Melina Matsoukas On ‘Queen & Slim’ & Black Storytelling

The best films sit with us long after the credits roll. We find ourselves reflecting on the narrative days later–replaying certain scenes or bits of dialogue over and over in our heads. That’s what visionary director Melina Matsoukas aims to do with her debut feature film, Queen & Slim. Known for her masterful work on Beyonce’s “Formation”–Matsoukas has teamed up with trailblazing writer, Lena Waithe to bring Queen & Slim to life.

Coined the Black Bonnie and Clyde– Matsoukas’ Queen & Slim opens with an awkward Tinder date between Queen (newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya). A fierce defense lawyer, Queen is having a bad day and her time with Slim–an easy-going blue-collar guy isn’t exactly making her day any better. As the date comes to an end, and the pair head home–they are pulled over by the police for a minor traffic violation. When Slim accidentally kills the officer in self-defense, he and Queen embark on a road trip –moving from the brutal cold streets of Ohio to the blistering hot New Orleans and Florida in a race for their lives.

Ahead of the film’s November 27 debut, STYLECASTER was invited to screen the first 12-minutes of the film and to participate in a talkback with Matsoukas. She discussed why Queen & Slim had to be her first feature, why this story is so important, and her visionary storytelling.

“[Lena] and I worked together for the first time a couple of years back on an episode of Master of Nonecalled ‘Thanksgiving'” she revealed. “It was the beginning of our collaboration. I call her my work soul sister. At the time, she was writing this film. She said, ‘You’re the only one that can direct it.’ Not wanting our relationship to get in the middle of that decision, I was like, ‘Send me the script.’ I’m always about passion; I have to love the words. I couldn’t put the script down when I read it. I knew this had to be my way into the narrative space and to do it with my sister is like the biggest honor I could have ever dreamed of.”

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Image: Instagram.

On The Set Of Lena Waithe's Upcoming Film 'Queen & Slim,' Black Love And Protest Art Collide

Penned by Emmy Award winner Lena Waithe, and helmed by visionary artist and Grammy Award winner Melina Matsoukas in her feature directorial debut, the drama film Queen & Slim is unlike anything we've seen before in cinema. The film follows an unlikely pairing: Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), a blue-collar guy with a subdued temperament, and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), a fiercely determined lawyer, who find themselves on a lackluster first date. However, things take a drastic turn when they kill a police officer in self-defense. As they embark on a race for their lives, they flee from Cleveland to New Orleans before eventually landing in Florida. All the while, police are hot on their trails. While en route,  the duo unpacks the current state of Black America, police brutality, their own humanity and their developing feelings for one another.

"If you're thrown into a situation with somebody you're not familiar with, you learn about that person real fast, especially in a situation like this," Waithe explained when Shadow And Act stopped by their New Orleans set during filmiing. "Again, they're very different. They handle things very differently--they relate to each other very differently; they walk through the world very differently."

Well before Kaluuya and Turner-Smith sat in a turquoise Catalina together, Waithe knew she needed someone extraordinary to bring her vision to life. Matsoukas, who has given us everything from Rihanna's "We Found Love" music video, to Beyoncé's "Formation" and Master of None's "Thanksgiving" episode, was the only person The Chi creator knew she could trust with Queen and Slim's story. "I think it's like Michael [Jackson] with Quincy [Jones]," she explained. "I just feel so honored. She's such a talent. You guys know the work she's done. Everybody was trying to get her to do a movie, and for her to say, 'This is the movie, this is the thing I want.' She's like, 'A lot of people give me gifts, but this is the gift I wanted to receive.'"

Undoubtedly, there is a particular pressure that comes with presenting a debut feature film to the world. Therefore, Matsoukas had been very deliberate about taking her time before saying "Yes" to Waithe and Queen & Slim. "It spoke to me," she revealed. "I had been looking for my first feature for a while now --for years, honestly. I'm one where if I'm not passionate about the story, and the storytelling and the writing, I'd rather not do it. If I don't feel like I can give my all to something, it's better not to have it. Lena and I had worked together on Master of None, and that was our first collaboration. It was perfect. I didn't want my passion for Lena and working with Lena to dictate that I would do this film. I had to take that out of it. I read the script, and I couldn't put it down. Once I read it, I said, 'Absolutely! Yes.' That never happens. To read something that you gravitate toward immediately was an honor, a pleasure, a relief, and really inspiring. I put that script down, and I was like, 'Let's go.'"

Once the script was in order, and Matsoukas was on board, the next big hurdle that Waithe had to jump through was finding her perfect cast to bring the vision and the main themes of Queen & Slim to life. Academy Award nominee Daniel Kaluuya was the first actor attached to the project. "Lena came to a Get Out screening," Kaluuya remembered. "That's where I first met her. She mentioned this Bonnie and Clyde movie, and I was like 'What's that!?' I met up with her, and then she sent it to me. On the way back from Comic-Con for Black Panther, I read it, and I was like, 'I want it. I want to play Slim.' He just feels like an everyman. He feels like a guy that wants to do good, but things happen. Standing up for yourself is dangerous sport…"

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Image: Andre D. Wagner/ Universal Pictures.

Leland Martin Shatters Gender Expectations on BET’s 'Boomerang'

Leland B. Martin won’t let you define him. The hunky actor’s voice booms out confidently just a couple days after the seventh episode of Boomerang aired on BET. “Pride” gave fans a deeper insight into Martin’s character, Ari Thomas. Like Martin —Ari is smooth, confident and sexy. Though he’s the most carefree among his ragtag group of friends which includes Simone (Tetona Jackson), Bryson (Tequan Richmond), Tia (Lala Milan), Crystal (Brittany Inge) and David (RJ Walker), it became clear in “Pride” that Ari isn’t afraid to stand his ground.

Ari’s reliance was one of the reasons the character spoke to Martin. When the rest of us were scratching our heads trying to figure out how Lena Waithe and Halle Berry  —who serve as executive producers on the series —were going to remix the iconic Eddie Murphy-led 1992 flick Boomerang into a modern -day TV series —Martin could already see the vision unfolding before his eyes.

“Halle Berry and Lena Waithe were already attached to it when I went in for my audition,” Martin explained.  “That’s what really what drew me to it. Lena Waithe, in my opinion, is as a genius who’s really making her mark in the industry and Halle Berry is iconic. She’s someone who has a very, very, stamped resume. So, when it comes to these two particular individuals and then everybody that came along with it; it was a no-brainer for me.”

Set in present-day Atlanta, BET’s Boomerang follows Jacqueline Boyer’s (Robin Givens) son, Bryson, and Marcus and Angela Graham’s daughter, Simone and their tight-knit group of friends they attempt to step out of their parents’ shadows to create their own legacies. However, as all millennials know—careers, friendships, and love lives aren’t easily balanced. Young, fresh, and sensual the series has an aura of authenticity around it, which Martin credits to his close bond with his castmates.

“It’s very rare that you get a group of people like the six that we’ve got together,” the former financial advisor said. “Everybody gravitated toward each other from jump street. There were no egos. It was more of a family feel. We got together, and we started getting to know each other right off the bat. We made it a point to make sure that we got to know each other so that we could start to develop that chemistry. You see it on the screen because we’re really friends. We really hang out. We built that.”

Boomerang is a true ensemble show giving each character time in the spotlight. “Pride” centers around Ari as he struggles to find his footing in his career. In the episode, he also addresses a former lover who tries to shame him for his queer identity. From what Martin implies, there are many layers to Ari, and they are only just starting to be revealed. “I would love to see how Ari expands as a professional,” Martin said thoughtfully.  “We saw a little bit of it in “Pride” when he saves the day as far as his directing is concerned and starts to move forward in that vein. I would love to see where he goes as far as his craft.”

When it came to stepping into his character and truly understanding what made Ari tick, the alaskaLand actor did not approach the task lightly. After all, Ari is one of the only modern depictions of a young, sexually fluid Black man on television. “There was a lot to talk about who the character was, how the character looked, how exactly was the character unapologetic, and in what ways and things like that,” Martin revealed.  “Dime Davis was very instrumental when it came to crafting the pilot episode and the flow of the show from the beginning. All of us sat down with her and with Lena and discussed who these people were, and we started to craft the look of Ari. In the beginning, we were still making decisions. Does Ari have dreads? Does Ari have twists? What’s Ari’s style like? That type of thing. It was very much a collaborative effort as far as his identity.”

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Tiffany Boone Talks 'The Chi,' Black Women And Telling Complex Stories

Chicago is being used as a political pawn. Murder rates and gang violence are splashed across our newspapers and television screens with no consideration for facts, figures, and the people who live and thrive in the city. Lena Waithe’s critically acclaimed Showtime series The Chi, gives the city and the South Side, in particular, a chance to speak for itself. The Chicago native’s engrossing characters and words are what drew actress Tiffany Boone out of her acting hiatus and back to television. A few days after The Chi was granted an early season two renewal, Boone and I chatted over the phone. The Baltimore native explained why the role of Jerrika Little shook her awake and reinvigorated her desire to tell stories. “I read it, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have to be in this. How do we get me in this? Do it now,’ she recalled. “I auditioned, and I didn't get it, and then they cast it, shot it, and then completely recast it. Here we are three years later.”

It wasn’t simply Waithe’s love letter to her hometown that drew Boone to the story, The Following alum connected with Jerrika because she found a kinship with the young woman. “She felt familiar to me," Boone remembered. “I normally play characters that are very different from me. I've played quite a few murderers and a lot of crazy people. It was the first time I had read something that felt, really super close to me. (Jerrika) is a young Black woman trying to get her career together and trying to build this strong relationship with this man she's in love with. She’s strong, funny, independent and complicated —it felt like me, it felt like my friends, it felt like my family, it felt like I knew her. That's what made me want to play her. Then with Jason (Mitchell), we just understood each other from the beginning. It's just a second hand with Jason and I. I think Jason is also in a situation where Brandon is the closest to him that he's ever played as well. We brought a lot of ourselves.”

Thus far, The Chi focuses on four men, Emmett (Jacob Lattimore), Brandon (Mitchell), Ronnie (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) and Kevin (Alex R. Hibbert) whose lives intersect after the murders of two young men from their neighborhood. However, women are very much a part of this tapestry. “The women, at least in the first season, are orbiting them -- we are the planets orbiting their sun," Boone explained. “So, you don't get to see a lot of our lives, outside of our interaction with them. I thought (the scene with Jerrika’s girlfriends) was great and I would love to do more of that. For Black women, our relationships with our girlfriends are so important and so vital to who we are. Your girlfriends are your refuge. What surprised me the most is when (the ladies) showed up to set -- the friends. They were all natural too, and all of us were different sizes and shapes and colors. It was amazing to see the way they cast that and immediately we had a camaraderie.”

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.