00:11In the beginning of the movie they say that Shug is a loose woman. I take it as a compliment.
00:17How important is being a loose woman in your opinion?
00:20I think that it's really interesting the labels that women get, you know, for being themselves
00:27and I think that it is all reserved for women who refuse to play within the very
00:35narrow boxes that mostly men have created for them and I think that Shug Avery's
00:41character for me was a great exploration of a woman who has decided to live
00:46according to her own rules, decided to build a world as she sees it and refuses
00:52to apologize for it. And so I think that it was very exciting to lean into a character
00:59like that and give her all that freedom that she required.
01:03Speaking again about Shug, she says to Silly, come on, let's go see the world and she brings
01:11her to a movie theater. Do you really believe that we can see and understand better the world
01:18thanks to a movie? Yes. I mean, that's a scene that I actually advocated comes into.
01:26When I got the script at first, there was nothing about a movie theater in the script.
01:30But the way I found my wings as a kid growing up in Ghana was through movies.
01:37It was the first time I understood the world as an expansive place. Yes, I read books as a kid.
01:44Yes, I listened to music as a kid. But the power of cinema is that it's an amalgamation of all
01:50the other arts, right?
01:51So it's a bit of literature. It's a bit of music. It's a bit of photography.
01:56And all those things come together to create a deeply emotional and deeply riveting experience.
02:03So, you know, my early years of being enamored by this medium has continued to steer me wherever I've been.
02:11And I think that Silly, sitting in that movie theater, already feelings growing for Shug,
02:17that was a world opened up for her when she first saw a movie which she's never seen before.
02:23And, you know, she's able to imagine herself in a romantic moment with Shug Avery thanks to cinema.
02:33And that was my life as a kid. I never, you know, every time I watch the movie,
02:38I'll reenact it in so many different ways because of how incredibly riveting and moving the medium itself is.
02:47Silly says that she's jealous because the other women she knows can do what she can, that is fighting back.
02:59Yes.
02:59It's not easy. How can we find the courage to really fight back, in your opinion?
03:05Well, I mean, I think that first of all, it takes, as Silly saw, it takes seeing somebody else stand
03:13up, right?
03:13And I think that that's why examples are important. It's important that we amplify people who stand up,
03:20because what they become is they become examples for everybody else, especially young people.
03:25To go, oh, that's what happens, you know? And even though it's a challenge and Sophia struggled for standing up,
03:33you know, because she did that, Silly was able to learn what standing up looks like.
03:39So then when she goes into jail, Silly pretty much just echoes her sentiment back to her.
03:46And I think that it's very important that, you know, examples, we're creatures of habit and are always looking for
03:54examples.
03:55And so whenever you're lost and you cannot figure out what to do, what do you do immediately?
04:00You go, how did blah, blah, blah do it, you know? And that's what happens with Silly.
04:05And I think that as it relates to standing up to oppression, I mean, it's very important that examples exist
04:12and examples are amplified
04:14so that, you know, anyone who's looking to do it, you know, can find an inspiration.
04:20Thank you so much. I think your movie is too an inspiration. Bye.
04:24Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
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