00:25This is Tim Waspert from Fast Track Uncerted TV.
00:28I'm here in New Orleans for the New Orleans Film Festival.
00:31This is a lot of heavy stuff.
00:33It's alive.
00:34When I first got it, I was not prepared.
00:37I did not know that this was going to happen.
00:39And like on set, just reading the next scene, I was just thinking it a day at a time.
00:43And then when I woke up, I was like, get ready.
00:45It was tough, but I had to push through.
00:50Essentially that you brought up the moment of when he kind of looks like an adolescent,
00:54like a child, because in a way there's a stunting.
00:57Like his mother left when he was very young.
00:59And so, and now I'm really obsessed with young.
01:01And so I'm probably going to go into these shadow cells and all these different like the golden child and
01:07things.
01:07But I think part of his personality split off when he was younger and his mother left
01:12because he had to just cope to push past that.
01:15So in moments, especially because also there wasn't,
01:18he was rejecting his father's parenting because it was just so negative.
01:22Yeah.
01:22And so the one parent is stepmother who he doesn't want to like because he loves his mother.
01:26Yeah.
01:26It feels like he's betraying her.
01:28Yeah.
01:28That's the one person that actually shows up as the parent though.
01:30Wow.
01:31So he kind of regresses back into that space and he goes back into that little boy's space
01:35because that's where his, some of his growth stopped.
01:37Yeah.
01:38Because that's when his mother left.
01:39It was tricky.
01:40Um, I got a few notes and I can like from my own personal experience with my family.
01:44Yeah.
01:45We all have daddy, mommy issues.
01:48Yeah.
01:48And I just thought about that and process that and use that to portray what he was going through
01:54on film.
01:55And that helped.
02:07I guess you finally got him.
02:36Does he know?
02:40Please don't tell him.
02:41That will mean talking to him.
02:52There was one interesting scene where you're, it's like Mardi Gras.
02:57And this is also, you just got confronted with your ghost of Myesha.
03:00You didn't know you'd see her.
03:01And this is like kind of the thick of some of those coping mechanisms.
03:05And so you've been drinking and we talked about like not necessarily having to act drunk,
03:11just kind of go and maybe like just see how that goes.
03:14We were also rushing.
03:15The sun was coming down.
03:16It had a lot.
03:17It was just all the pressure.
03:18That was a beautiful shot.
03:18I loved it.
03:19Yeah.
03:19I'm not sure where that was.
03:21It was in Mid City.
03:22It was, yeah.
03:23And so all the, just the pressure of filming.
03:25Yeah, yeah.
03:25And so all that's happening.
03:27And then Brandon kept kind of tripping up a little bit on the words, just a little bit,
03:30and then like kind of getting in his own head.
03:32And I was like, it actually seems like you're drunk without seeming like you're drunk.
03:35So I just didn't say anything.
03:36I let him keep going.
03:37And then like, you're like, you kept that in there.
03:40I'm like, yes, I kept it in.
03:41Because it felt like that little bit of like, where am I?
03:44What am I saying?
03:45It worked for the scene.
03:46So sometimes it's interesting how the pressures of filmmaking shape something,
03:50because that's not originally how it may have been.
03:52But just the reality of trying to film can then have its own character.
03:56I'm not sure you're near there.
04:05Monique, where y'all at?
04:51He's in denial.
04:54And I guess he just used the phone and Instagram and social media to cover up everything and help him,
05:01you know, feel good about himself and think he's okay.
05:04But, yeah, that's a lot.
05:07But what we project is always interesting what we choose to put out there.
05:11And I think in that space of denial, it's kind of like by telling and often you're not seeing who
05:17you're talking to.
05:18In the moment you're recording something.
05:20Maybe you're doing a live, but you're mostly just looking at yourself.
05:25Or you're trying to front.
05:26Oh, definitely.
05:27But in the way that you are telling yourself, it's like looking at a mirror.
05:31You're kind of reconfirming I'm okay, right?
05:34By saying this, by putting it out there, you're projecting where you kind of want to be and normalizing your
05:39behavior, especially in a space where you don't want to hear that something is wrong.
05:43And so using social media, I think you can kind of tell yourself things are okay, even if somewhere deep
05:50down.
05:50Because also part of me goes, because you can look at it later, you can look back and go, wait
05:55a second, how was I?
05:56So maybe there's some urge within you that's saying, I want people to see.
05:59Well, when you did this, I was thinking Shakespeare.
06:01Ah, yeah.
06:02Hamlet.
06:04I mean, in a different, in our form.
06:06Yes.
06:06You know, in a modern day form of Shakespeare.
06:09But the thing is, is that life is comedy, you know, and life is tragic.
06:13Well, I like to drink personally.
06:15Oh, yeah.
06:15And my name is Brandon, so it was weird, but I connected with that.
06:21And, but I'm not like a real deep person, so the emotions are like, I keep everything in.
06:26So for, for, for Brandon, it was easier to like, just let it out, all the stuff that I've been
06:31holding in.
06:32And so I just used that, and just let everything out.
06:35And, yeah, that's how that happened.
06:46So a lot of y'all have been commenting that I haven't been on for a while, and asking what's
06:50been going on with me, this, that, and the third.
06:52Well, here I am.
06:55Alive and well.
07:00But I don't understand why some of y'all think y'all have the right to tell me how I
07:03should be doing.
07:04So you can miss me with your little comments and know that I'm good, alright?
07:11But anyway, that's not why I came on here.
07:15I'm all about spreading legs and love this weekend.
07:18I'm out here in the, I'm out here at Endymia.
07:22And it looks, and it looks like all my supposed friends and even my supposed date left me.
07:27You got thrown into this piece.
07:29Like, there was another actor until three days before.
07:31Yeah.
07:32And so you had little time to decide, like, is this something I want to do?
07:36One day.
07:38I auditioned, and then the next day you got the part, then the next day we filmed.
07:41Yeah.
07:41So I, that's why I was taking a day at a time, and I was just, it was a lot.
07:46It was immediate.
07:46So we were like, okay, how are we going to make this happen?
07:49And then you came in and was like, we got it.
07:52This film, like, you know, we all go through things, and people will watch this and realize
07:59that they need help or might need to go see a therapist and need to talk to somebody.
08:03And that's what this film really, like, really, because I always tell people, go see a therapist.
08:07You need to talk to somebody.
08:08And now that they'll see a film about it, they will be like, oh, my God, this is my dad,
08:12my brother, my sister.
08:13So how's your dad?
08:14How y'all doing?
08:17We're not.
08:19What about Tracy?
08:21She's still my dad's little puppet, so I guess she's fine.
08:24I take it y'all haven't gone to counseling or anything, have you?
08:28Why would I?
08:29Y'all have a lot to work through.
08:31Not really.
08:33Well, how about just going by yourself, then?
08:36You think I'm the crazy one?
08:38Going to a therapist doesn't make you crazy.
08:41Look, sweetie, I know how you think this could help me, but I don't want to go.
08:53Well, it's always special to be at the New Orleans Film Festival.
08:57It's just a unique energy, and I think there's a commitment to talking about things that maybe
09:02aren't always put out in more typical film venues.
09:06And I find that also the festival is a space where you get to explore and test out ideas and
09:12things of that sort.
09:13So besides, just like I love being at the New Orleans Film Festival, there's also having a group of people
09:19that not only go,
09:20oh, I recognize that space, but I understand the deeper layers of what the layers of the city add on
09:27top of everything else.
09:28I think I went to this reading of Katrina Babies when it was like here in New Orleans for the
09:34first time.
09:34And the reactions of people like getting it on a visceral, in your bones, in like all of your fibers
09:41level adds so much
09:43because there are some pieces of, especially the monuments piece.
09:47Not every city are you going to go somewhere and within a year's span it goes from having this whole
09:53monument up to now there's flowers
09:55or having a street name that you grew up with saying and not realizing, oh, this was a Confederate leader.
10:01And now it's changed to some, like, not every place has that.
10:04So the depth of some of the social justice themes and topics that are in there are felt, I think,
10:10in a different way when it's folks that are from New Orleans.
10:15Music
