00:00Hopefully, we're evolving and looking at our lives, right, and meeting the challenges that may come up in a post-pandemic world.
00:08Living a Black life in 2022 in America, coming of age is a real thing.
00:15Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, Dana. I'm Riviera from Essence. How are you doing today?
00:20I'm great. It's great to meet you.
00:22Great to meet you as well.
00:24Just to kick things off, I know that you and Malcolm have discussed this iteration of the Best Man chapters.
00:31The next phase of the story is being kind of a midlife metamorphosis for the characters.
00:36So few pieces of media focus on, like, I guess you could kind of say coming of age stories for that phase of life.
00:43Why was it important for you all to tell the story of these characters in this age group still discovering things about themselves and their desires, what they want, what they need and how to get it?
00:53Yeah, I love that question because I think that if we're lucky that, you know, we are coming of age in life throughout our lives.
01:04You know, coming of age is one of those terms and phrases that's often shown, you know, in high school or in college.
01:12Right. And of course, when we met the Best Man crew, we saw them right in the first film just graduating from college.
01:19Right. Just after that. And, you know, and early on, early in their 20s.
01:23But I think coming of age stories can apply at different phases.
01:28So this midlife metamorphosis story is another coming of age story.
01:32Right. Like it's I think things can happen in life when you get to that point where you go, hmm, this this life I've been living for the past 20 years.
01:40Do I want to keep living my life this way? Do I want to stay in this relationship that I've been in?
01:45Do I want to, you know, do I want to stay in this job? Do I want to hold on to this friend?
01:49And do I want this friendship to look the way that it's looked? And so I think it's important to to call out and call attention to the idea that hopefully we're evolving and looking at our lives.
02:00Right. And and meeting the challenges that may come up in a post pandemic world, living a black life in 2022 in America, coming of age is a real thing.
02:10Right. If we're being thoughtful about it. And so it's to draw attention to that, that we are we're continuously coming of age.
02:17It doesn't happen just once. Now, what was exciting for you about joining this particular property?
02:22I mean, of course, it's got staying power. It's a classic in our community.
02:25But what was exciting to you about joining on for this, this final hurrah of these stories and these characters that are so beloved?
02:32Yeah. I mean, as an artist, it's like, sure, it has it has staying power and all of that.
02:37That's more right. The sort of external for for me as an artist and as a fan of the franchise.
02:43What was exciting to me is I was a fan first. Right. Like I came of age with these films and I have my own college crew.
02:50And, you know, so I can relate. You know, we have our own Jordans and Robins and Quintons, you know, amongst my my college crew.
02:58So we I remember going to see these films and and wearing knockoff versions of the very fly wardrobe that they had on.
03:06And so as a fan, you know, when Malcolm approached me right about adapting this franchise for television, it was very exciting because I remember feeling like we I saw myself in these characters.
03:17And so what was exciting was taking something iconic and bringing it forward and exploring the where are they now?
03:24Where do we want to meet these characters that feel very much like characters that we all know and love?
03:28I think part of why it's iconic is that we recognize ourselves in these characters.
03:33And so bringing it forward to the now was an exciting idea for me.
03:38And it's a fun challenge. Right. To look at how do we want to challenge these characters with putting them in today's world and bringing and deepening their stories for series now.
03:48And with that, you know, deepening these characters, you guys have had the fortune of these same actors coming back to play these characters every single time.
03:55No one's had to drop out. No one's declined and you've never had to replace anybody.
03:59What do you think is so special about this particular group of actors that they, you know, just keep coming back and having no problem diving right back into the material?
04:08Right. It says a lot, doesn't it? I think it's a combo of things.
04:11One is that, you know, it was beautiful to witness this group of actors really does love each other like family.
04:19You know, they have been together. Right. And and gone through the arc of their careers from when they were young and when they were early in their careers.
04:27Right. Regina Hall and and Terrence Howard and Sinan, all of them, where they was, you know, it was early in their careers.
04:35And it's beautiful to witness and be a part of the love that they genuinely have for each other. Right.
04:41And and then it's the opportunity to, again, revisit characters that that that have this depth to them and that and that you can continue to peel back the layers on.
04:51And what was important to me as a woman coming in, as a black woman coming into this franchise was to bring it into series and be able to really explore those depths even further.
05:00And so I think part of, you know, what brings them back is, you know, that these characters have been drawn in a way where you can keep peeling back and keep peeling back.
05:09And so when you have the opportunity in series, it was important to me to look at, OK, what can we explore, particularly with these with these women that maybe we haven't explored as much because you don't have the same amount of time in film.
05:21Right. So I was really excited to say, how can we dig deeper into Robin and Jordan and Candace and really give their arcs, you know, some some depth that we maybe haven't seen before.
05:33But I think they come back because there's a lot to play and because of the love they have for each other, which is a really beautiful thing.
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