- 22 hours ago
Gia Peppers talks to Gina Prince-Bythewood and Kiki Layne about the upcoming Netflix action movie, 'The Old Guard.'
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00:00Hey, guys, it's Gia Peppers.
00:06I'm so excited you decided to check in tonight.
00:09I'm about to have a really great conversation
00:12with two of the Black women behind Netflix's newest film,
00:15The Old Guard, coming out July 10th.
00:17But before we get into the convo,
00:19you've got to see this trailer.
00:20It is too, too good to miss.
00:22Check it out.
00:23I have the new one.
00:26I think she has potential.
00:28Who are you?
00:29I lead a group of fighters with an extremely rare skill set.
00:33So we really never die.
00:36Are you good guys or bad guys?
00:38We fight for what is right.
00:42You're one of us now.
00:45Let's go to work.
00:48Wait for the signal.
00:49How can you even tell?
00:53First step, I want to bring out this woman who has just told
00:57our stories so beautifully for the last two decades, 20 years.
01:01She's a director.
01:02She's a writer.
01:03And she's making history as the first Black woman to direct a
01:07comic book, big budget action thriller film.
01:11Please help me welcome the incomparable Gina Prince-Spifewood.
01:16What up?
01:17Hey, Gina.
01:18Hey.
01:19So good to see you.
01:21And then I want to make sure that we bring up one of your stars
01:24of the film, who we all know and love from her work in the
01:28incomparable film, If Beale Street Could Talk.
01:31But this time, she's not talking.
01:33She's kicking butt.
01:34OK, please help me welcome our beautiful friend, Keke Lane.
01:38Hi, Keke.
01:40Hey, what's up?
01:41What's up?
01:42How are both of you doing?
01:44It's so nice to see you.
01:46I'm doing good.
01:47Back with family now.
01:48And that's making all the difference.
01:51Yeah, same.
01:52Having my two boys here, knowing that they're safe is
01:55everything.
01:57Amen to that.
01:58Amen to that.
01:58I love it.
01:59And I haven't seen you, Keke, since you won your Black
02:01Woman in Hollywood Award, which you didn't steal.
02:05So beautiful.
02:06I loved your speech.
02:07What was that moment like real quick for you,
02:09if you could take us back?
02:11I mean, that's one of, I mean, easily one of the most
02:13special moments of my life.
02:15I mean, I grew up dreaming of being on the cover of Essence
02:20and then getting that award and being in a room filled
02:23with Black women that I have been inspired by since I was
02:26a little girl.
02:27Yes.
02:28Man.
02:30It's amazing.
02:31It was beautiful.
02:32It is beautiful to see that.
02:33I am, again, so happy that both of you all are a part of
02:36this project, the old guard for our audience who might not
02:40know, is literally Black Girl Magic in action as it stars four
02:45like old millennia-old mercenaries who cannot, who have a
02:49mysterious, I don't know how much I can say, they have a
02:52mysterious superpower.
02:53And Keke is starring alongside Charlize Theron, which is
02:57incredible.
02:58But Gina, I have to ask you, this is such a groundbreaking
03:02moment.
03:03But why did you decide to have two women star in an action
03:08film?
03:08Tell me a little bit about that choice.
03:10Mm-hmm.
03:12I mean, this world, this genre is something that I've been
03:15dying to do.
03:16I love action films.
03:18There's a narrative in Hollywood that women don't dig action
03:21films, don't want to make action films.
03:23And that's just not true.
03:25Yes.
03:26When this script came to me, written by Greg Rucka and
03:29based on his graphic novel, The Old Guard, I mean, I knew within
03:33like five pages that I was in the fact that it was just this
03:37dope story that kept surprising me.
03:39But it was about two women at the center and one being a young
03:43Black female hero, which we never get to see.
03:46And knowing that we would be able to bring this character to life,
03:50and talking with Kiki about it, the fact that we got together
03:55to create this character, this female hero, Black woman that we
03:59can be inspired by, that was everything that I needed.
04:03That is so awesome.
04:04And Kiki, when I saw you take on all of these huge scenes,
04:09I was like, I know she had to spend about 40,000 hours in the
04:12gym.
04:13What was the process like for prepping for this role?
04:17You play a Marine.
04:19I mean, this is not a joke.
04:20Tell me a little bit about that process for you in preparing for
04:23this role.
04:24I mean, it was a lot of hours of training.
04:27I mean, I seriously would spend hours a day training because it
04:30was the military and tactical training.
04:33There's actually learning the stunts and the choreography.
04:36There's just going to the gym just to strengthen my body to make
04:39sure I could even handle all of that stuff.
04:42So, I mean, it definitely was the most physically demanding thing
04:46that I've ever done, but I mean, I had to be committed to it just
04:50because for Niall, that's such an essential part of her character,
04:54how she expresses herself physically, especially representing,
04:57you know, the armed forces and the Marines and, you know,
05:00specifically.
05:01But then also it's the part of the storytelling.
05:05You know, this is a part of the communication, how we're getting the
05:08story of, you know, these characters across is through that action.
05:12So, I had to do what I had to do.
05:15Yeah, you know, I just want to touch on that.
05:18It's so, it's funny because, you know, when you hear that somebody's
05:22doing an action film, usually there's, you know, they put up tapes online and
05:27it's them working out and all the training they did and it's cut to music
05:30and it looks sexy and fun.
05:32But, as Kiki can attest, I mean, she was doing two days for months.
05:38But that's what it takes to be that good and look that good on screen.
05:44Yeah, we have guests.
05:47This is my nephew.
05:50Hi, nephew.
05:52I love that, I love that.
06:01And there's a really beautiful sentiment about just living, speaking of family,
06:07being a part of the family that is with you, no matter where you are in life.
06:12And I think that's a beautiful testament to the story, but also the relationship
06:16you all had on set.
06:17What was that like as a director and an actress building those relationships
06:21on set with each other and with the other cast of the crew?
06:26I mean, I think for Kiki and I had started in the audition room, foremost, I knew within
06:34five seconds that Kiki was Niall and I'd been looking for Niall for a while.
06:40But she just had this innate strength and innate vulnerability that was Niall and her chops were
06:46just, you know, next level.
06:48And it was, I mean, as a director, when you know in your gut, you found that character.
06:53It's an exciting moment.
06:55But then it was after just she and I just chopping it up and talking and talking about
06:59what this film could mean for her, for me, for us as a community, and just about how much
07:06work she would need to put in and me hearing her and believing and trusting that she would
07:11put in the work, honestly, it really started there.
07:16I love that.
07:17What about for you, Kiki?
07:18Yeah.
07:19I mean, that director session, I was just excited because, I mean, I had no experience,
07:24you know, doing a film of this size or this genre, but listening to Gina speak, you know,
07:30what she was committed to was the heart of these characters and their depth and really getting
07:35to the core of them.
07:36And I'm like, that's something I can latch on to.
07:38That's something I know that I could bring and then just feeling, you know, even just
07:43from that first session, her belief that I would be able to, you know, tackle the physicality
07:49and all of that as well, I felt even more encouraged.
07:51And then when I got on set, I mean, day one, me and Charlize in the airplane.
07:58Wow.
07:59Yeah, they threw me right in.
08:01I mean, I was grateful, though, because, I mean, that was a big part of, you know, just
08:08building that relationship between Andy and Niall, which so much mirrored the relationship,
08:13you know, that Charlize and I had of, you know, her having this experience with this
08:17genre and then me coming in like, wait, what am I supposed to do?
08:20Yeah.
08:21So just being able to get on set and just learn from her immediately.
08:24And then with the rest of the cast, I mean, we all just had to trust each other.
08:28You know, we want some big action sequences and we have to work together like one unit,
08:33you know, people who have been fighting together for hundreds of years.
08:37And so we really had to just lean into each other and trust each other and trust, you know,
08:42Gina to lead the way.
08:43I love that.
08:44I love that.
08:45And Gina, I read a few interviews where you said you really just wanted to have this story
08:51where the women were tough and courageous and bold.
08:54And all of your stories have that, that women in the middle of the whole moment and they're
09:01tough and they're courageous and bold.
09:03How important for you was it when you read that script to be like, oh, I can I can put
09:09a black woman here and I can make her shine when you were deciding to be a part of the project?
09:15Yeah, I mean, that just reading it and the fact that these women, both Andy and Niall were warriors
09:22and there it just was it was there was a normalcy to it.
09:26There was no big traumatic event that happened that forced them to suddenly be tough.
09:30It was just there.
09:32And for me, I mean, I grew up an athlete.
09:35The women around me my whole life are like that.
09:38They're just fighters.
09:39They're tough.
09:40They're ambitious.
09:41They're athletes.
09:42And I wanted to, I think in this film and really in all of my work, just reframe what
09:48it means to be a female.
09:50Understand, let women know and certainly black women know that we have that inside of us.
09:55You know, courage has no gender.
09:57Badass has no gender.
09:58You either have it or you don't.
10:00And you see the way that we have moved through the world and survived through this world.
10:04We have that.
10:05And I'm going to honor it.
10:06I want to put it up on the big screen and let everyone see it for us.
10:11That's beautiful.
10:12That is so beautiful.
10:14You've done that so beautifully since Love and Basketball, 20 years, which I cannot believe.
10:19I remember watching that movie and being too young to have a feeling, but watching the
10:24movie and being like, that girl is me.
10:27If you can have a conversation with that, Gina, 20 years ago, what would the enduring message
10:35be to yourself about the journey ahead?
10:38Wow.
10:41You know what?
10:43It's fascinating right now because honestly, two, maybe even three weeks ago, I may have
10:50said something different to myself, but I feel like, not feel like, I have been in a sustained
10:57fight for the last 20 years in this industry to put our stories up on screen and fight for
11:04our stories.
11:05And that's what it takes.
11:06I mean, making movies about black women are absolutely the hardest thing to do in Hollywood.
11:11But, you know, I've been up for the fight.
11:14But in my next two projects that I've just signed the deals for that focus on black women,
11:20and these are big, big joints.
11:23They want to fight.
11:24They want to fight.
11:25And that is a phenomenal thing.
11:26And I would love to be able to go back and tell younger Gina that it will get easier at
11:32some point.
11:33And for the first time in my career, it is.
11:36Wow.
11:37What a feat.
11:39What a testament.
11:40That is so beautiful to hear.
11:42I know things aren't perfect in Hollywood.
11:44And things aren't perfect, you know, in our day to day life.
11:46Black women are fighting so many battles right now.
11:49And Kiki, as Niall, one of my favorite things was just watching you kick butt.
11:54And then watching you use your superpower many times.
11:58So as, you know, everyday black women who are superheroes in our own right, when we just
12:04show up and we're fighting wars on a daily basis, what do you hope women see in you and
12:09are able to take away from you from watching you in the old guard?
12:14I mean, I think it's just special to see what we all know is true.
12:19What we all know is fact that these type of superhero black women exist every single day.
12:25These warrior black women exist every single day, but we just haven't seen it on the big screen.
12:32And so I'm just grateful to be, I don't know, given this opportunity to represent that
12:38truth that Hollywood has tried to ignore and gloss over and pretend like,
12:43uh, no, no, no, no.
12:44Don't nobody want to see that.
12:45Or we're not going to, you know, put anything behind that.
12:48I'm just excited to be able to be a representation of what we all know is real.
12:54And to put that in front of all of these people.
12:57I mean, this is going to be in what?
12:59Like 190 countries.
13:01Yeah, global, global.
13:05People are going to see a bad-ass black female warrior.
13:10Yeah.
13:11Yes.
13:12Right.
13:13Speaking of that.
13:14Speaking of warrior, let's throw to a quick clip so we can watch you in action.
13:19Where's your father?
13:22Killed in action when I was 11.
13:28Yeah.
13:29My mom, she was drowning after he died.
13:38South side of Chicago, a million different ways we could have went left.
13:43But she fought for us.
13:46Never backed down.
13:48Never let us back down either.
13:51You come from warriors.
13:54Yeah.
13:55I do.
13:56Girl, you did that.
13:57I can't even tell people how many times I have watched this movie.
14:01How many times I have seen it because I stand for it so hard.
14:06For women who are maybe more new to the action scene, for both of you, what would you tell them about why they must see this film, The Old Guard, on July 10th?
14:19Kiki?
14:22I mean, because it's an opportunity to see us whooping ass like we do every single day.
14:30Again, we do this every day.
14:32It's actually nothing new.
14:34It's just new to being on the big screen.
14:37It's just new to having Hollywood be behind it in this way.
14:42So I hope that women across the globe are excited to see these two warrior women out here saving the day, being leaders, and kicking ass.
14:53Yes.
14:54And I think, I mean, what I love so much about this film, it's an action drama.
14:59It's got all the dope set pieces and great action, great fighting, great stunts.
15:04But the quiet moments are as deep as the action moments.
15:08And it has a lot to say.
15:09And I mean, I think those are the best kind of films where you can embrace the characters.
15:14You can identify with the characters, even despite the fact that they've got, you know, this superpower.
15:21They're real people.
15:22And that's really what we want to bring to this film, a real grounded feel and that you could feel like these characters are in the real world with you protecting humanity.
15:31Woo.
15:32Yes.
15:33Yes.
15:34Yes.
15:35Well, ladies, thank you so much for being here and talking with us.
15:37I stand both of you.
15:38Thank you for the way that you show up for black women.
15:40Thank you for the way that you fight for us.
15:42And thank you for the way that you represent us because it is so necessary and we love you so much.
15:47No doubt.
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