Today’s most notable creatives join Variety at Sundance for exclusive in-depth conversations across various entertainment mediums, presented by Audible.
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00:00But I remember walking out of the audition with like my little faux cigarette and you literally snatching it out of my mouth and being like, thank you so much.
00:07I'm gonna...
00:07Ah, don't tell people.
00:08You remember that?
00:09Loved you instantly.
00:10And then we like hung out after, you know?
00:24Well, I mean we do have this very romantic setting.
00:27It does feel like an appropriate place to be talking about love.
00:30And that is very much, Rachel, the conversation that you are having with this movie.
00:36It's really us talking about loving each other, loving ourselves, loving our city.
00:41What was it when you first read this script that made you want to add your voice to it?
00:48I felt like I was reading a timeless human piece about love and there were no villains.
00:57Love is hard. It's not an easy pursuit.
01:03And I loved how careful Paul was with each character.
01:10Everyone sort of had done the work but still needed to do work.
01:17And I loved that that was the place that we were meeting them.
01:21Andre, what stood out to you about Roger?
01:24Because this is a very vulnerable...
01:26It's a very vulnerable role.
01:28Well, Angelique, Roger's a little bit of a mess and I have been known to be a little messy myself once upon a time.
01:35So, no, I really...
01:37Shut up.
01:40I really connected with, like Rachel was saying, the complexity of love and modern relationships
01:45and how they're not always easy.
01:47They're, you know, at times confusing and messy.
01:49And I thought, you know, he's a guy who's an artist.
01:51He's a successful writer.
01:53And he's at a bit of a crossroads where he's having a tough time breaking this story that he's trying to write.
01:57And also his romantic life is a bit of a mess.
01:59And the city, the town, the neighborhood that he lives in in Brooklyn is changing at light speed.
02:05And so that's something that I really felt connected to.
02:08And it is quite a vulnerable role, but I couldn't imagine doing it with better people.
02:12I love that you said connected to because, Nicole, that laugh was a knowing one.
02:17Because this...
02:18Yeah.
02:21This cast came together because of connections.
02:24Tell me a little bit about how the background of y'all's relationships led to this movie being a thing.
02:31I mean, I think we did 42 together, but we even knew each other, Andre and I, before.
02:37I think we did, like, some rehearsal in a studio, NYU or something like that, back in the day.
02:42And, yeah, I've seen...
02:44I think I read the script.
02:46He presented it to me.
02:47And I've seen his Brooklyn life.
02:52I'm going to leave that alone.
02:54You know, I thought it was a really beautiful thing that a lot of times people see black men in earnest
03:01and not see their sensuality and the complexity.
03:04And I just thought it was a wonderful opportunity for us to see all that he can do in addition to what we've already seen.
03:09And I wanted to be supportive of that.
03:11And then Casey is also...
03:14That's a gift for me because I've done a lot of sort of very heavy and earnest characters.
03:19And she's sort of free-spirited and an advocate for artists.
03:22And, you know, I'm an artist and I know what that means to need that kind of advocacy.
03:29So, yeah, that's what really pulled me into it.
03:32And then I met this one.
03:33And she was like, I get it.
03:36My vision for this is, although it's multicultural, it's universal.
03:42And so I was just on board.
03:44You know, it can be anyone.
03:46Dewanda, what about you?
03:47And your backstory, history with these folks.
03:51Oh, my goodness.
03:52Really long.
03:53I could like...
03:54It's just a long, long story.
03:56But I'll give like a dented version.
03:58One, Andre and I shared the stage at graduation.
04:01I was an undergrad when he was an undergrad.
04:03I met you for the first time auditioning for Mountaintop on Broadway, which neither of us got.
04:08But I remember walking out of the audition with like my little faux cigarette.
04:12And you literally snatching it out of my mouth and being like, thank you so much.
04:16Don't tell people.
04:17You remember that?
04:18Loved you instantly.
04:19And then we like hung out after, you know.
04:21And Rachel I've known, again, since like 2006.
04:24But what she was saying about that role, it's funny you say that because mine is the opposite.
04:30Like ordinarily, the roles that we're playing in this film, we would have been playing the other ones.
04:35So it was like a real opportunity to do something that we wouldn't ordinarily have a chance to do.
04:41Yeah.
04:42And she gave us a lot of...
04:43I mean, I don't know about you, but for me, she gave me permission to like do things that I don't normally get to do.
04:48Like be neurotic and awkward and all that fun stuff.
04:51Yeah.
04:52Which is very much a part of our makeup.
04:55Tell me a little bit more about that idea.
04:57Because I was actually kind of surprised when I heard you say that, that you would have typically been kind of like typecast in the Casey role.
05:05Why?
05:07I mean, one is just, I mean, look at me.
05:10Like I naturally come across as however I come across.
05:15I'm not even going to try to like encapsulate it.
05:17But, you know, it's just by virtue of however the industry sees you or reads you.
05:23You know, there's a little of the Nola Darling thing.
05:26Like the role that you start off or people know you best as kind of has these ripple ramifications for the roles you play moving forward.
05:34And so I think it's that.
05:36I think the irony of it is most of my friends are always, like my husband and I, they're like, you guys are such adults.
05:43You know?
05:44And we've been that way.
05:45We were both kids who were just like little grownups.
05:48You know, we're like hyper responsible.
05:50And nobody would know that from the roles I play.
05:52Like nobody would know that, you know?
05:55And I think Nicole was, the role of Nicole, was like a real opportunity to be the adult in the story in many ways and to be this real grounding presence.
06:07Absolutely.
06:08Nicole, what was your experience of that?
06:10Since the suggestion is that you typically would have been.
06:14Oh, yeah.
06:15What she said.
06:18No, I just got to have a little bit more fun.
06:21There was like ad-libbing and there was like a physical kind of life that I think when you are.
06:28I hate to say this.
06:30Like I have this thing called crying and dying.
06:32People like to see black women or characters like in this sort of sufferation place.
06:38Sufferation.
06:39Sufferation.
06:40It's Jamaican.
06:41Sufferation.
06:43So I think and I actually feel like since playing Casey, I've had a lot more freedom in my work since because a lot of times when there are other colors, people are like, I don't really understand that.
06:55She seems a little.
06:56That seems a little left of center of the on the nose choice.
07:00And it's nice to be able to own it and be like, I think it might work.
07:05But it's also scary because you're doing something that you haven't necessarily done and you don't know how people are going to feel about it.
07:13And it might be too much.
07:14And I'm sure some of it was.
07:15And I hope they help me in the edit.
07:18Never too much.
07:19But, yeah, it was it was it was ultimately very freeing.
07:22And I also wanted to represent some of the sisters that I've seen in in Brooklyn that, you know, I lived there for like 18 years.
07:28So, yeah.
07:31And Roy, you know, this is a different shade of your talent as well that we're getting a chance to see in this film.
07:38What was that opportunity like?
07:40It was it was really cool, like just comedically to be given something that has performatively.
07:48To operate at a at a at a different wavelength, performatively than what I traditionally am expected to do or, you know, to DeWanda's point, you we've seen you do this one thing.
08:02So we only want you to do that thing.
08:05So anything I'm cast for is performatively different.
08:09So, you know, I have to give hats off to Andre and Rachel for even giving me the freedom to even attempt to do that, because it's still funny.
08:17The roles is still a little bit of a comedic foil and to add a little bit of levity to the complexity of everything that's happening between our core group in the film.
08:27But to be able to do that was just it was it was a beautiful opportunity.
08:33And then more importantly, it also, as a performer, gives me the confidence to now I can I can say no to that role or now I can like because you don't even know what you're capable of sometimes.
08:44And it takes more. It takes people in your community sometimes believing in you more than your reps do, if I'm being honest.
08:51And that's not a knockout, you know, but the idea of, you know, everybody, somebody because of somebody else.
08:59So to be able to have that opportunity is just it was it was amazing.
09:03I mean, and it is it is across all. I mean, it's been a storyline of the award season this year.
09:09Pamela Anderson's agent didn't pass the script for this role.
09:13Now she's not her agent no more. But but Cassie, I'm curious.
09:19Same for you getting a chance to bring that like light and levity as well.
09:24You know, this is a movie that's not about sufferation. I'm going to use that word.
09:27I love it for you. It's not about separation.
09:32You know, when I first read this script, it felt like, oh, I love it.
09:37It feels Shakespearean to me with something so classic. And when it's so classic like this, like I was like, oh, this is the closest thing to like Love Jones for me.
09:45And I love being in things that are playing the character that has nothing to do with like the main story.
09:52It's almost like, hey, look over here, just so you know, we're going to take care of and get back to the main theme in a second.
09:58I love characters like that. And also like back to what we're saying,
10:03I think sometimes our best movies that are made are because they're between friends and you know what people's strengths and weaknesses are.
10:11And you know how people have been missing out on a certain type of talent that they have.
10:18And Andre really did that in this film for everybody. He was sort of like, don't shouldn't you be over here for once?
10:24And so because my first word, I said, wait, I'm playing Cassie. Wait a minute, Nikki, wait a minute.
10:29OK, I will come in here and play this crazy character. Talk about an advocate for the arts.
10:34She's like so outside of this world. But you know what I love, too, is that you don't see this type of black female character in movies like this.
10:43Right. Like she's sitting in a seat of power. She's sitting in a sense of like ownership of who she is and not afraid to take up space.
10:51Like what a fun role to have in the midst of all this, like just new colors for people to see.
10:56Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is truly I love that you bring up the love Joneses, the love in basketball is like this.
11:03This movie is well, just because I love in the title, it's already in conversation with them.
11:08But, you know, what what do you hope this kind of this story represents about the type of movies we get to see more?
11:16What do you kind of hope that this kind of pushes forward?
11:20And Andre, I'll start with you on that as a producer as well.
11:25Well, I'll share my thoughts, but Rachel, I'm really curious to hear what you have to say about it, too.
11:28But I think for me, I feel like, you know, one of the things that's remarkable about this movie is that it's one in which, you know, nothing crazy happens.
11:36You know, in a way, it's an opportunity and an invitation for the audience to simply observe black people living their lives.
11:43Right. Nothing. There's no car chases. There's no trauma happening.
11:47There's no big, you know, it's just us living and loving and trying to figure out how to get from this point to that point.
11:54And that to me is like a beautiful thing to witness.
11:57So I hope that people hope there are more movies that like this, that come out of this, you know, that allow us to just be the fullness of who we all are.
12:05You know, and I love that. You know, one thing I want to say is that I appreciate what you are saying about like how we all came together.
12:12And it's also important to say that, like Steven Soderbergh is a person who was a real advocate for this project.
12:16And when we, you know, pitched it to people in town and, you know, try to get support for it, there was resistance.
12:23But Steven, you know, once he heard the pitch and heard who all was involved, said, I get it.
12:27Start tomorrow. And I think we need more people like that who are willing to, you know, to back projects like these.
12:32So but Rachel, what do you what do you feel about what you want people to take away?
12:37You know, I wanted to. This movie is about our softness, our vulnerability and within a story that isn't tragic.
12:53I'm having a brain fart. You're welcome to.
12:59It is very early, but it is this idea.
13:03It's our softness. It's our full humanity because we're bringing our full selves, in some cases, our full wardrobes, our full hairstyles.
13:11I mean, the diversity of being in this movie is pretty remarkable.
13:17Yeah. Yeah. And I think I just. Yeah, I'm sorry.
13:23I think that like what was really important outside of having restraint with the camera and sitting in moments
13:31and not having solos with the camera so that we could really just observe us, like you said,
13:38I felt like it was important to infuse culture into the script because we didn't write I didn't write it.
13:46Paul Zimmerman wrote it and it originally was written for a different cast entirely.
13:53And in order to make it appropriate for our cast, there needed to be some changes.
13:58And so in my director's pass, I sort of had to approach infusing culture and language and food and think about the music and make it make sense.
14:10And so while this movie isn't about our blackness, it's not negating it either.
14:15That was the hope. Yeah. It's full of it. It is full of it.
14:21And it's exactly the type of stories and storytelling that we need more and in all.
14:26And, you know, as as we as I don't know, as variety folks and we're looking at all the different mediums and forms and ways that stories are being told and, you know, distribution models, formats.
14:37And so I'm actually also curious for you all.
14:40You know, we're talking about visual storytelling, but I'm curious what you think of the the future of audio storytelling as well.
14:48And anybody in that lane? Yeah, I did the audio book for the most lovely romance.
14:55I'm team romance. I'm always called When I Think of You, which was like the debut novel of Maya Ariel.
15:02And it is a really difficult one, really wild. It is a really wild skill set to record to record a book.
15:10But I think there's just something very simply about the power of like the voice.
15:16I feel like the voice hits the body in a very specific way.
15:21Like even if I'm mentoring young actors, sometimes when I'm coaching, I'll just close my eyes because I can hear it.
15:28I can hear the I can hear how the performance moves.
15:32So, yeah, I think the explosion of like podcasts and, you know, all these other kind of like sound.
15:39Now you have me wanting to like listen to the movie like you have me wanting to like watch it with my eyes closed.
15:45I would so love that so much. I'm listening to The Wonder of Stevie right now.
15:50And I'm just so you know, it's amazing when you're listening to something, you think that, oh, you're missing visually.
15:56Your imagination is just as wild as reading a book.
16:00But the voice I was thinking about this this morning, that the voice is like a song.
16:05The rhythm is just different. And so whoever's reading really does like transform.
16:10And, you know, it's upsetting reading, listening to a book and it's the wrong voice.
16:14Yes. And you're like, no, no, no. Now I got to go read it.
16:17What are you talking about? But the right voice also makes you feel like it's your best friend taking you on a journey.
16:23And when it's over with, it feels like my friend left me. I'm like, well, she please call me up.
16:29Yeah. Like I feel like I know Kerry Washington. I do not.
16:33Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly.
16:36Yeah. We have a whole list for you that I'm trying to make you make movies for.
16:40So don't worry. We've got it. Beyonce, Kerry Washington, we get all these black women working.
16:49I think what's interesting, though, is that we listen different than we watch.
16:53And so I believe that audio books and like even with the stuff Audible's been doing for years with scripted,
17:00it's really just throwbacks to 1940s radio shows, low key.
17:04Like a lot of my friends at Saturday Night Live, they've done those scripted audio kind of podcast type, almost a show in a way.
17:12I believe that audio books allow for a degree of nuance in the storytelling that more traditional, predictable,
17:23algorithmic believing execs tend to steer away from when green lighting certain films,
17:31which is part of what makes Love, Brooklyn so beautiful, is that it doesn't.
17:35It's something you have to sit and you have to watch and you have to absorb.
17:39And the idea that television, which, you know, with some networks and with some shows,
17:44the idea now is that television and film is something that you can do while doing something else in the house.
17:50I reject that. That's my rule, too. I do not want you washing your dishes. That's right.
17:55Yeah. And so the idea of being able to draw focus in.
17:59I'm hoping that what's happening in the audio book world starts back to permeating into the creativity and the types of projects that get greenlit
18:08in the visual world, because you need that type of nuance. You need the sounds.
18:12You need the little 10, 15 seconds of just a person doing a thing.
18:17Doesn't have to be constant dialogue the entire time. So I think that I think where audio storytelling is growing.
18:23My hope is that it will influence and push back on a lot of the stuff that.