Chyna Layne Won’t Stop Talking About Domestic Violence & Why Sisterhood Is Vital: EXCLUSIVE

There are stories that we gravitate towards, and there are other narratives that we must tell–no matter how painful they are to discuss. In TV One’s Original Film, In Broad Daylight, actress Chyna Layne tells the real-life story of Jordan Boudreaux, a young mother was abducted and terrorized by her ex-boyfriend. While many stories that center around domestic violence and abuse do not have happy endings–Boudreaux’s story is different. Her family refused to give up on her.  Layne steps into Boudreaux’s shoes bringing the gut-wrenching story into the light.

With more than a decade in the entertainment industry under her belt– Layne first achieved notoriety in the 2007 Oscar-winning film, Precious. Since then she has gone on to star in Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It, the horror/thriller, The First Purge, and Barbershop: The Next Cut among many others. As Layne continues to make strides in an industry that has drastically changed in the past several years, she is only interested in telling stories that make her feel something. She recently spoke to STYLECASTER about In Broad Daylight, She’s Gotta Have It and her next big project.

“The casting director who cast me in Precious recommended me for the role,” Layne explained. “When the script landed on my desk, the first thing that I was really drawn to was the fact that it’s based on true events. With Jordan–this is someone whose family rallied to not give up on her, to find her. Oftentimes when we see these stories in the news, the families are waiting on the police. This family did not wait on the police.”

Continue reading at STYLECASTER.

Image: Instagram.

DeWanda Wise Talks Sisterhood, Soulmates And Netflix's 'Someone Great'

The landscape of cinema has been changing slowly but surely. With more women and people of color behind the camera, genres are stretching and shifting. Different types of stories are finally being showcased to the masses. With her directorial debut, Someone Great, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson shatters the generic tropes of romantic comedies. Instead of turning her lens on a romantic relationship, Robinson puts the bonds and commitments that women have amongst their friends at the forefront.

Someone Great follows Jenny (Gina Rodriguez)— a New York-based music journalist who has been offered a career-making position in San Francisco. Instead of making the move with her, her long-term boyfriend Nate (Lakeith Stanfield) ends the relationship. Grappling with heartbreak and her impending relocation, Jenny leans on the women who’ve had her back from the beginning. There's Blair (Brittany Snow), a Type A marketing executive and Erin (DeWanda Wise), a carefree top-selling real estate agent with commitment issues of her own.

Ahead of Someone Great’s debut on Netflix, Shadow And Act sat down to chat with Wise about friendships, looking back at our twenties, and the new landscape of cinema.

"I’ve never seen this," the She’s Gotta Have It actress explained. "It's kind of remarkable when you're like, 'Oh, wow. This seems like it should be more plentiful.' Or, 'I should have seen more of this.' But hey, I'm happy to be slightly ahead of the curve. Someone Great was one of those scripts that I read where I was like, 'Oh, this is so true. This looks and feels how my life was or is.”

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Lyriq Bent Talks 'Acrimony,' Storytelling And Why He'll Never Be Put In A Box

Lyriq Bent is captivating. At six-feet tall, the dashing actor exudes warmth and maturity on screen and in real life. Since stepping into the entertainment industry in the early 2000s, Bent has been gaining momentum, starring in everything from the infamous Saw franchise to the acclaimed mini-series, The Book of Negros and more recently, in Spike Lee’s Netflix joint, She’s Gotta Have It. However, Bent’s latest venture, starring opposite Taraji P. Henson in Tyler Perry’s R-rated crime thriller,Acrimony will reveal a different side of the Kingston native. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Bent and I sat down to chat about the flick, working with Perry, and why he and Henson just clicked. Though he’s been in the industry for some time, Bent hadn’t had the opportunity to work with Perry until now. "(Acrimony) was so different than what (Tyler Perry’s) normally done," he explained. "The opportunity to help him create a beautiful story in a different genre was important to me because I can see we have to tell our own stories, and Tyler's done more than his part in trying to do so. Now that he has so many films under his belt, he felt it necessary to change genres, so I felt very lucky that he thought that I was capable or that he had the confidence in me to make that crossover."

For Bent, Acrimony is much more than a tale of an embittered, unhinged woman out for revenge. The foundation of the film was grounded in a young romance between Bent and Henson's characters Robert and Melinda which blossomed over time. "I liked the fact that it's a story about human nature," he revealed. "It's about emotions. It's about two people who love each other and try to build a life together, and they go through an emotional rollercoaster. They try to bring it all back home at the end of the day."

Netflix's 'She's Gotta Have It' is bold, brilliant & black as hell (Review)

From the moment the Prince/ Notorious B.I.G. opening track rings out from the television screen, Spike Lee’s electric new Netflix joint She’s Gotta Have It springs to life. After much critique about his "woman problem" in some of his past work — Lee has gotten with the program. Tracy Camilla Johns’ 1986 Nola Darling, which was set against a crisp black and white Brooklyn background will always remain glued in my memory, but the film was ruined for me when our protagonist was viscously raped by her suitor Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). I haven’t gotten over it, and neither has Lee.In a 2014 interview with Deadline, he said, “It was just totally…stupid. I was immature.” We are in an age where women – especially Black women are laying themselves bare, and unapologetically demanding to be heard. With guidance from his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee who also serves as an executive producer on the Netflix TV adaptation of She’s Gotta Have It — Lee presents an image of a Black woman who is as refreshing as she is enticing. Shots Fired and Underground alum DeWanda Wise is center stage this time, delivering a brown-skinned Nola Darling whose the homegirl you love, envy, and are sometimes exasperated with. Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It is a complicated and multi-angled portrait of a millennial Black woman trying to make in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Nola’s got her men — Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), Jaime Overstreet (Lyriq Bent), and Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos) all return in vibrant color with new layers and subtle personality changes. However, she’s also got her girlfriends Shemekka Epps (Chayna Lane) and Clorinda Bradford (Margot Bingham), a lady lover (Ilfenesh Hadera) and a bomb ass therapist (Heather Headley). Gentrification is rampant, money is tight, but Nola is living — and how she lives, who she makes love with, and the art that she creates is going to be on her terms.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.