'Black and Blue' director Deon Taylor cast Naomie Harris in his new film because she was the most "dynamic and powerful" person that auditioned for him.
Naomie Harris
The 42-year-old British actress plays Alicia West in the upcoming thriller, a rookie police office in New Orleans who is forced to go on the run after capturing corrupt officers murdering a drug dealer on camera, and Deon, 43, hailed Naomi as "incredible" and insisted she was perfect for the role as she's a "thespian" rather than a "movie star".
Speaking to Cinema Blend, he said: "I cast her because she's incredible. When we were looking to cast the film, obviously there were some choices that you could have made where we were like, 'Aw, I know who that is,' or, 'Aw, I love her.' This was really a decision of who is the most dynamic and powerful actress that I can grab right now? I wanted someone that the audience could be like, 'Yo, who is this girl?' And then [realise], 'Oh, that's the girl from...' I thought that was really fresh for us to do. And, she's powerful. I mean, in this era where we have a lot of movie stars, I think Naomie is a thespian. She's someone that ... when you're done with the film, she's still living with it a month or two after. That's what [we] wanted in this movie."
'Black and Blue' is based on a screenplay from Peter A. Dowling and is set for release October 25 and Sean Sorensen of Royal Viking Entertainment is producing with Taylor's Hidden Empire Film Group production shingle while Hidden Empire partner Roxanne Avent will serve as exec producer and Eric Paquette is overseeing the project for Screen Gems.
Tagged in Naomie Harris