Tyrese Talks Biggie Smalls, Eric Garner & Being Vulnerable In 'Black And Blue'

With the seemingly constant murders of Black people at the hands of police across the globe, and in the United States specifically, it can feel unsettling to watch the relationships between police forces and the Black community on screen. However, for filmmaker Deon Taylor, even more urgently in the wake of the murders of Botham Jean and Atatiana Jefferson, this is a conversation that needs to continue.

Set in contemporary New Orleans, Taylor's latest thriller, Black and Blue, follows rookie police officer Alicia West (Naomie Harris) as she returns to her hometown after several tours in Afghanistan. With a newly minted police badge, Alicia finds herself shunned from the community she once left behind. Feeling like an outsider from her fellow "brothers and sisters in blue," and desiring to be of service, Alicia naively tries to extend her arms to the community and her colleagues, but both are equally suspicious of her motives.

In addition to her personal troubles, Alicia has joined a police force that is riddled with problems. Ultimately, things take a turn for the worst when she bears witness to the brutal murders of several young Black drug dealers at the hands of some corrupt cops, all of which have been recorded on her body cam. With both the cops and the Black community turning against her, Alicia turns to the one person who might be willing to help, her old friend, Milo "Mouse" Jackson (Tyrese Gibson). Knowing that her only means of survival is getting the video from her bodycam uploaded to the internet Alicia leans on Milo to help her navigate the streets.

Ahead of the film's debut, Shadow And Act caught up with Taylor, Harris, Gibson and co-stars Mike Colter, Nafessa Williams and Frank Grillo to talk about the heart-pounding thriller. We chatted about New Orleans as the landscape of this film and why it's so essential to keep discussing police brutality in the Black community.

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Image: Sony.

Deon Cole talks BET's new game show, 'Face Value' and how 'black-ish' changed his life (EXCLUSIVE)

It's really early in Los Angeles; I can hear it in comedian Deon Cole's voice as we chat on the phone, but he's still excited to speak. His new game show series, Face Value is set to premiere on BET in just a few days. On top of that, he's shooting ABC's black-ish, touring, filming the Steve Carrell-produced series, Angie Tribeca and gearing up for Grown-ish -- the black-ishspin-off that will debut on Freeform in 2018. That doesn't even cover his current Netflix projects, his stand-up special The Standups and Def Jam 25 are currently streaming. When I asked how he's juggling it all, Cole laughed. "Well I sleep in between interviews," he said jokingly. "I just have a lot to say and a lot to do. I appreciate the condition I'm in." His latest venture, Face Value which is executive produced by his black-ish co-star Wanda Sykes is a late-night game show that will challenge people’s prejudices. Based solely on appearances, contestants will access strangers and make snap judgments about them. When Sykes first approached him with the idea, Cole was immediately intrigued. "I've never seen a show like this," he explained. "Getting paid to be judgemental. It's also to show people are wrong as well as right. A lot of people were like 'I'm not going to be that way anymore.'"

Face Value has helped the Conan writer to challenge his own ideas about other people. Though he's hosting the series, he also finds himself questioning things along with the contestants -- and sometimes he's even shocked. "I think I'm a better judge of character than I am a comic because you have to deal with people," he said. "You have to know people. That's the only way that you can really write jokes well basically makes me brush up on my skills as far as just looking at people and trying to figure them out. I think that's what it did to me. It's not rocket science; it's a fun show."

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