SUCOPRESS/Raquel Laguna. Raven Goodwin and Luke David Blumm talk in this interview about working in the movie LOLA, written and directed by Nicola Peltz Beckham. Both actors talk about their characters in the film and about the message of this powerful drama. Set in 2002 Middle America, LOLA revolves around nineteen-year-old Lola James (Peltz Beckham) who is desperately working to save enough money to get her little brother, Arlo (Luke David Blumm), out of their toxic home dominated by their mother, Mona (Madsen). All Lola wants is for Arlo to have a chance at the life she never had, nor will. One tragic night her whole world gets uprooted, and from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same.
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00:00 - Reven, what do you like the most about playing Bibina?
00:04 Do you relate to your character in any way?
00:07 - Sure, I mean, what I love most about playing Bibina
00:11 is that she's similar to me.
00:14 It's kind of how I show up in my friendships,
00:16 unconditional love, peaceful,
00:20 you know, empathetic, strong.
00:25 So it wasn't a stress for me,
00:28 but Nicola kind of made it easy to love on her
00:33 and be there for her in that way, so yeah.
00:39 - Reven, your character is based
00:43 on one of Nicola's best friends.
00:45 Did you get the chance to meet her
00:49 or did you talk with Nicola about her
00:51 to prepare for your role?
00:53 - Yes, so Angela lives in Africa,
00:57 so we were able to communicate a little
01:01 before going into the role,
01:03 but based off of the way she was written
01:08 and based off of what Nicola had told me about her,
01:12 I already kind of knew who she was
01:16 because she just shows up how, you know,
01:19 any other black woman would typically show up,
01:22 you know, like I said, empathetic, beautiful,
01:26 so just all of those things.
01:29 So it was, and it was nothing short of that
01:31 when I talked to her, when I've, you know,
01:35 we went to Nicola's wedding and we had a beautiful time
01:38 and she's good people, she's good people.
01:41 - What can the audience expect from this movie?
01:45 - So for me, watching it for the first time,
01:49 not as a cast member, but as an audience member,
01:56 I went in there completely open and honest with myself.
02:01 And when I was watching it, I was like,
02:04 oh, it's, for some reason,
02:09 I forgot that it wasn't dialogue heavy.
02:11 And I said, you know, in this situation
02:15 where there's so much depression and sadness
02:24 and in life you don't talk that much,
02:29 there isn't much to say.
02:32 And so I found that that was the beautiful part,
02:35 the most beautiful part of the film to me
02:37 because you really got to look at our eyes
02:42 and really see the emotion of it all,
02:47 the shots, the way it was directed,
02:52 it was super, it was cinematically gorgeous in every way.
02:57 I was kind of, I knew it was going to be beautiful,
03:00 but when I saw the trailer,
03:02 I was really taken aback by the beauty
03:05 and it's actually vibrant,
03:07 even though the story is on the darker side,
03:11 it's such a vibrant movie.
03:12 So I think what the audience can expect
03:15 is to go through all of those waves and emotions,
03:21 the beauty of the film, the sadness of the film,
03:24 the realness of the film.
03:26 And yeah, I think they'll really,
03:29 really take something away from it.
03:30 What I took away from it was, you know,
03:32 it was authentic to the way that we communicate
03:35 when we're in that space.
03:37 So I thought that was beautiful.
03:39 - Luke, what did you like the most
03:40 about playing Arlo in the film?
03:43 - Ooh, that's a hard one.
03:46 I mean, everything was just so amazing there.
03:50 My favorite part of acting is just being on set
03:53 and hanging out with everybody.
03:55 But I think my favorite thing about playing Arlo
03:58 was just how just happy and fun he was all the time.
04:02 Well, most of the time.
04:04 It's just so fun and just so amazing
04:09 to be able to just be like super upbeat
04:12 and happy in a scene.
04:13 And I would never played a character
04:16 that was even close to how just super fun Arlo can be.
04:21 And it was just an amazing experience playing him.
04:25 - Luke, what would you say is the message of this film?
04:29 - Ooh, I would probably say the message of this film.
04:35 I mean, just like on a huge thing,
04:37 the film is just about how messed up people can be
04:42 and just like families can be.
04:44 I think the message of this film
04:46 is very similar to what Nicola was saying earlier.
04:49 Just like persevere and push through
04:52 no matter how hard it is,
04:54 because there's always something that'll help you.