00:00In this story, this dad couldn't, you know, find a way to love his kids.
00:04That was a challenge for me, to understand how to do that.
00:11I'm Revaeh West with Essence. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.
00:13Oh, thanks for having me.
00:15Absolutely. Your film, Beast, is focusing a lot on, honestly, like protecting black women
00:21and also a father's love. Like, you're literally punching a lion in the face.
00:25What do you feel, being that you're a father to a daughter yourself,
00:28that you brought from your own life into this role where you're, you know,
00:31protecting your children this way?
00:34Patience. No, you know, this was a difficult film to make,
00:37but definitely what appealed to me about the story was the father-daughter relationship.
00:45You know, this is a relationship that has been damaged and needs repair.
00:50But, you know, they wouldn't, they didn't think that something like this
00:53would be the thing that brought them together.
00:55And I could, I just really like that story, you know.
00:58Yeah, I have children and I'm a very doting dad. I love my kids.
01:03So, you know, in this story, this dad couldn't, you know, find a way to love his kids.
01:09That was a challenge for me to understand how to do that, you know.
01:12But it's a great story.
01:14I think audiences really just will just get immersed in it, you know.
01:18It's in the middle of Africa. It's not middle of Africa, southern Africa,
01:22but it's in the middle.
01:23The film is definitely, you feel that isolation that the family feels.
01:27Now, being that you are a veteran actor, do you feel like you kind of took on like a fatherly role
01:32with these young actresses that you're working with, Ayana and Leah?
01:36Yeah, I'm not a veteran. You know, I'm still young.
01:38You are still young, but you have a lot of credits to your name.
01:42I'm a vet, you can say it. No, you're right.
01:44It was great because Leah and Ayana, Ayana especially, has had a little bit more experience than Leah,
01:51but, you know, this was their first big film.
01:54And, you know, you don't know what to expect, but they were so pro.
01:59And because we were in the middle of nowhere, you know, we all felt like a family.
02:04So eventually, I just became their dad, you know what I'm saying?
02:09It's like we'd be stuck together for hours and hours and days and days,
02:12and we just became a family.
02:14So they'd jones on me all day long, I'd jones on them.
02:17We made up songs, but it was really good bonding.
02:20And I think when you see the film, you'll see that, you know,
02:23we try and bring that bonding that we had on set into real, into the film.
02:28Awesome. So what was like a favorite day you guys had on set?
02:31I know you said you do a lot of jokes and things together.
02:33What do you feel like is a good, since you have hours out in, it's not the Sahara,
02:37out in the wilderness together, you have to fill up some of the time.
02:42What's like a really good, fun memory you have from shooting?
02:44We had a dancing competition, you know.
02:47Leah is a really good dancer, and she would just make up dances,
02:50and we had to follow that.
02:52We had a rapping competition, you know, I won that.
02:56We just had a lot of fun.
02:57We're just improvising, you know, trying to figure out how to, you know,
03:02keep ourselves from, it was really cold.
03:04Really?
03:05Yeah.
03:06It was the African winter, South African winter, and I'm talking crazy.
03:11You know what I'm saying?
03:11So, but the sun's always out.
03:13It's a bit of illusion.
03:14And those scenes you see in the film, a lot of those were like,
03:17we get up at three o'clock in the morning to catch it by four to like seven
03:21when the sun's perfect, so.
03:23But we had good times.
03:24We had good times.
03:24And what are you most excited for the audience to see?
03:27I know you guys have had a chance to see it yourself,
03:29but from your recollection, what are you most excited for the audience to see from this film?
03:34Well, first of all, the film really puts you, the audience, in the hot seat.
03:40Like the way we shot it, we did long takes where the camera didn't break,
03:43and you can just feel the tension as you're sitting there watching it.
03:46You know, I've seen some of the scenes as we've made it.
03:50I'm just like, wow, that feels like I'm actually there because it's a lot of point of view stuff.
03:55And I'm excited for the audiences to see the family.
03:59I think they're going to be rooting for the family to survive as well as rooting for the family to come together.
04:05You know, like the dad and his daughters, like that's a really touching story.
04:09So I'm hoping the audiences kind of just enjoy the whole process.
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