, and there's there's

769
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 3: probably millions of people's interpretations of you know.

770
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 4: What that is.

771
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 3: But when you're watching a movie television show, that's one

772
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 3: person's vision, right. It's a director or the writer, maybe

773
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,399
Speaker 3: maybe five people's vision of what that thing should be.

774
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 3: And then you have a bunch of other people like

775
00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 3: costume designers and you know, directors of atography and uh,

776
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 3: you know, production designers that are all going to like

777
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,160
Speaker 3: put their their stamp on it as well. So it's

778
00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 3: a collaborative process, whereas the book is a singular experience,

779
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:14,479
Speaker 3: you know, for the reader and for the writer.

780
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, which one do you enjoy better?

781
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 4: If you had?

782
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 3: I definitely enjoyed this, and I enjoyed the screenwriting process too,

783
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 3: you know when it's when.

784
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:35,319
Speaker 4: It's flowing hard, this is tough. I mean, I like

785
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 4: them both.

786
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 3: I like the creative process, and you know, especially you

787
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,399
Speaker 3: know in television and in you know, in this case

788
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,279
Speaker 3: with the with the with the book, I had a

789
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 3: collaborator and you know, and and you know, in the

790
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 3: the television writers, so it's always good to like, you know,

791
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 3: get input, and that's that generates good, healthy discussion, and

792
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:59,719
Speaker 3: that generates ideas. When you're you know, singular and writing

793
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 3: your own screenplay, that's great also, and I do enjoy.

794
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,319
Speaker 4: That too, but you know, I love that.

795
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,560
Speaker 2: What part of being a storyteller do you think that

796
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 2: people don't get to see? We see the finished outcome,

797
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:14,360
Speaker 2: and we see everything that you do on TV, but

798
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 2: we don't really see the ins and outs. What is

799
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 2: something that you could share with us that we really

800
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 2: don't get to see.

801
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's it's it's a lonely process.

802
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 3: Wow, it's it's it is you know, it's a singular,

803
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:34,240
Speaker 3: you know, process that requires discipline and perseverance, and because

804
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 3: every day is not going to be a banner day

805
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 3: when you write something, you know, even oh.

806
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 4: My god, that sucks. Why who would who even cares

807
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:43,440
Speaker 4: that about.

808
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 3: These characters I've got I've got to an the screenplay

809
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 3: being like, who's gonna care?

810
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 4: Right?

811
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 3: And but then you guys say, okay, wait a minute,

812
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 3: you wrote it for a reason, the idea was it

813
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 3: with inspiration behind it?

814
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 4: Okay, so what's good about it? And so it's lonely.

815
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,319
Speaker 4: It's uh, it's it's it's takes.

816
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 3: It takes a lot of discipline because no one's just

817
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 3: telling you like, oh, like you've got to reach this

818
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 3: many pages in a day, right, I mean, if you're

819
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,240
Speaker 3: getting paid you you know you do you are supposed

820
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 3: to like, you know, hit some deadlines and that's a

821
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 3: lot of pressure.

822
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know it doesn't always you know, work

823
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:18,960
Speaker 4: like that.

824
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,480
Speaker 2: When you say discipline, can you take us through a

825
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 2: day with Malcolm d Lee, like what that discipline looks like?

826
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 2: Because I'm sure some people don't even understand the discipline

827
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 2: it takes to be a storyteller.

828
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:31,800
Speaker 1: What does it look like from your lens?

829
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,080
Speaker 4: You know, every screenplay has been different, you know.

830
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 3: You first, you can't just start writing interior, you know

831
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:44,320
Speaker 3: Max's house day, you know, set in the scene.

832
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 4: You have to like do pieces. You do a lot

833
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,760
Speaker 4: of pre writing. You have to like who's this character?

834
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 4: What does he? Where does he come from? Or where

835
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 4: does she come from? What does he like? What's the

836
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:54,759
Speaker 4: what you know?

837
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 3: And so character first, That's where I always start with character.

838
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 4: And just you know, try to like first, what's what

839
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 4: story are you telling? Right? And then how is and

840
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 4: and what's the interaction going to be is.

841
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,040
Speaker 3: It what's the tone? Is it a comedy, is it

842
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 3: a dramaa is it a drama? Is it a tragedy?

843
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 3: You know, Uh, you have to figure out tone, character, story, plot, uh,

844
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 3: inciting incident, you know, what's and what's going to keep

845
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 3: this going?

846
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 4: Like why why why are we going to be watching

847
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 4: or or or reading? You know.

848
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:33,840
Speaker 3: So there's a lot that goes into it, and some

849
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 3: of it at this point I think it's a little

850
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 3: bit intuitive.

851
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,359
Speaker 4: Other other things are just that they take some some

852
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 4: discussion or.

853
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:47,240
Speaker 3: You know, looking, uh, reading other things, like reading other books,

854
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 3: doing research. You know, for instance, in this book here,

855
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,319
Speaker 3: we have a huge section of it that takes place

856
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 3: in Ghana. Yes, and you know, I had to go

857
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,360
Speaker 3: there for ten days to like just get myself immersed

858
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,520
Speaker 3: in the culture, so I can speak authentically about what

859
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 3: uh an American woman's.

860
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 4: H experience might be there somebody trying to open a restaurant.

861
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: That's good, that's good. How was that experience bring?

862
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,279
Speaker 4: I love I love Ghana. Yeah, you know, it's just

863
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:19,920
Speaker 4: very like.

864
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:26,319
Speaker 3: Traveling the world gives you a definitely a different perspective

865
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 3: on America.

866
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,759
Speaker 4: And the world right, absolutely about like.

867
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 3: Where we've come from, what was taken from us, what

868
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 3: we've endured, it's it's it's it's and what's still going on.

869
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 4: So it's eye opening.

870
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so good.

871
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 2: When it comes to your book and you've grown with

872
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:53,279
Speaker 2: these characters, how do you approach them now as an

873
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 2: adult different than what you did as a a twenty

874
00:42:57,280 --> 00:42:57,719
Speaker 2: year old.

875
00:42:58,239 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 4: It's interesting.

876
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,760
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, look, I I look at

877
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 3: their commonalities and their and their humanity and what they're

878
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:11,719
Speaker 3: going what what are What did twenty year olds go through?

879
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:12,400
Speaker 4: Is all? You know?

880
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 3: It was all the experience that I had, right, And

881
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 3: then you know what would happen if, like you know,

882
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:23,440
Speaker 3: you've got kids and you know one of your friends

883
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 3: was dying, Like, what is that going to be?

884
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 4: Like what if on I'm having financial trouble? What is that?

885
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 4: You know?

886
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 3: What if what if the you know, this same group

887
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 3: of friends has something you know that that that that

888
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 3: comes up from there from your past that is affecting

889
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:39,760
Speaker 3: your future.

890
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:41,479
Speaker 4: So these are all.

891
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 3: Questions you ask and the Okay, let's put it in

892
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 3: the holidays and see what happens. Right, And so you know,

893
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 3: the same thing with with the with the final chapters

894
00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 3: and with this book here you say, what's life like

895
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:56,439
Speaker 3: for you know, uh, post divorce, you know, for somebody

896
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,160
Speaker 3: who's very successful, like Harper is, who is like you know,

897
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 3: a politicerprize winner. You know, he's financially independent. He's you know,

898
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 3: not and kind of flushed with cash and like getting

899
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,840
Speaker 3: a little you know, he's outside, you know, you getting

900
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:15,720
Speaker 3: you know, trying to find companionship but it's not really working.

901
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 4: What is it?

902
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 3: What is life for life for for Jordan who's finally

903
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 3: given up the grind and gone into self care? What

904
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 3: does that look like for a woman who's you know,

905
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 3: a black woman, a professional black woman who's approaching her fifties,

906
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:33,880
Speaker 3: you know, saying and and and what looked like for

907
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 3: a woman who's raising they're very American child you know

908
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 3: over in uh a crowd Ghana and trying to open

909
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,400
Speaker 3: a restaurant, and you know the little child is like,

910
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 3: you know, having their own opinions and you know, becoming

911
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 3: a teenager and dealing with that and you know, so

912
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,319
Speaker 3: and then new love and and rebirth and all these

913
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,279
Speaker 3: things that like we explore the in the novel, and

914
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,759
Speaker 3: then things that that have happen in the past that

915
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 3: affect you now. So it's all you know, those are

916
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 3: all themes that you just kind of like, you know,

917
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 3: I want to tackle. And then on top of it,

918
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:11,839
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a better writer now than I was then.

919
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,239
Speaker 3: I know like what has to happen well and what

920
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:17,279
Speaker 3: the expectations are on where we're leading. But at the

921
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 3: same time, you have to trust the material and the

922
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,320
Speaker 3: characters because they will tell you where it's gonna go.

923
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:27,439
Speaker 1: That's good, it's the truth.

924
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:30,760
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's I will say, same thing happened

925
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 3: to the best man, the first best man that happened

926
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:33,720
Speaker 3: in this book.

927
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 4: I was going along a path. I give you an example.

928
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 3: Robin was never that's the Sia Lathan's character. She was

929
00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 3: never coming to the wedding in the original draft.

930
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 4: Really, that's correct. It wasn't until we were we were

931
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:51,480
Speaker 4: doing I was doing the the rewrite for the.

932
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 3: Studio, and you know, my producer was like, you know

933
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 3: what if she came to the wedding, because all was

934
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 3: gonna happen was Harper.

935
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 4: Was gonna get his He's like his ass beat.

936
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,280
Speaker 3: He was gonna you know, have his his lesson learned

937
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 3: and he was going to be like, you know what,

938
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,360
Speaker 3: I need to make a stronger commitment to my relationship.

939
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:09,239
Speaker 4: He goes home.

940
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:12,399
Speaker 3: He's trying to make a meal for Robb and he's

941
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 3: messing it up and he's like, She's like what happens?

942
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 3: And he's like, here, give it. He gives her a

943
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 3: key to his place. It's nice, but it's not what

944
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:27,920
Speaker 3: it needed to be once she got there, and once

945
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 3: you understood you must put pressure on your main character

946
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:37,400
Speaker 3: in order to see what they're going to do.

947
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 4: That is how you tell story.

948
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 3: It's conflict, it's you know, it's like okay, So I

949
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 3: was like, God, what's going to happen right, you know?

950
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,399
Speaker 4: And you write it and say, oh, this is good,

951
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:51,839
Speaker 4: this is better. She does calm him down.

952
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:53,879
Speaker 3: She first, she's pissed off and she wants to leave,

953
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:56,640
Speaker 3: but he tells, I need you, please don't leave me.

954
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 4: And that's a real thing. That was okay, Like she

955
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 4: can help and she's the woman for you. Yeah, right,

956
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 4: same thing in this. But I'm not gonna tell you

957
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:08,799
Speaker 4: the ending.

958
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 3: But I was going along a path and Jane and

959
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 3: I were talking and Chelsea, our editor, was like, well,

960
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 3: this is the way, this is happening, and you know,

961
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 3: you really got to think about what is what this

962
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 3: choice and with that choice, and what he.

963
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 4: Should do here and what she should do there. And

964
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, yeah, we got to do that. Yeah,

965
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:31,439
Speaker 4: because that makes sense. That's so good.

966
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 1: I love that. How much of your storytelling mirrors your life?

967
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 4: Well some elements, yes, but not not a ton.

968
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:46,320
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I'm going through, you know, things that

969
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 3: like a lot of these characters going through like midlife metamorphosis,

970
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,720
Speaker 3: you know, like what my body is changing?

971
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:56,920
Speaker 4: Like you know, yeah, uh, you know do it? I

972
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,319
Speaker 4: do feel like like the best I felt that in years.

973
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 3: But at the same time, like your body's like you

974
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 3: ain't you ain't twenty five no more, you ain't forty,

975
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 3: you know, and so like and you see friends who

976
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 3: you know, we have friends who have were together for

977
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,280
Speaker 3: a long time, they got divorced, especially around this age.

978
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:16,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's a reflection for sure that we're seeing,

979
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 4: you know. Fortunately, unlike Harper, I am still married.

980
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 3: Amen, And you know, I'm I'm as much as as

981
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:29,719
Speaker 3: I've been on the grind and want to be on

982
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:31,319
Speaker 3: the grind and know the grand might want to push

983
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 3: for the grind, like you know, I like Jordan has

984
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 3: trying to find like a balance, right, So like that's

985
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 3: been you know, uh healthy as well, just trying to

986
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,840
Speaker 3: you know, figure all those things out. And you know,

987
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 3: Robin being in Ghana, I get that. I get that

988
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:55,360
Speaker 3: she's like a she chose choosing herself. She chose herself,

989
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 3: and she chose her happiness and she wasn't going to

990
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 3: be you know, supportive of a man that wasn't going

991
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 3: to give a reciprocal a reciprocy intidents the relationship.

992
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:10,840
Speaker 4: And so you know, I don't know.

993
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:12,879
Speaker 3: If I fans Has about being a Ghana, but when

994
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 3: I was there, I was like, should I do this?

995
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 3: Maybe the things keep going away there going here?

996
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:20,240
Speaker 4: Maybe?

997
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so true. That's so true readers. I've heard

998
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 2: the books are flying off the shelves.

999
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1000
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:31,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just just yesterday my co writer Jane,

1001
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 3: you know, she went, she has a ritual where she like,

1002
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 3: she she goes she when she's in New York, she

1003
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:39,279
Speaker 3: gets a little hot chocolate from a certain place. She

1004
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:43,320
Speaker 3: goes to a Barnes and Noble in Midtown and you know,

1005
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 3: signs books. So she did, she went and got the

1006
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:51,000
Speaker 3: hot chocolate. Yesterday went to Barnes and Noble sold out. Wow,

1007
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 3: And I was like word, she was like yeah, so

1008
00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 3: and then we the Schomberg last night. All the books

1009
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 3: were sold out. You know, the house was packed. It's fantastic. So, like,

1010
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 3: I'm glad that people are taking to that. They care

1011
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 3: about the story and they want to know the story,

1012
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 3: even though it's not on the big or the small screen.

1013
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,799
Speaker 3: They can have their own uh small screen or big

1014
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:17,239
Speaker 3: screen experience, you know. And what everyone tells me, and

1015
00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:21,320
Speaker 3: I believe it and I think it's true. It feels

1016
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 3: like a movie, yeah, because you see you see who

1017
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:25,239
Speaker 3: the who the actors were, you know't have the picture

1018
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:27,880
Speaker 3: who they are. There's a few new characters that you

1019
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:30,520
Speaker 3: might say, oh, who would that be? You know, and

1020
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,239
Speaker 3: that's fair, go ahead and do that. And so you know,

1021
00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 3: and the social media has been pretty robust as well.

1022
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:36,720
Speaker 3: So we're very excited.

1023
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:37,880
Speaker 1: That's amazing.

1024
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 2: For people who are looking forward to diving in the book,

1025
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,120
Speaker 2: what can you tell them to look forward to.

1026
00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 4: More of the same. If you love Best Man or

1027
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 4: if you like the Best Man, you're gonna love this book.

1028
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 4: You know.

1029
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 3: It's more the thing that the humors there, you know,

1030
00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 3: there's there's a depth of emotion that's there.

1031
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some surprises.

1032
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 3: I definitely think people going to laugh and they're going

1033
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 3: to talk out loud to the book. You know, they're

1034
00:51:04,920 --> 00:51:08,439
Speaker 3: going to, uh, you know, get angry at characters. They're gonna,

1035
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 3: you know, be sad for characters. They're gonna you know,

1036
00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 3: they should they should be you know, when when the

1037
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:16,680
Speaker 3: songs get referenced in there, they should play the playlist

1038
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:20,760
Speaker 3: for themselves. I think there's gonna be a lot to expect.

1039
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 3: They're going to have a great time. It's a great journey.

1040
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:27,880
Speaker 3: And I'm hearing that people just like they binged final chapters,

1041
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 3: people like I mean they watched it like multiple times,

1042
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,400
Speaker 3: and they watched it like from like beginning to end

1043
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:35,120
Speaker 3: in one setting.

1044
00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 4: That that is what I'm hearing.

1045
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:39,800
Speaker 3: People are finishing this book in two days and this

1046
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:42,560
Speaker 3: book is almost one undred pages. Oh yeah, and the

1047
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:45,160
Speaker 3: people are like just it's a page turner. They're they're

1048
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 3: just just voraciously reading it.

1049
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Congratulations everything.

1050
00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:53,520
Speaker 2: I'm so excited excited for you aid much success.

1051
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here, I do want to

1052
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:55,800
Speaker 1: play a little game with you.

1053
00:51:56,400 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 2: Playing games Okay, it's a up of our games. So

1054
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:02,799
Speaker 2: just the first thing that comes to mind.

1055
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 4: Oh, boy, I'm terrible at these things. I'm gonna some of.

1056
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:08,440
Speaker 2: These you would know because these are like some of

1057
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 2: them are direct. What is the first trip you ever wrote?

1058
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:14,200
Speaker 4: Oh, morning side prep?

1059
00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 1: Favorite film that you didn't direct?

1060
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 4: Mm hmm, yeah, I was gonna. I'm gonna say Parenthood, Okay,

1061
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:25,080
Speaker 4: do it?

1062
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:27,800
Speaker 1: Okay? A book that changed your life?

1063
00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:33,399
Speaker 4: It changed my life. But I would say Native Sons good.

1064
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 1: Most surreal moment in your career so far?

1065
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.

1066
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:43,680
Speaker 3: I'm sure it has to do with Girls Trip, probably

1067
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:45,120
Speaker 3: shooting at essence of Girls Trip.

1068
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:49,080
Speaker 1: Yes, that was Yeah, that was crazy that y'all did that.

1069
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 1: Your favorite author.

1070
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:55,920
Speaker 4: Probably Richard right, okay?

1071
00:52:56,160 --> 00:53:03,840
Speaker 1: And favorite fictional character? H Do you have a favorite

1072
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:08,799
Speaker 1: in your in your world like a favorite character? Boy?

1073
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:12,840
Speaker 3: No, I.

1074
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:15,200
Speaker 4: Love all these.

1075
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 3: I love all my characters, right, maybe Quentin, because that's

1076
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 3: very selfish to say my own character.

1077
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:22,759
Speaker 4: I'm sure there are others you know.

1078
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:25,880
Speaker 3: In the movie and television that I can't think that

1079
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:27,480
Speaker 3: Nobody's coming to mind in my mind's a blank?

1080
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:27,960
Speaker 4: All right?

1081
00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:31,120
Speaker 1: Last one? What is bringing you the most joy right now?

1082
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 3: I think life in general, like, I got a very

1083
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:42,560
Speaker 3: good balance, kids are healthy, wife's in my corner. I

1084
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,279
Speaker 3: got a book coming out, I got my career is

1085
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:48,439
Speaker 3: doing well. I'd like to make a little bit more money,

1086
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 3: but other than that, I'm good.

1087
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:54,200
Speaker 1: I love that Malcolm, thank you so much. Thank you.

1088
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:57,520
Speaker 1: It's the book. It's on the sales right now or

1089
00:53:57,600 --> 00:53:59,799
Speaker 1: maybe not selling out.

1090
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:03,919
Speaker 4: Better get that book. Yes, don't be left out the chat.

1091
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:06,920
Speaker 1: Listen, do not be left out the chat. Thank you

1092
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:07,439
Speaker 1: so much.

1093
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:16,880
Speaker 2: Amazing Today on the shoes, I am wearing a heart

1094
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 2: Aliyah pump. My skirt is Lepard fented by Zara, T

1095
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 2: shirt is Christian Dior, Jurry van Kleet Scaparelli, and my

1096
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:28,360
Speaker 2: ear rings.

1097
00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:30,239
Speaker 1: Are also by Scaparelli. Get into it.

1098
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 2: Wow, it feels like maybe the Sweeties need to start

1099
00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:38,319
Speaker 2: a book club and call a meeting because we need

1100
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:42,320
Speaker 2: to discuss this book and these characters. Make sure you

1101
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:45,959
Speaker 2: guys like subscribe and tell a friend to tell a friend,

1102
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:49,359
Speaker 2: and make sure you hit that notification button until next time.

1103
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:50,719
Speaker 1: Keep it posa Sweeties.

1104
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:01,399
Speaker 4: Then then then