Gina Prince Blythewood On The Secret life of Bees - page 2

02 December 2008

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Talking of the actors it’s an impressive cast did you have certain people in mind or did you hold a casting process?

Honestly there was only two of the cast that auditioned, everyone else we knew who we wanted to go after and we are just so fortunate to get them. We had such a small budget and we started out on this journey we knew who we wanted but how we could possibly get them and it really stared with Dakota and Latifah agreeing to take very little money and that really set the tone for everyone else to do the same and really made it possible.

And what was it about Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning that you particularly wanted for the film?

Well Dakota I don’t think that there is another child actor who could have carried this film in the way that she did there are so many levels and complexities and emotions and she was just able to do it and she has just a great look, Latifah is playing a character called August who is iconic and Latifah is larger than life and has an amazing beauty and an innate strength and warmth as well as this maternal thing and I felt like those two would be great anchors to the film.

How excited were you to be working on a female driven project?

Yeah I mean it is so incredibly rare to have a film populated by so many female characters, usually we are the girlfriends of the sidekick and then all of a sudden there’s four or five really strong parts, which his one of the main reasons that I wanted to do it. Then to be on set and have these women look to me to guide them it really was a gift everyday.

Sisterhood and motherhood are a great part of the story and have a lot to do with racism and civil rights what was it like taking on a project with such strong themes and messages?

It’s exciting as there are so many isms in this film racism, sexism but foremost it has to be a story about a little girl searching for love and then upon that you can start building the themes of optimism, courage and family, the unique ways that families are formed and I love what different people take a way from it and that’s testament to the book and out adaptation of it.

And is there any particular message that you want people to take away with them when they watch the movie?

I think it’s about how families are not just mum, dad, two kids and a dog but they can be formed in many unique ways and can still be strong, powerful and nurturing and then also in this day and age optimism is courageous, and that’s one of the main themes of the film, and given what is happening in the world today it its something that is sorely needed.

You said that the cast took a massive pay cut what was the problem in getting this film off the ground?

Yes it’s really frightening that it was based on a beat selling novel and with such an astonishing cast we had producers like Lauren Shuler Donner, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and it still took seven years to get off the ground and I thin kin Hollywood any film that has female leads is deemed small and narrow and that it doesn’t have a lot cross over appeal and I hope that this film can disprove that fallacy.

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