Gina Prince Blythewood
Gina Prince Blythewood stormed onto the scene in 2000 when she wrote and directed the widely acclaimed film Love & Basketball, a film which went on to win Best First Feature at the independent Spirit Awards.
Her new movie sees her adapt the popular Sue Monk Kidd novel The Secret Life of Bees I caught up with her to discuss the new film and what lies ahead.
Your new film is The Secret Life of Bees can you tell me a little bit about it?
It’s a film based on the best selling novel The Secret Life of Bees and it’s a coming of age story about a fourteen year old girl who is living with an incredible burden of guilt and really her journey in discovering the truth about herself and searching for love and finding it at the home of African American women, the Boatwright sisters, and creating a new family.
What was it about Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 novel that you thought would make a good feature film?
When I read it I could just picture everything, maybe that’s just being a director, but I could picture it, smell it and hear it. Then because I was so emotionally wrecked by the book, I rarely cry reading a book at I was sobbing at the end, and I thought that if I, a black woman in this day, could be that affected by the story of a little girl, a white girl, in 1964 south then there was definitely were some universal themes going on and I felt that that would translate well to the screen.
How difficult was it adapting a very popular novel that has so many fans how do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?
I think the key was I was one of those fans as well so I didn’t want to wreck the experience for anyone and the hardest thing, of course, is what not to put in and also that Lily really kind of narrates the book and how could I translate that visually.
So for me it was what do I need to tell the core story? Which is about the little girl and her search for love and knowing that that was my through line and putting my own vision and stamp on it I knew what I could lose and what I could keep.
The film is set in the Deep South of 1964 how did you immerse your actors in that period?
My process as a writer and director is to do a ton of research and then I was able to give them that research as well I gave them a lot of documentaries, Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls was one of them, I gave them a lot of books and photographs and music, and music was a big part of everyone’s process as well.
Then we did improvs where I hired actors to treat, like Jennifer Hudson, treat her like it was 1964 inside a drugs store, without her knowing, and it was a nice shock to her system and really helped her to get into the mindset .
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.
How influential were the likes of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in getting this project going?
Jada read the book and really fell in love with it and begged her husband to get his company on board to help it get set up, and they have a great relationship with Fox, and they just really banded together with Lauren to get it set up and Fox Searchlight was the only studio in town that was willing to take a chance.
What is it about female driven movies that you think aren’t popular in Hollywood, you don’t see many of them?
It probably starts with who is running Hollywood, which is men, so when they read a script whether they can identify with it, you hope that when you write something it’s universal and they can see the value in it, and that’s the main reason.
But the success of Sex and the City and Mamma Mia has showed Hollywood that women do like to go to the movies and also reminded women how fun it is to go t the movies together and I think we are going to see a change.
Another member of the cast is Alicia Keys, who is better known as a singer, what was it like working with her and what was is like for her being the new member of the cast as it were?
Yeah Alicia people ask me who I’m most proud of in this film and I have to say Alicia she is the new jack of everyone, in terms of acting, and she came in so incredibly focused and just wanted to disappear into the character.
She so understood June and it was exciting to work with her and see her perform and she had great chemistry with Nate Parker, who plays Neil, that you would start to forget on set that it was Alicia Keys, but we were reminded when she had to leave for two days to go and sing at the Superbowl
And Dakota Fanning had her very first one screen kiss in the film how did you deal with that?
Yeah that was fun and maybe being a female director knew what that must be like to have her first kiss and I didn’t want her to have to do it in front of forty fifty people so I treated it like an adult sex scene and cleared the set and there were only four of us watching. By this time she and Tristan were good friends and of course there were some nerves but I thought that they dealt with it beautifully.
Finally what is next for you?
I’m writing a love story and it’s an original story and not an adaptation so I’m excited to get back to writing and do a love story again.
The Secret Life of Bees is released 5th December
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Gina Prince Blythewood stormed onto the scene in 2000 when she wrote and directed the widely acclaimed film Love & Basketball, a film which went on to win Best First Feature at the independent Spirit Awards.
Her new movie sees her adapt the popular Sue Monk Kidd novel The Secret Life of Bees I caught up with her to discuss the new film and what lies ahead.
Your new film is The Secret Life of Bees can you tell me a little bit about it?
It’s a film based on the best selling novel The Secret Life of Bees and it’s a coming of age story about a fourteen year old girl who is living with an incredible burden of guilt and really her journey in discovering the truth about herself and searching for love and finding it at the home of African American women, the Boatwright sisters, and creating a new family.
What was it about Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 novel that you thought would make a good feature film?
When I read it I could just picture everything, maybe that’s just being a director, but I could picture it, smell it and hear it. Then because I was so emotionally wrecked by the book, I rarely cry reading a book at I was sobbing at the end, and I thought that if I, a black woman in this day, could be that affected by the story of a little girl, a white girl, in 1964 south then there was definitely were some universal themes going on and I felt that that would translate well to the screen.
How difficult was it adapting a very popular novel that has so many fans how do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?
I think the key was I was one of those fans as well so I didn’t want to wreck the experience for anyone and the hardest thing, of course, is what not to put in and also that Lily really kind of narrates the book and how could I translate that visually.
So for me it was what do I need to tell the core story? Which is about the little girl and her search for love and knowing that that was my through line and putting my own vision and stamp on it I knew what I could lose and what I could keep.
The film is set in the Deep South of 1964 how did you immerse your actors in that period?
My process as a writer and director is to do a ton of research and then I was able to give them that research as well I gave them a lot of documentaries, Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls was one of them, I gave them a lot of books and photographs and music, and music was a big part of everyone’s process as well.
Then we did improvs where I hired actors to treat, like Jennifer Hudson, treat her like it was 1964 inside a drugs store, without her knowing, and it was a nice shock to her system and really helped her to get into the mindset .
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.