REMAIN IN LIGHT PRESENTEERT

REMAIN IN LIGHT PRESENTEERT
een film van Justin Simien
met Tessa Thompson, Tyler James Williams en Dennis Haysbert
Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2014
Publieksprijs, San Francisco International Film Festival 2014
Directors to W atch, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2014
Futurewave Youth Jury Award, Seattle International Film Festival 2014
PRAKTISCH
RELEASEDATUM BELGIE:
25 MAART 2015
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BOEKINGEN
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2 SYNOPSIS
“Dear white people, het aantal zwarte vrienden dat je nodig hebt om geen racist te zijn
is opgetrokken naar twee. Je wietleverancier Tyrone telt niet mee.”, zo opent de rebelse
Sam haar provocerende programma op de campusradio.
Wanneer de blanke studentenvereniging het jaarlijkse Halloweenfeestje omdoopt tot
een “vind je innerlijke neger” fuif, lopen de spanningen hoog op. Er zullen kanten
gekozen moeten worden…
In zijn scherpe en humoristische filmdebuut vindt regisseur Justin Simien een nieuwe
manier om over vooroordelen en stereotypen te spreken. Dear White People won onder
andere de Special Jury Prize op Sundance 2014 en de prijs voor beste film op het San
Francisco International Film Festival.
3 SPECIFICATIES
LAND:
Verenigde Staten
JAAR:
2014
DUUR:
106 minuten
BIOSCOOPFORMAAT:
2.35 : 1
GELUID:
Dolby Digital
ORIGINELE VERSIE:
Engels
ONDERTITELING:
Nederlands & Frans
4 CAST
LIONEL HIGGINS
SAM WHITE
TROY FAIRBANKS
DEAN FAIRBANKS
COLANDREA “COCO” CONNERS
Tyler James Williams
Tessa Thompson
Brandon P. Bell
Dennis Haysbert
Teyonah Parris
CREW
REGIE & SCENARIO Justin Simien
PRODUCERS Justin Simien
Effie Brown
Ann Le
Julia Lebedev
Angel Lopez
Lena Waithe
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Mel Jones
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Stephanie Allain
Leonid Lebedev
CINEMATOGRAFIE Topher Osborn
PRODUCTION DESIGN Bruton Jones
GELUID David PArker
MONTAGE Phillip J. Bartell
CASTING Kim Coleman
ASSISTENT REGIE Van Hayden
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR Brandon Lohstreter
MAKE-UP Robb Kelly
5 HOW IT ALL STARTED
Justin Simien took the 2014 Sundance Film Festival by storm with his debut feature film, Dear
White People, an irreverent exploration of identity in “post-racial” America. Simien adroitly elicits
both laughter and outrage with the interwoven stories of four ambitious black students at the
fictional Ivy League college Winchester University who negotiate the complex realities of a life
lived on the edge of two conflicting worlds.
Simien started the first draft of the script in 2006, when he was an undergraduate at elite
Chapman University in Orange, California. “I called it Two Percent, which reflected my
experience of being one of very few black people at a mostly white college,” he recalls. “It was
the position I had been in most of my life—toggling back and forth between black and white
worlds.”
In predominantly white settings, Simien says he felt like an awkward representative of his race.
“In black communities, I was always trying to figure out what shade and type of black person I
should be. That inspired me to tackle what I thought would be an interesting new point of view
of black experience in America.”
The lifelong film lover was also feeling frustrated at the lack of a black point of view in what he
terms “smarthouse” cinema. “There were no new movies like Robert Townsend’s Hollywood
Shuffle or Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. That movement seemed to have died. I wanted to
pay homage to that genre.”
But like many young first-time writers and directors, Simien had little luck getting the attention of
the Hollywood establishment. “A lot of people responded to the material on a personal level,” he
says. “But there isn’t much to compare this movie to. We are doing something that feels new
and it was frightening to the gatekeepers.”
Without the financial resources or industry connections to move forward, Simien launched a
guerilla campaign using social media, including the Twitter feed @DearWhitePeople. Like the
film’s Samantha White, a biracial student and the host of an irreverent student radio show also
called “Dear White People,” he incited controversy and commentary with acerbic, provocative
remarks such as “Dear White People, the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not
seem racist has just been raised…to two.”
“The Twitter account was the first thing anybody ever saw,” says Simien. “It looked like a joke
account, a bunch of one-liners about the micro-aggressions of white people. The truth is, I was
secretly using it as a writing tool. I wanted to sharpen and refine Sam’s voice. I was actually
exploring her humor, her mindset and her reactions to events on the national scene.”
6 The unexpected popularity of the Twitter account had the welcome side effect of building an
advance audience for the film. “I was also able to get a sense of how people would respond to
Sam in the real world. Both the positive and negative responses I got directly informed the
reactions, thoughts and opinions of characters in the film. In some cases, I used almost
verbatim responses I got from Twitter.”
With awareness of the project growing, Simien rolled the dice and invested his tax refund in a
concept trailer for the film. The notoriety he had gained on Twitter helped the trailer go viral,
garnering national attention including an appearance on CNN and driving a crowdfunding
campaign on Indiegogo. Eventually, he raised $50,000, which was enough for him to begin
casting while he figured out how to get the rest of the money he needed.
The challenges we faced led to creative solutions, and I could not have propelled the project
forward without the amazing input of producers Angel Lopez, Lena Waithe and Ann Le,” says
Simien. “Funds are limited when you’re doing something new. We kept asking, how could we
do this with the resources that we had and not cut back on ambition?”
Julia Lebedev, one the original Indiegogo donors, was following the development process
closely. The principal of Code Red Productions as well as a longtime friend of Simien, she was
impressed by the groundswell of grassroots support she witnessed. “I was initially skeptical of
its commerciality. Angel and Ann really had to demonstrate the demand and need for such a
project in the marketplace. Now I believe the film has legs beyond this incarnation,” she says.
“It is a really fresh and funny way to talk about race, and from a financial perspective, it’s
relevant to pop culture and music. That spoke to me as a brand. I don’t think this is just a
cinematic experience. I would love to develop it as a television series.”
When the concept trailer got traction, she brought the project to the attention of her father,
executive producer Leonid Lebedev, who was excited to finance after viewing Simien’s clip
from CNN and articles from sources including The Huffington Post. “That was summer 2013.
Once I had the financing in place, we were able to start shooting almost immediately.
When the concept trailer got traction, she pitched her partners, showing them Simien’s clip
from CNN and articles from sources including The Huffington Post. “That was summer 2013.
Once I had the financing in place, we were able to start shooting almost immediately.”
Another key player in bringing Dear White People to the screen is executive producer Stephanie
Allain of Homegrown Pictures, whose credits include 2006 Oscar®-winner Hustle and Flow.
After an initial meeting with Simien in 2009, she had him pegged as a filmmaker to watch.
“I liked Justin’s ideas,” says Allain. “I could tell there was something special there, so I asked
him to keep in touch. Four years later, my assistant, Mel Jones, suggested I take a look at the
trailer. I watched and immediately sat down to read the script. I hadn’t seen anything as socially
relevant and commercial. It was also wickedly smart and funny.
“All I could think was, how can I help make this happen?” continues Allain. “I put my assets and
my contacts in play to jumpstart the project. We were on a tight deadline, because Justin’s
dream was to take it to Sundance in 2014.”
Allain, also director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, decided to bring in a trusted colleague,
producer Effie Brown, to shepherd the film through production. Brown had also become aware
of the script through the trailer, but thought she had lost out on her chance to produce when
Allain snapped the script up. She was thrilled to get another shot at it.
“It is a really interesting topic to me on a personal level,” Brown says. “So many of my friends
and I have had the experience of being the only black face in an all-white place and always
feeling like the ‘other.’ The film talks about that feeling, without ever getting up on a soapbox. It
pokes fun at both sides of the issue.”
When Brown read the script, it confirmed her initial impression that Simien was a natural
filmmaker. “He wrote a beautiful, funny and poignant movie that hits you in the heart and the gut
at the same time,” she says. “He makes this specific experience universal. Anyone of any race
is going to be able to understand, because it speaks from more than one perspective and
captures the ugly and beautiful parts of all sides.”
7 On the set and off, Simien impressed all his producers with his commitment, visual style and
confidence. “He was very lucky to have quality people surrounding him,” says Brown. “It
definitely took a village to make the movie. But from the start it was clear that he is a visionary
who has something important to say.”
Lebedev adds that she never felt like she was working with a first-time filmmaker. “He knew
exactly what he wanted each shot to look like,” she says. “It was very impressive to watch. He
never seemed nervous. It was like he was born to do this.”
Simien says he sees the people around him growing disillusioned with the idea that America is
entering a post-racial phase. “When Obama was elected there was a liberal sigh of relief,” he
notes. “People thought maybe we had overcome racism and all of our racial history in one fell
swoop. People are waking up to fact that it’s not true. There are eruptions of micro-aggression,
as well as accidental and intentional racism capturing the public’s attention, from [Los Angeles
Clippers owner] Donald Sterling’s comments to white celebrities wearing blackface. Accidental
racism is very much in the zeitgeist.”
Simien thought he had invented an outrageous idea with the “unleash your inner negro” party in
Dear White People and was shocked when he learned that such parties were springing up at
college campuses across the country. “There was a similar incident at Dartmouth the week we
started shooting,” he says. “Two days after we premiered in Sundance, an event happened in
Arizona. The central problem is how we survive culturally. How do we find our place in a world
where we don’t look like everybody else? But it’s an ongoing struggle even to figure out how to
have these kinds of conversations.”
Dear White People could be a first step in the process, says Allain. “The movie speaks to young
people about the dichotomy of what we’re being told is happening and what we’re
experiencing. Yes, we have a black president, but that has piqued smoldering racism. You see
it exploding everywhere, from the courts to these campus parties. No one is really dealing with
it.”
“The recent spate of news stories about racist incidents in what some people are calling postracial America really validates the movie,” agrees Lebedev. “Certain types of behavior,
intentional and overt or not, are taking place and not just on college campuses. I hope it can
create a safe place to talk about and laugh about the issues we’re facing.”
8 OVER JUSTIN SIMIEN
"My film isn't about 'white racism' or racism at all. My film is about identity. It's about the
difference between how the mass culture responds to a person because of their race and who
that person understands themselves to truly be. All explored through the microcosm of a
success-oriented Ivy League college."
—Justin Simien
Justin Simien – REGISSEUR
Met de release van zijn langspeelfilmdebuut, de universiteitssatire Dear White People (2014),
wordt de Amerikaanse regisseur, scenarist en monteur Justin Simien (°7 mei, 1983 – Houston,
Texas) door Variety niet alleen als één van de ’10 directors to watch’ gelauwerd, hij wordt
sindsdien op meerdere gelegenheden ook de ‘Spike Lee van zijn generatie’ genoemd.
Geïnspireerd door zijn eigen ervaringen als een minderheid aan de overwegend blanke campus
van de Chapman University in Californië begint Simien in 2006 aan het scenario van Dear White
People. Deze studieperiode betekent een enorm contrast, naar eigen zeggen zelfs een ware
cultuurschok, ten opzichte van zijn ervaringen tijdens zijn middelbare schoolopleiding aan de
High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston waar hij gewend was aan gemengde
sociale groepen. Hoewel hij aan de universiteit zelf niet te kampen heeft met flagrante
discriminatie, en enkel goede herinneringen aan de filmschool overhoudt, krijgt hij wel te maken
met stereotypering en vooroordelen. Volgens Simien waren sommige medestudenten nogal
verward doordat hij niet op een bepaalde manier sprak, dat hij niet aan bepaalde sporten
deelnam en benoemden hem vervolgens als ‘slechts technisch zwart’. Vanuit die optiek groeit
zijn aspiratie om met de film licht te werpen op hoe het werkelijk is om als individu louter
beoordeeld te worden op basis van je huidskleur, en niet zozeer om een racistisch debat op
gang te brengen. Met de film heeft hij in elk geval ook zeker niet de intentie een aanklacht neer
te zetten op de blanke meerderheid.
9 Toch duurt het nog tot 2012 vooraleer het project Dear White People echt van de grond komt.
Met behulp van zijn belastingrestitutie als financiering produceert Simien een concepttrailer
waarmee hij een crowdfunding campagne lanceert op Indiegogo, een site die mensen in staat
stelt fondsen te werven voor een idee, een goed doel of een start-up bedrijf, met de intentie om
25,000 dollar op te strijken. Maar dankzij een enorme nationale aandacht op Twitter en
Facebook wordt zijn doel overtroffen en kan Simien pakweg 40,000 dollar collecteren om de
film te draaien. Dear White People wordt vervolgens benoemd als Indiewire’s allereerste Project
of the Year, waardoor de film niet alleen extra in de kijker wordt gezet maar waardoor Simien
tevens een invitatie bemachtigt voor het Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 om deel te nemen aan de
Filmmaker/Industry Meetings georganiseerd door het Tribeca Film Institute. Na het filmfestival
kan Simien met verscheidene studio’s en distributeurs samenzitten en tekent hij bij een
onafhankelijke financier, Code Red Films, die hem de kans geeft te film te produceren die hij al
die jaren voor ogen had.
Ondertussen is Simien met zijn langspeelfilmdebuut afgelopen jaar meermaals in de prijzen
gevallen. Op het Sundance Film Festival, waar de film zijn première kent, kan hij naast een
nominatie voor de Grand Jury Prize de Special Jury Prize voor Breakthrough Talent verzilveren.
Aan het Seattle International Film Festival mag hij vervolgens de Futurewave Youth Jury Award
innen, en ook aan het San Francisco International Film Festival en het Palm Springs International
Film Festival mag hij respectievelijk de Publieksprijs voor Best Narrative Feature en Directors to
Watch in ontvangst nemen.
Voor zijn succes met Dear White People werkt Simien als publiciteitsagent en marketing
specialist voor verscheidene filmmaatschappijen in Los Angeles, waaronder Sony Television,
Focus Feature en Paramount Pictures. Daarnaast heeft hij ook enige ervaring in het regisseren
kunnen opdoen met een aantal kortfilms: het romantisch drama Rings (2006), de komedies My
Women: Inst Msgs (2009) en INST MSGS (2009). Alsook weet hij als producer te fungeren voor
de kortfilm Head (2010) en krijgt hij de montage in handen van de kortfilms Save Me (2011) en
The Goldfish (2013).
FILMOGRAFIE:
o
o
o
o
Dear White People (2014)
INST MSGS (Instant Messages) (short) (2009)
My Women: Inst Msgs (short) (2009)
Rings (short) (2006)
10 Interview: Justin Simien about race, identity, and black cinema
What I got from the film is that we’re forced to accept identity, whether we like it or
not. You’re born into it. I’m from a biracial family, and I could see my struggle with not
knowing where I fit in displayed in every character. Is that where you’re coming from
with this, or is that me projecting myself onto the work?
First of all, you’re welcome to project yourself into it. That’s the fun thing for me about multiprotagonist stories: you can kind of put a few different things out there and have the characters
sort of net out in different ways, and have everyone respond to it in a way that makes sense
specifically to them. I found it kind of impossible to talk about race identity – or identity at all –
from one singular point of view, which is why I have four of them in the film. I think, ultimately,
my focus for the movie is that there’s a relationship between identity and self. In America, it’s
impossible – at least as far as I have seen – to make maximum use of your potential if you don’t
make decisions about your identity.
The idea is that you’re either going to have an identity decided for you or you’re going to have
to pick one. I have characters, when you first meet them – Lionel, in particular – who have
actively not checked any boxes of identity. [Lionel] doesn’t even have a major. He’s incredibly
precious about who he really is and what he’s really about, whatever that might be. Then you
have a character like Sam, whose identity is so hardwired that she’s actually denying half of
who she is throughout most of the film. So I think it’s certainly not my intention for the film to be
a morality play, or terribly dogmatic. I think it’s just to sort of talk about the relationship between
identity and self, and to get into the conflict between those ideas and what happens on either
side of the extreme.
Do you think there is that need to not play into what the world wants you to do?
I mean, I don’t take an all-or-nothing view on it. I think it has to be a balance. What’s interesting
about your reading of the film is that [Sam] – and I don’t want to give anything away to your
readers who may not have seen the film – she makes a decision and it feels like one of those
movie moments, but the scene also quickly reminds you of the reality that she’s stepping into,
which is bound to be uncomfortable. There will be, probably, social repercussions for the
decision that she makes. Whereas Lionel, who I actually think steps into an identity and, at least
for the moment, kind of has an uncomplicated, warm reception to his stepping into an identity.
The funny thing is, I actually think the harder thing to do is to be authentic, especially when
you’ve had some success as whatever it is that you are. This is coming from a person who has
had some success in publicity for some time, before I stepped out to make my own movie and
also as a person who I think, especially after this first film, people are going to see me a certain
way and expect me to make certain kinds of movies. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if
and when I don’t make certain kinds of movies. I think that my personal belief on it is that it’s
probably always better to go with your self, if your self and your identity are in conflict. But
expect it to be pretty hard. That’s the bleak truth of the matter.
The world kind of knows where it wants you to be, and you either accept it or you
don’t.
Yeah, because ultimately you are in control, but to not have any identity at all will also leave you
left behind. It’ll just completely leave you out of the conversation about what you can or can’t
be. You're sort of at the mercy of others if you make certain non-choices. So at least make the
ones that are best for you.
11 People have been talking about this movie a lot, but what I often see in the articles
and reviews about it is a need to put you into a box of “this guy is the black Whit
Stillman,” or “he’s the black Woody Allen,” or “the black whatever.” Spike Lee had to
go through that whole thing, too, when She’s Gotta Have It came out. Does that grate
on you? Do you feel like you want to do something similar to what Spike did, where he
violently rejected it and basically said, “I’m going to go out and I’m going to make
School Daze and you’re going to hate it and I don’t care”?
I don’t have an angry reaction to it. Someone brought up the Spike Lee thing, in particular,
saying, “How do you feel about being compared to Spike Lee?” The truth is, it’s great until it’s
not great. It’s not great to stay in any kind of box, but if I had to be put in a box, the Spike Lee
box is not a bad box. The Woody Allen box is not a bad box.
At the same time, I’m sure at a certain point when I’m not making my first movie and trying to
get my second off the ground, I will feel perhaps boxed in. I also think that, you know, Dear
White People is a special movie. I don’t think it’s arrogant to say that. There hasn’t been a
movie like this in a really long time. So, I’m also excited to see that a lot of the people that I talk
to on a one-on-one level are open to me doing things that are totally outside of this particular
box, because they see the potential in me as a filmmaker. So, I don’t have a violently negative
reaction to it at all. I think it’s a little suspect, comparing me to the other black filmmaker. That
kind of thing is a little lazy. At the same time, there are other filmmakers I could’ve been
compared to that would not have been favourable at all.
One of those filmmakers might be Tyler Perry, who is referenced in your film. Is he the
victim of being put into a box, where he has to make these commercial films that
maybe we think of as absurd or silly? And are we giving him too much of a hard time,
compared to, say, Adam Sandler – who, by definition of being a white male, is not
responsible for holding up the self-esteem of an entire population of people?
Well, I don’t think Tyler Perry is a victim at all. I think Tyler Perry is, of anyone we’re talking
about, a master of his own fate. Tyler Perry actually resurrected black movies from what they
were, which was really nothing. They were almost completely gone, they weren’t making any
money at all, and he came in at a time when – with the exception of a few stars – there really
wasn’t a lot going on. He brought with him a ready-made audience from his plays, and he
spoke to that audience really well, and he’s done so for a really long time now.
I think Tyler Perry is making the stuff that he wants to make. I mean, he owns an island! If Tyler
Perry really wanted to do something different, I think that he would. And I don’t know Tyler
Perry and all I have to answer a question about his inner workings is the interviews he gives, but
I think he’s happy making his audiences happy. I think the tricky thing is that the gatekeepers –
the people who decide what is green-lit and what’s not, and how to promote it and all that –
they decide not to investigate any other aspect of the black audience, and they really stopped
promoting and supporting work that’s out of the Tyler Perry box. They decided that was the
whole of the black experience, and that is all that we would pay to see, and that’s all we were
interested in.
After 12 Years a Slave did really well, they were like, “Oh, people are into slavery again? Great!”
and I saw all of these stories about the next slave movie and the next slave television series.
Hollywood is just interested in making more of whatever made money before. I think really, if
we’re going to be frustrated at anything, we have to be frustrated at that particular system. But
on the other hand, you talk about someone like Adam Sandler, and the reason why it’s different
is because there are so many different variations of a white man in culture. Whereas when it
comes to the way black people are presented – even in the “year of black film” – there’s still
only a very limited version of the black experience that’s being put out there.
12 I’ve talked about this often: You more often than not get the tragedy of the black experience;
the extreme, tragic pain of being black in this country, whether it’s through the eyes of a slave
or a maid or a slain youth. Or you get, sort of, the Ebony cover or Essence cover version of
being black, where it’s just fabulous and they’re upwardly mobile, and they’re happy and
they’re sassy and have great jobs. The complexity of the black experience is sort of absent from
that conversation. That’s why I think it’s easy to sort of pick the one or two players in that field
in a given year and attack one or two of them, but I also think that conversation is one that
black people are always having. I thought it was worth putting [Tyler Perry] in the movie,
because ultimately, the way we feel confined by the culture around us is a part of our
experience.
Is it hard for black filmmakers – as someone who now is considered a leading light of
black film – to feel that responsibility of, “There’s only going to be three of these this
year, so mine better be super good!”
I guess so? I guess there definitely is an added pressure when you’re dealing with black subject
matter. Not only do you want it to be successful, but you want people to dig it. The truth is that
in terms of “black movies” – and I put black movies in air quotes – in terms of movies that are
about the experiences of black people or made by black people, there has been so consistently
one or two kinds for so long that any attempt to do something other than that, there’s a fear
that, “What if people just don’t get it because they haven’t seen anything like it in a really long
time?” There’s that fear, too. There’s the same conversation that I think black artists have been
having since the Harlem Renaissance, of like, “Is it OK to air the dirty laundry about the black
experience?” I mean, if white people are watching this, shouldn’t we always put forth incredibly
positive images of black people and successful and happy and beautiful and clean and pretty
and intelligent versions of ourselves?
There are lots of pressures. But ultimately, while I think that there is some responsibility to do
with representation, my responsibility tends to lean more toward being authentic and saying
something truthful, saying something about the human experience, holding the mirror up,
challenging… Those are the kinds of films that I want to see. And no matter what the subject of
my films are – whether it’s the black experience or not – those are the kinds of movies I have to
make. Movies that sort of say something about the human condition.
Just to go back to how we started with identity and whatnot, is there a third way? With
my reading of the film, I felt like you were saying there is a third way. You don't have
to be incredibly, fiercely protective of your black identity, but you don’t have to
completely whitewash yourself. Is there a time – post-Obama – where we won't have
to say, “This is a black movie”. We can just say, “This is a movie with black people in
it”. Because I feel like we’re still not there. We’re still having these interviews where
it’s like, “So you made a black movie”. White people can go see your movie, and they
should.
I think the third way is to embrace the contradiction and to show up as yourself. This movie is
me showing up as myself, you know? Necessarily, the movie is going to be considered a black
film because that’s the paradigm that we’re in. Maybe three films from now, it won’t be, and
maybe we’ll see it differently. I don’t know. But at a certain point, it’s not really up to me what
the culture decides, how the culture decides to define this film, or film in general. But it is up to
me what kinds of things I want to contribute to the culture. This idea of either rebelling against
or assimilating into – that dichotomy that those are the only two choices we have – is why we
get so stuck and so caught up. This movie wouldn’t have been the same movie if I decided to
get caught up in only one of those two. So, this movie for me is a middle way.
Bron: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/dear-white-people-interview-127
13 OVER TESSA THOMPSON
Tessa Thompson – SAMANTHA WHITE
De Amerikaanse actrice Tessa Thompson (°3 oktober, 1983 – Los Angeles, Californië) maakt
met de enorme belangstelling rond de satire Dear White People een grote kans om het als
rijzende ster in Hollywood te maken. En niet alleen als filmactrice, ook haar elektro-soul
muziekgroep Caught a Ghost, waarvoor zij de “sultry vocals and percussions” verzorgt,
debuteerde eerder dit jaar met het album Human Nature. Op de soundtrack van Dear White
People zijn twee nummers van de groep te horen.
Thompson groeit op als dochter van de singer/songwriter van het muzikaal collectief Chocolate
Genius, Inc., Marc Anthony Thompson. Reeds op jonge leeftijd ontwikkelt zij een liefde voor
zowel het acteren als muziek. Hoewel haar professionele acteer carrière van start gaat in het
theatercircuit in Los Angeles, maakt Thompson onder het televisiepubliek indruk met haar
terugkerende rol als Jackie Cook in het tweede seizoen van de tienerreeks Veronica Mars
(2004-2007), de dochter van een bekende football speler en love interest voor het personage
Wallace Fennel. Gedurende die periode verschijnt Thompson eveneens in een aflevering van de
politiereeks Cold Case (2003-2010) en vertolkt ze het nichtje van Richard Webber, “Chief of
Surgery”, in het meermaals bekroonde medisch drama Grey’s Anatomy (2004-heden).
Tussendoor maakt Thompson haar filmdebuut in de remake van de psychologische horrorfilm
When A Stranger Calls (2006) als één van de beste vriendinnen van Jill, een tienermeisje dat
tijdens het babysitten wordt geterroriseerd door een seriemoordenaar.
In 2007 maakt Thompson vervolgens deel uit van de tiener dramareeks Hidden Palms over het
leven van een groep tieners en hun ouders in Palms Springs, Californië. Maar de reeks, van
Dawson’s Creek-bedenker Kevin Williamson, haalt echter te weinig kijkcijfers en na acht
afleveringen wordt de reeks al van de buis gehaald. Thompson weet echter al snel een rol te
bemachtigen in de dansfilm Make It Happen (2008) van muziekvideoregisseur Darren Grant,
waarin een small-town girl naar Chicago trekt waar ze een opleiding aan de bekende
dansschool aspireert. De daaropvolgende jaren vult Thompson haar filmografie verder aan met
nog een aantal televisieverschijningen, waaronder in de misdaadreeks Life (2007-2009), het
medisch drama Private Practice (2007-2013) en de sciencefiction superheldenreeks Heroes
(2006-2010).
14 Voor haar rol als Kari Peterson in het drama Mississippi Damned (2009), over drie arme zwarte
kinderen die in het rurale Mississippi opgroeien in een sfeer van geweld, mishandeling en
verslaving en moeten uitvissen op welke manier zij die harde realiteit willen ontvluchten, wordt
Thompson bekroond met de Grand Jury Prize voor Beste Actrice aan het American Black Film
Festival in 2009. Ook de film mag diezelfde prijs voor Beste Langspeelfilm in ontvangst nemen.
Twee jaar later scoort ze tijdens de Black Reel Awards met de Black Reel voor Best
Breakthrough Performance voor haar fenomenale vertolking als één van de negen vrouwen in
Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls (2010), gebaseerd op het poëtische toneelstuk uit 1975 for
colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.
In 2010 schittert Thompson in de web serie Blue Belle, over een vrouw die twee levens leidt. De
serie, gebaseerd op een waargebeurd verhaal, levert maker Perry Lang de Outstanding
Achievement Award voor Beste Drama Serie aan het LA Web Fest op. Na een reeks
verschijningen in series als het medisch drama Off the Map (2011), over een groep dokters in
een Zuid-Amerikaans dorpje van Grey’s Anatomy-bedenker Shonda Rhimes en in de
politiereeks Rizzoli & Isles (2010-heden) weet Thompson een terugkerende rol in de
bovennatuurlijke reeks 666 Park Avenue (2012-2013) en een hoofdrol in het historisch
politiedrama Copper (2012-2013) te bemachtigen.
Haar succes met For Colored Girls krijgt al snel opvolgers. Zo neemt ze in de thriller Murder on
the 13th Floor (2012) de hoofdrol van een verwaarloosde moeder die een moordplan opstelt als
ze ontdekt dat haar man een affaire heeft met het inwonend kindermeisje. Ook haar volgende
rollen zorgen voor een uiteenlopend prestaties: van de neo-noir misdaadfilm Automotive (2013),
een film volledig verteld vanuit het perspectief van een oldtimer uit 1964 en het drama South
Dakota (2013) waarin Thompson een tienermeisje vertolkt dat zwanger blijkt te zijn nadat ze
verkracht werd tot het komisch drama Grantham & Rose (2014).
In Dear White People (2014) worden haar talenten nogmaals in de verf gezet met haar rol als
Samantha White, een studente die met het gelijknamige radioschoolprogramma hilarische
racistische stereotyperingen uit de doeken doet. Binnenkort zal ze eveneens te zien zijn in het
historisch drama Selma (2014) over Martin Luther King.
FILMOGRAFIE:
o
2014
o
2013
o
o
2012
2011
o
2010
o
o
2009
2008
o
2006
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE van Justin Simien GRANTHAM & ROSE van Kristin Hanggi SOUTH DAKOTA van Bruce Isacson
AUTOMOTIVE van Tom Glynn
MURDER ON THE 13TH FLOOR van Hanelle M. Culpepper
PERIPHERY van Duane Allen Humeyestewa
RED & BLUE MARBLES van Shaun Lapacek
FOR COLORED GIRLS van Tyler Perry
EXQUISITE CORPSE van Scott David Russell
EVERYDAY BLACK MAN van Carmen Madden
MISSISSIPPI DAMNED van Tina Mabry
MAKE IT HAPPEN van Darren Grant
THE HUMAN CONTRACT van Jada Pinkett Smith
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS van Simon West
15 Interview: Tessa Thompson talks ‘Dear White People’
Could you speak a little more about working with Justin?
Yeah, you know I think [that’s] one thing that has been a little overshadowed because the film
has such really strong thematic things happening and this subject is frankly kind of a hotbed of
opinions and feelings, but Justin is really a cinephile. He’s obsessed with films. He was pulling
from some very specific references, so there would be moments when he just had the frame in
his mind so clearly that if you were off by sort of and inch he could see it. It was his baby he’s
been working on this screenplay and had it in his heart as something that really burned a hole in
him for about eight years. So, he was just, you know, as prepared as you could be and as
passionate as you could hope for in a director.
So what were your thoughts when you first found out about what your character was
like?
I guess, you know, my thoughts and my feelings were that a part of Sam White’s story
reminded me of a younger part of myself in high school when, I was trying to sort of figure out
who I was, and I felt kind of a pressure to be certain things depending on what group of people
I was in front of. I think that’s something the movie really explored more than just talking about
race in America. The film is about identity and who you know yourself to be, and trying to
reconcile that with what people expect of you, or what people assume about you. Sometimes
that can be made, you know, more difficult and murky with the introduction of race. So I guess I
just felt like it was a love letter to a previous part of myself. I also think that Sam White is the
resident firecracker, fire starter on campus, and I think people that are really necessary. People
who want to shake up their surroundings. Whether or not she’s always right is another story,
but while I was playing her I really got to see the joy in somebody who is daring enough to
speak up.
So, would you say your character is the one you relate to the most in the film?
No, I wouldn’t say that necessarily. I could really see myself in all of the characters, which is a
thing that really attracted me to the script. I felt like the characters are all so layered. There’s so
much going on with them that there are things you can really recognize. That’s one of the things
that is striking to me, because we’ve played the movie all over the country at this point and at a
lot of film festivals, and I remember at the first screening I went to the Eccles Theater, which is
the biggest theatre there about 1,200 people, and there were people that came up and they
were women that looked like housewives in Utah. They were saying I related so much to Coco’s
character, or I related to you or to Troy and that’s incredible. It showed us that who we
assumed that this movie is for is not exactly who the film is going to resonate with the most
necessarily. Yeah, I could see myself in all of them.
At one point in the movie your character’s actions are compared to Malcolm X, do you
think the comparison is justified? Being seen as an extremist.
I don’t think she’s an extremist I think she is radical in her own way. I think what makes her
radical is her complexities and contradictions which she kind of tries to hide. I mean she says
herself, “I’m not Malcolm X,” towards the end of the movie she says “I’m tired of being
everybody’s angry black chick,” and in light of what was just said about Shonda Rhimes I think
that’s not a great position to be boxed into because there’s this trope. If you’re a person of
color who has something to say about what’s happening in the world then you are militant, but
if you’re a white person you’re a liberal. So no I wouldn’t say that she’s an extremist. I think she
toes the line actually.
16 Do you think the movie accurately portrays the life of black students today especially
at predominantly white colleges?
I will say that when the credits roll we show images of black face parties and racially themed
parties that have happened all over the nation. When Justin was first writing the script that
wasn’t happening in the same way so he was like am I going too far in the satire? Will people be
able to relate to this and believe this? Is this too extreme? And then the culture kind of caught
up with him, frankly, which is unfortunate. I think in that sense it is speaking to things that are
true about what’s happening. The movie also exists in a space a little bit outside of reality. I
think why that’s necessary is it’s really hard sometimes to internalize things when they’re too
real. I think the movie sits in a sweet spot of making us laugh and at moments being sort of like
‘oh that’s ridiculous’ and at the end you realize oh no that ‘s actually a really observant, sharp
look at what’s happening around us.
Are you a little bit worried about people being lost because of the satire of the film and
people being offended by it?
Yeah I think that that might happen. I’m trying not to spend too much time anticipating how
people are going to react. Truthfully, I think the aim certainly for Justin Simien making the film
and my biggest hope is the hope I think I also share with my character, Sam White, is just to
start a conversation. There are going to be people that are maybe offended. I had a woman of
color come up to me in the street and asked me about the trailer and she felt that it was making
fun of black people and asked me if that was the intention. I felt that was so interesting and I
was so grateful that she asked me that question, because we got to have a really honest
conversation, and I got to explain our intention of making the film. She said she so excited to
see it now that she understood contextually what it means. I think people might be upset or off
put, but frankly I think any piece of work that has a really strong point of view, and is fresh and
is trying to say things that are important and frankly a little hard to say is going to turn some
people off and some are going to misunderstand it. I think that’s a credit to the film.
Do you think the film will start a trend of talking about being a minority in this day and
age?
Like I said Justin’s been writing this script and trying to get this movie made for eight years, so
it’s interesting when people say this movie is coming out at the perfect time, or this movie is so
of it’s time. I mean the truth is it’s a resurgence of a type of film. The film has been compared to
Do The Right Thing and Hollywood Shuffle and Higher Learning, but those films were made in
some cases 25-30 years ago. I think it’s continuing a conversation that we’ve been having for
awhile, and continuing it in a fresh way. I think also, in the context of Hollywood, it’s just the
case that now we’re so obsessed with the bottom line that it’s really hard to make a movie that
Hollywood can’t look at and say I know what this movie is, this kind of movie made money the
year before. So, if this film is successful yeah I think it will open the doors for other films like it,
certainly with interesting portrayals of people of color. I think that’s the hope. That’s the bestcase scenario, if that happens.
What is the one thing you want people to take away from this movie?
Like I said, I think it’s a movie about identity versus yourself and I think we’re in a time where
we’re pretty identity obsessed. We live in sort of the age of the selfie where were constantly
trying to project images of ourselves and an idea of who we are to other people, and
sometimes I think that that can distract us from having an honest conversation with ourselves
about who we are. I hope that people take away that the sort of self-reflective honest space is
really important. More than that I just hope it starts conversations with friends and families and
enemies. Get together and talk about what the movie brought up for them.
Bron:
http://thesource.com/2014/10/17/exclusive-actress-tessa-thompson-talks-dear-white-people/
17 OVER TYLER JAMES WILLIAMS
Tyler James Williamson – LIONEL HIGGINS
Voor de jonge Tyler James Williams (°9 oktober, 1992 – Westchester County, New York)
betekent zijn rol in de veelbesproken film Dear White People de kans om naast zijn talent als
muzikant en rapper, dat hem deed opvallen in de jongerenreeks True Jackson, VP en de
Disneyfilm Let It Shine, ook zijn acteerambities van een andere kant te laten kennen.
Williams groeit op als oudste zoon van een zangeres/songwriter en een politiesergeant. Reeds
op vierjarige leeftijd begint hij zijn acteer carrière. Een aantal jaren later neemt hij in het derde en
vierde seizoen van de kinderreeks Little Bill (1999-2004) de stem van de leergierige Robert
“Bobby” Glover voor zijn rekening. In diezelfde periode, tussen 2000 en 2005, speelt hij
vervolgens zichzelf in de langlopende kinderreeks Sesame Street.
Na een verschijning in een episode van de politiereeks Law & Order: Special Victims Unit maakt
Williams in 2005 op veertienjarige leeftijd naambekendheid met zijn rol als het titulair personage
in Everybody Hates Chris (2005-2009), de succesvolle sitcom van de komiek en acteur Chris
Rock geïnspireerd op diens eigen problematische tienerervaringen. In 2007 wint hij een Young
Artist Award voor zijn vertolking van de tiener die zichzelf altijd in de problemen weet te werken.
Tussen de seizoenen in heeft hij naast Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey en Rene Russo ook
een kleine rol in het sportdrama Two For the Money (2005). Al snel volgen nog een aantal
filmrollen, zo neemt hij de rol van Charlie Goldfinch voor zijn rekening in de kerstkomedie
Unaccompanied Minors (2006) en verzorgt hij samen met Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage en Meryl
Streep de stemmen in de animatiefilm The Ant Bully (2006) en samen met Whoopi Goldberg en
William H. Macy voor de animatiefilm Everyone’s Hero (2006). In het najaar van 2009 verschijnt
hij vervolgens in het tweede seizoen van de sitcom True Jackson, VP (2008-2011) als een
bekende rapper die een love interest is voor de hoofdfiguur True Jackson. Alsook kan hij een
cameo maken in een aflevering van het succesvolle medisch drama House.
18 In 2012 wordt hij gecast in de hoofdrol in de Disney musical televisiefilm Let It Shine (2012) over
een getalenteerde maar verlegen rapper en muzikant die romantische hip-hop verzen neerpent
en de nummers door zijn beste vriend aan het meisje van zijn dromen laat zingen. Williams kan
in de film zijn muzikaal talent scherpen op de soundtrack van de film, hij verzorgt maar liefst
negen nummers. Vervolgens speelt hij het klaar om naast Matthew Perry een vaste rol in de
sitcom Go On (2012-2013) te verkrijgen. Het daaropvolgend jaar is Williams te zien als Simon
Peeples in Tyler Perry’s Peeples (2013) waarin een bescheiden jongeman op een familiereünie
zijn toekomstige schoonfamilie voor zich wil winnen. In Dear White People (2014) schittert hij als
de homoseksuele nerd Lionel Higgins die zich nergens lijkt thuis te voelen. Recentelijk is hij ook
te zien in het vijfde seizoen van de spannende zombiereeks The Walking Dead.
In 2007 wint Williams op viertienjarige leeftijd de NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in
a Comedy Series. Hij is de jongste persoon die ooit de prijs in ontvangst heeft mogen nemen.
Drie jaar later wordt hij vervolgens nogmaals genomineerd voor dezelfde prijs. Nu op nog maar
22 jaar oud kan hij al een totale score van 11 nominaties optekenen.
FILMOGRAFIE:
o
o
o
2014
2013
2006
o
2005
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE van Justin Simien PEEPLES van Tyler Perry
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS van Paul Feig
EVERYONE’S HERO van Christopher Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre, Colin Brady
THE ANT BULLY van John A. Davis
TWO FOR THE MONEY van D.J. Caruso
19 Interview: Tyler James Williamson talks ‘Dear White People’
You were a child actor, do you think you escaped a lot of the racism most people
experience or is there a different kind of racism that comes with working in
Hollywood?
Race and race relations and racism permeates every situation. So many people look at the child
actor experience and think it is so different from the regular child experience and it’s really not. I
was on a show with a bunch of kids so it was a lot like the high school experience, instead of
talking about Homecoming we talked about what we were wearing to the Emmy’s, it was the
same thing just on a grander scale. Racism has permeated every aspect of life. It doesn’t make
it any different where you are, it actually makes it a bit worse being a young black male with
money and a lot of people don’t like that.
There was an article that came out recently saying that only 20% of white people think
that racism is still a problem.
Because there is an African-American President, I can see why some people would think that,
but it’s not the case. I think it boils down to that the minute that you assume that you
understand somebody’s experience that is not your experience that you isolate them and
racism festers and grows. If someone has been sexually assaulted, you don’t really see people
saying, “I think it’s been long enough, it’s time for you to get over this,” because you haven’t
experienced it. I think it’s the same thing with this. We have not had a lot of people who have
experienced what the black community has experienced. And the same thing with the Jewish
community with the Holocaust. We can’t sit here and go “That’s not an issue anymore, you’re
fine,” because that’s not our experience. We have to understand that we don’t understand. And
that’s what will bring us together.
The film is really humorous and that’s part of the theme, like what’s funny vs. what’s
racist? The humor is what opens the door. If we browbeat this kinda stuff into people then no one
would want to hear it. If you can sit there and laugh and realize that everybody in the room is
laughing — great, we’re good. But I also think it shows that, Justin tiptoed that line so well of
showing that you can laugh at what’s not funny, the fact that it’s not funny and it’s happening is
why you’re laughing rather than laughing at something that’s very stereotypical, rather than
laughing at something that you would have naturally thought. In some of the screenings at
Sundance there were people who were both laughing and crying at the same time saying, “I
didn’t know that that was a problem” and the fact that you made fun of the problem made it
easier for me to see that. We made fun of the fact that yes touching my hair is an issue and
that you don’t realize that touching my hair is an issue. Rather than going “touching my hair is
an issue and you guys joke about that,” we go, “Ok look at how clueless you guys are that this
is an issue to me.“
There were a lot of objections to the campaign for this film…
All of our comments on YouTube are like a race war. Whenever I see that I say, “Just go watch
the film and you’ll realize that’s not what it is.” People make so many assumptions when it
comes to anything regarding race. They’re so ready to fight. It’s just like, “Dear White People”
but if you go see the film you’ll see it’s a radio show called “Dear White People” it’s not an open
letter! People said, “What if it was Dear Black People?” They’re literally pulling a line from the
film. We’re not dumb. We’re not stupid. We know that. It’s just people wanting to be angry at
something. A lot of white audiences feel targeted by black audiences saying “things are still bad
for us and you guys are the problem” and they want to defend that immediately. Just go see it
and if you don’t like it, great, it was 12 bucks. But go see it and then tell me what you thought
about it. It’s kinda like when Django came out and everyone was all up in arms and it wasn’t
even out yet.
20 Your character has such a progression. He starts out as kind of the loser and
ultimately ends up being the one to spark the “riot.” Were you surprised?
I wasn’t because I knew something had to change. Lionel is very conflicted and unsure of
himself and unsure of who he is and any good story with a character like that will have a
moment where he’s forced to make a decision. He just doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to be
just black or just gay. He doesn’t want to be anything. He just wants to be Lionel, but
unfortunately life doesn’t always give you that convenience. He was forced to make that stance.
You see in the fight with Kurt he becomes almost a different person. That’s something that
happens to everybody in life where you don’t really figure out who you are until you are forced
to stand for something or take it in stride.
Besides your character, who else did you relate to most?
I’d have to say Troy. I find myself using a lot of Troy’s tactics in my life. I felt like they were
reading a page from my book in his modulating his blackness scene. It’s a coping mechanism
that anybody who deals with a lot of different groups of people use. I’m sure if white friends of
mine saw me interact with black friends of mine they’d be like “Who is that?” I was so convicted
sitting there watching feeling like they were talking about me specifically and looking around and
seeing everyone else feeling the same way. I read that and it didn’t mean anything to me and
when I saw it, it really hit me.
You play a gay character in this film, were you concerned about what people would
think?
Not really. I think for me period with any kind of romantic scene whether it be gay, straight,
whatever — they never connect. It’s like I can speak words that aren’t mine and don’t have to
connect to them. it’s the same thing. I did a play one time where I pretty much had to have sex
on stage and it never connected to me. It’s an action. I’ve had people in a lot of Christian
people knowing what I believe go “How can you do that?”
Bron:
http://bossip.com/1049783/bossip-exclusive-tyler-james-williams-talks-gay-kissing-scenes-in-dear-white-peopleand-interracial-dating-in-2014/
21 CITATEN INTERNATIONALE PERS
‘A fresh and funny new voice on the scene in writer-director Justin Simien’
‘Bolstered by an excellent cast that should find an especially appreciative audience among
young black moviegoers’
‘Simien’s stylized, confrontational approach enables him direct access to his characters’
thoughts, ambitions, hang-ups and concerns in a way that a more naturalistic piece couldn’t
have managed’
‘Dear White People (…) provokes admiration for having bothered to ask some of the hard
questions without pretending to know any of the answers’
‘A fine showcase for its actors: Fleshing out characters that could have been little more than
one-note mouthpieces, Williams, Thompson, Parris and Bell all make strong, distinctive
impressions, with Thompson perhaps the standout as the film’s sharpest and most enigmatic
figure’
VARIETY
‘Dear White People is sure to become both a cult hit and a staple on college campuses across
the country'
THE HUFFINGTON POST
‘A edgy premise and memorable cast make for a potent first impression’
‘The cast has abundant opportunity to flex their range, led by Thompson’s conflicted student
activist, whom she portrays with practiced composure'
‘Simien intensifies the impact of both action and dialogue with a self-reflexive directorial style
that creates a marginally heightened sense of reality, revealing more about characters'
motivations than would conventionally be expected'
THE HOLLYW OOD REPORTER
‘A slyly provocative achievement and a serious calling card for its writer-director, Justin Simien'
‘Kathryn Bostic's lovely, understated musical score is a plus, but so is nearly every performance
on screen'
‘Thompson emerges as the heart and soul of "Dear White People"'
‘This is the best film about college life in a long time, satiric or straight, comedy or drama'
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
‘As smart and fearless a debut as I have seen from an American filmmaker in quite some time'
‘A clever campus comedy that juggles a handful of hot potatoes — race, sex, privilege, power
— with elegant agility and only an occasional fumble'
‘Samantha White, played with heartbreaking poise by Tessa Thompson'
THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘A smart, hilarious satire of the Obama age’
INDIEW IRE
‘Thoughtful and hilarious'
‘Simien maintains a scrupulously light tone and deft touch'
‘A satirical and timely conversation about race'
THE W ASHINGTON POST
‘A button-pushing word-of-mouth dynamo’
THE W ALL STREET JOURNAL
‘A confident and handsome first feature that’s bursting with ideas’
22 THE GUARDIAN
‘A clever, provocative and incisive social satire'
'A topnotch cast, and the actors disappear into their complex characters'
‘An auspicious debut for filmmaker Simien'
‘Dear White People is an ambitious, insightful and witty undertaking on a hugely important
subject'
USA TODAY
Race tension and cultural expectations make a funny and explosive mix'
'Simien’s highly stylized dialogue is rich, sharp and funny. His loose script gives the actors lots
of chances to let ’er rip'
“Dear White People” is a film of the moment, and an essential one at that'
NY DAILY NEW S
PRIJZEN EN NOMINATIES
Sundance Film Festival 2014
Winnaar Special Jury Prize Dramatic voor Breakthrough Talent - Justin Simien
Nominatie Grand Jury Prize Dramatic - Justin Simien
Seattle International Film Festival 2014
Winnaar Futurewave Youth Jury Award - Justin Simien
San Francisco International Film Festival 2014
Winnaar Audience Award – Best Narrative Feature Justin Simien
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2014
Winnaar Directors to Watch - Justin Simien
23

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