WATCH: Kat Graham And Meagan Tandy Get Real About Corruption, Police Violence And Working With Tyler Perry

From layered scripts to raw emotion—the stars of ‘Duplicity’ share what it took to bring this thrilling film to life.

Transcript

00:00My best friend's husband was killed by the people that are sworn to protect and serve.

00:05I don't know how close you and Rodney are. I'm sorry to stop you.

00:11How am I supposed to move on?

00:13I'm not just your friend. I'm your lawyer and they're gonna pay.

00:22My name is Oakley Jones. I'm with AdSense. Thank you for taking this call. I really appreciate y'all.

00:27All right. You said you're with AdSense? Yes. Yes. Thank you. You know, a couple of my cousins then.

00:35So Megan, I wanted to start with you. Fela was a very dynamic role. What was the most

00:40compelling part of playing a character whose true nature wasn't fully understood at first?

00:46I mean, the compelling part of her is just the fact that she actually is humanized. You know,

00:52the fact that, now mind you, there's other parts of it that's just like, you're not really human.

00:55You're actually maybe potentially crazy. I just love the fact that there was a moment in there

01:02where she didn't have to be, you know, Miss Perfect newscaster. That, you know, she actually

01:06has this very unfortunate opportunity of being able to experience grief and mourn and having to

01:12play that out, you know, on the screen. For me as an actor, I found it to be really exciting because

01:18it helped me to expand my own caliber. So I think it was interesting. It gave me a chance to play

01:24with some levels and I don't know, I think it was fun. Now Kat, this film explores the impact of

01:30police violence, but also delve into corruption. From your character's perspective, what do you

01:35think this movie is saying about the justice system? So many things, so many layers to it.

01:47I mean, the great thing about this film is it explores every point of view, right? So a lot of

01:53us feel like we're dealing with an unfair justice system. We feel like there are a lot of, whether

02:01it's a police officer or leadership, that people are not being held accountable, that we're not

02:07being protected, that our voices aren't loud enough, that we, you know, that we need to,

02:12you know, be louder even, you know, and we got to show them, you know, that our voices have power,

02:19our money has power, our presence has power. There's so many different elements to this film

02:25that actually get talked about. There's also the discussion around sensationalized media,

02:32where things can appear a certain way based on how they're presented versus how they actually are.

02:37So I think that this kind of conversation is explored throughout the film, but there's so

02:45many different points of view about how this film and the subject matter gets handled personally

02:52and through the media. So I think we cover it. Yeah, y'all did, y'all did. Megan, what was it like

02:58working with Tyler Perry for the first time? Honestly, it was great. You know, he truly is

03:04everything that I aspire to be. You know, the fact that, you know, he also is an actor, he's a writer,

03:10executive producer, director, and all the work that he does just for the Black community and

03:16even for people just around the world. I mean, the man is just so generous, you know, it's not

03:20just about what he's doing on a professional level, but he's also just like the biggest

03:24humanitarian for things that he's doing for others, you know. I just thought it was really

03:29amazing to be within, you know, his hemisphere, to be honest with you, because it's like, you're

03:34sitting here and you're looking at what you aspire to be, and then you're also looking at someone

03:37who's also your friend. It's like, oh, he's my friend too. Like, he's, it was awesome, and I felt

03:42very, very empowered in the choices that I made for Fela, and it happened to be the things that

03:49he actually entrusted upon me and liked as well. So it was great. Well, Kat and Megan, thank you so

03:54much. I really appreciate you two, and it was a phenomenal film. Thank y'all. Thank you so much.