00:00We were super ambitious. We had a dog that was lunging at them. We had them running for their lives. We had a security guard chasing them. It was bananas.
00:14I'm crying right now. Oh my goodness. I'm crying right now.
00:18Well, I love John Hughes movies. Growing up, I used to watch all of them and be so enamored with his characters and the world that he was building.
00:31But then obviously, when I got older, I realized that I didn't see myself in those movies.
00:36I didn't see my communities in those movies.
00:38And so it just definitely became something that I want to do as a filmmaker is create coming of age stories that centered people like me through some of the music.
00:47Choices and some of the shots and even just, you know, some of the scenes and the way that they were crafted.
00:54I was like hoping that it'd be a little bit of an homage to that part of my childhood and watching those films.
01:01I'm at the point in my career where I'm trying to get back to my original theater roots where I really get to step out and create characters and become, you know, somebody else.
01:13And so she gave me that opportunity.
01:16And then, of course, Tembi, who, you know, her being a fellow black female filmmaker is so exciting to me to see more and more women behind the camera and just wanting to support her and her vision.
01:30I agree with Sinai. The script was so refreshing because, you know, I hadn't read anything like it in a long time.
01:39And it just it told such an important story about mental health and it touches on topics that are often neglected or not encouraged to be talked about within minority communities, specifically African-American households.
01:51So I could relate to it in so many ways, especially Cassidy's character.
01:57She represented everything that I want to be in life, which is, you know, the epitome of freedom and just not having any care.
02:05So I really enjoyed playing this character. It was a really fun escape for me.
02:09And yeah, I had a blast as an actor all the time.
02:12As an actor all the time, you don't read a lot of things that just make you just like, oh, wow.
02:17And that just for me personally, that just like draws you in and grabs you as soon as you read it.
02:22And then obviously the twist that we won't give away.
02:25But when the twist happens, it's just like, oh, snap.
02:28So I think it was all of that, but it's also it was something I hadn't done before.
02:31So it just felt really good. It felt like we had a short amount of time.
02:34I think we had like twenty six.
02:36You had twenty five days.
02:37Twenty five days to shoot.
02:38So we had to become a family really quick, but we did it and everybody had respect for each other.
02:42Yeah.
02:43And we got it done.
02:44And Temi comes from the theater world.
02:45So it was great that she actually had us rehearse, which is so rare in film.
02:51Normally you just get thrown right into it.
02:53But she had us rehearse for eight weeks, I believe, prior to actually filming.
02:57And it was just the three of us.
02:58That's a luxury.
02:59Yeah, it was the three of us in a room and doing exercises and trying different things.
03:03So by the time that we actually stepped foot on set, we were we were comfortable with each other.
03:07Well, I didn't.
03:08I met everybody my first day of shooting.
03:11But, you know, when you get to this point, you could just be like, OK, hi, son.
03:16Hello.
03:17And, you know, this we had a great chemistry.
03:19You know, it was funny.
03:20I didn't.
03:21It wasn't hard to to have that maternal love for him.
03:25And he has such a vulnerability and a sweetness about him.
03:30So it was it was good.
03:33That's like that's that's casting that sometimes you can just into it like what people the people are going to have real chemistry.
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