E was speaking to my agent about what I would like to do as a feature directorial debut.

I've been working on television for ah, while now, he asked me.

Well, what are the type of stories you'd love to tell?

And I said that one of the things I think would be great is just like a love story with a black couple Azaz, the heroes with a historic backdrop like a event that's happened that we all know, you know, like the Titanic or something like that.

And so he brings this to me.

And while it wasn't the conventional you know, love story, I do feel like it definitely spoke to what it was that I wanted to do.

Look at this view, E bet they're doing it for me.

Yeah, it's not.

It's ain't about its most definitely soothing cast.

And then reading it, Kemp powers his his words, his the dialogue.

Just punch me in the gut and then it's an actor's piece, and I'm an actor and I will always love the art form of acting.

And I felt like, you know, four of the right actors could just have a meal and and feel like they get thio exercise all of those things that they've worked on to become the actor that they are in that moment, what is going on between the nation and me.

But you still obey them when they tell you to come out here and recruit cash is to become a member.

You don't even see caches do anything.

He came to me for insight.

He had questions.

His passion for Islam comes from a pure place, Sam.

Passion is Yeah, kind of a strong word.

Yeah, throughout this process, what I learned about all of these men is that I myself looked at them as deities.

I am also guilty of forgetting to look at them as men first.

It's humans first, and we we all kind of do that when it comes to these four especially.

Yeah, Bacchus.

Fast.

Is that good?

Thank goodness you're safe, right?

Really?

Black man.

Where the girls now put them to bed.

Oh, I promised I'd be here in time to tuck them in.

I'm really sorry.

So that was something that I learned.

And in that moment, I realized, Wow, what a huge amount of pressure that puts on a person day in and day out and how they were able to navigate with all of that.

Um, pressure, all of those expectations put on them.

I guess I became really sensitive to that and truly realized how important the nuanced moments, uh, were in this film the moment where no words are being spoken.

There's, ah, decision that I made to, uh, take Jim out of the room and have him go into the bathroom and have a moment on his own.

And that came out of that discovery.

Cash is who Those English boys you were hanging out with a couple days ago.

Needles?

Yes, of the Yale's All that time you spent on the road, Sam entertaining the Children off bigots.

And at the end of the day, white folks is still rather import their popular music.

Ah, lot of that came from just having a great quartet of actors where they truly understood, um that they were brothers.

A radio.

That's right.

A picture of most of us do have that person that you can bump heads with.

When you do, you're always better for it because you end up appreciating a different perspective or adopting a bit of a different perspective and using that as you move forward.

So they really understood that Theo performances air so fantastic and the dialogue is the star of the film.

I've definitely went into this feeling like the dialogue is the star, and that never was something that I veered away from.

Leslie says that he was intimidated, but that wasn't my interpretation of.

Of of his excitement, Thio portray Sam, especially with Eli and Kingsley.

They were playing two men that we've seen played quite often that didn't color their decision or there, uh, feeling that they could play these men in this moment.

And while all of these men were playing actual men that existed, they found something within those men that they shared.

His actors, When we're going into, especially something big, were always feeling just vulnerable, like we're naked, like we're the only one here like all of you are looking at us and then we get over that and we get into it.

I just wonder if all this pushing and hard line this and hard line that is really about trying to prove something the white people or Malcolm is about trying to prove something.

Black people.

Uh, well, that's Ah, very interesting way of looking at things exposed.

Wow.

Just something I noticed is all, uh, as a black woman.

Um, I know that I haven't seen, um, as many stories helmed by us or written by us A swell.

There is something very special about infusing your own experiences into a story.

That's what makes it unique.

Fresh, And it makes it have ah, true perspective.

You know, we have so many labels on ourselves, you know, I sit here is a black woman, and I'm much different than the black woman that may be sitting to my left or to my right.

But I also know that the success that I have in, uh, telling a story creates more opportunity to the for the black woman to my left and or to my right to tell a story.

What I love about being behind the camera is that I'm able to be involved in the storytelling process in a much deeper way in a much more involved away.

I love working with people, and as a director I'm able to work with all of the people as an actor, you pretty much only working with your co stars or the director.

But beyond that, you don't get the opportunity to work with the production designer and the D P.

Every department.

I mean, even the you know, just the conversations that I've had with our construction department that I've never had a zoo actor or never even thought to go and just check out what they're doing in the sawmill.

You know the opportunity to be involved in a way where you get to share your ideas with a list of department heads, and then they take those ideas and then they go do their research and then they come back and share what ideas were birth from Your idea.

It's galvanizing.

ITT's pretty awesome because I'm an actor.

I have so much respect and understanding for the journey that an actor has to go on to get to a certain emotion.

Thio get to ah, place where they feel where we feel comfortable enough to express.

The difficult thing is quickly getting to know your actor in understanding the best style of communication for that actor.

The thing that they have in common is that they're all great and that there are black men.

But they all have had different experiences growing up, different journeys, different trajectories that have led them to this moment.

And being sensitive to that is very important.

In my opinion, Sometimes I feel like you just like all the rest of them people out there obsessed with the star.

No, no, no.

Around which one of us don't belong Don't belong.

Don't belong, Brother Sam, The only person here white people seem to like that would be you.

You all need to cool it.

You know, you always managed to just be around for shit, haven't you?

Maybe your daddy should have beaten you better.

I'm gonna kick that one of the beautiful things that is.

Ah, great.

Take away Is that especially young men will watch this and understand how you can debate with love, how you can constructively and honestly debate with respect.

I just don't think you should be grudge, Sam, for being about his business.

He's got to be I mean, If the goal is for us to be free to really be free, then you know it is, then the key is economic freedom, and no one's more economically free than Sam Shit.

Technically, he's the only one of us not waiting on a paycheck from a white man.

I'm not waiting on No, Paige, you don't have a job.

Negro.

What shit?

In the literal sense E.

I believe that if you go into making a film and you're tryingto make a film for everyone in the whole world, that's the easiest way to fail.

Think you need to kind of figure out who your audience is?

I feel like this is a love letter to black men.

I do.

It's so honest.

It's so raw.

It's so quiet and it's so loud.

It's all of those things.

And you realize how while this story is from the perspective of these four black man, there are so many things in this story that does transcend a color.

If myself now was able to have a conversation with my younger self, I would say girl, you are okay because you have no idea what the hell is going on and That's exactly where you're supposed to be, and I'm just kind of figuring it out of 50.

E thing is what it's like working on a studio.