0:00

It is such a mammoth of

0:02

a project. It is also sacred,

0:04

hallowed ground. The Color

0:06

Purple is healing for many. It's not

0:09

work that you just step into. My

0:11

concern was that there was nothing to truly

0:14

add. So I went back to Alice Walker's

0:16

book, and thankfully

0:18

I found what I was looking for. First

0:20

page, first line, Dear God.

0:23

《Dark

0:26

Souls》

0:41

Hello, and welcome back to The Director's Cut,

0:43

brought to you by the Directors Guild of

0:45

America. In this episode, a

0:48

popular tale takes on a new

0:50

melodic spin in director Blitz Bazawule's

0:52

musical drama, The Color Purple. The

0:55

film spans decades to tell the story of Celie,

0:58

a woman who faces many hardships throughout her

1:00

life, but ultimately, she finds

1:02

strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds

1:05

of sisterhood on her journey to independence.

1:08

In addition to The Color Purple, Bazawule's

1:11

other directorial credits include the feature film,

1:13

The Burial of Kojo, the

1:15

movie for television, Black is King, and

1:18

episodes of the series, Cherish the Day. Following

1:21

a screening of the film at the DGA Theater

1:24

in Los Angeles, Bazawule spoke

1:26

with director Gina Prince-Bythewood about filming

1:28

The Color Purple. Listen

1:31

on for their spoiler-filled conversation. All

1:41

right, Blitz. Foremost,

1:46

thank you guys for coming out on

1:48

a Saturday. I'm

1:50

very excited and honored to chop it up

1:53

with you. I had the

1:55

opportunity to see your film a couple

1:57

weeks ago. And

1:59

what's... Formos is a beautiful

2:01

film, but what I love about it is

2:03

it's one of those films that transcends and

2:05

becomes an experience. Thank you. So

2:11

it just rocks the soul, so very, very

2:13

excited to talk to you about it. Thank

2:15

you. It's a pleasure. So

2:17

I do want to start with how

2:19

I always start, which is with the why. Why

2:22

this film? Wow. First,

2:26

thank you all for being here. It's such an honor.

2:28

Pleasure to be here. Thank you,

2:30

Gina. Yeah, let me give you your flowers

2:32

first. Such

2:34

a fan, and just really thankful that

2:36

you took time to do this with

2:38

me. So thank you. The

2:42

why for me begins

2:45

way before this film. You know,

2:48

I grew up in Ghana, you know, and

2:51

I grew up around a family of storytellers.

2:54

You know, my grandmother was a phenomenal

2:56

storyteller. She grew up

2:58

in a neighborhood that, you know, didn't

3:00

have electricity at the time. And so around

3:03

6 p.m., it was like if

3:05

your chores were done, it was

3:08

like grandma was going to tell stories. And

3:10

that's kind of what we did. And

3:12

between her and my mom, it was just

3:14

the stories will just oscillate and go back

3:16

and forth. And I learned

3:19

that stories could be told in

3:21

very different ways. I learned that

3:23

stories were not always linear. Sometimes it

3:25

was cyclical. Characters will come and

3:28

go. They will

3:30

appear as a bird one time. They'll appear

3:32

as a human form the next time. Sometimes

3:35

inanimate objects, a table, a chair.

3:38

So like my understanding of stories is very

3:40

expansive. And then, you

3:43

know, I've always wanted

3:45

to participate in this

3:48

medium somehow, storytelling. And

3:50

music was a way I got into telling

3:54

stories in an expansive

3:56

macro way. But

3:59

film was always a way. ways at the back of my

4:01

mind because I

4:04

also grew up as a visual artist.

4:06

I drew and painted a lot as a kid. And

4:09

I always felt that there was this

4:11

possibility with this medium, right, to really

4:13

contribute in a meaningful way. So

4:19

when I got the chance to make my first

4:21

feature film, The Burl of Cojo, it

4:23

was really about trying to see

4:25

how far I could push the medium using

4:28

what I knew as storytelling, you

4:31

know. And then, you know, that thankfully

4:34

happened and then Beyoncé

4:36

came calling to do Black as King, which

4:38

thank God for that because that also showed

4:40

me I could push it even further. And

4:43

so we arrive here, the color

4:46

purple, and it's been the same

4:48

why, to really

4:50

try to push this medium in

4:53

a way that

4:55

I think it

4:57

needs. Well,

5:01

you said, as you just

5:03

said, this is the color purple, but you said a lot

5:05

of the work was figuring out how we were going to

5:07

make sure we weren't creating a carbon

5:10

copy of the original that existed, but give

5:12

ours our own voice. When

5:15

you talk about pushing the medium and pushing

5:17

storytelling, how did that influence that? Yes,

5:20

I mean, so I mean, when I

5:22

was first approached to do this film, I was deeply

5:25

nervous, which I'm sure you all

5:27

could probably understand and

5:29

appreciate. It is such a

5:31

mammoth of a project.

5:33

It is also sacred,

5:35

hallowed ground. The color

5:38

purple is healing for many. It's

5:40

not work that you just step

5:42

into without deep

5:44

thought. My concern was

5:46

that there was nothing to truly add. That's

5:49

my concern. So, you know,

5:51

of course, I read Marcus's brilliant script, but

5:53

I still just didn't feel like I could

5:56

see it yet. So I went back to Alice

5:59

Walker's book. And thankfully

6:01

I found what I was looking for, first

6:03

page, first line, Dear God.

6:07

And I was like, oh wow, okay. So

6:10

anybody who writes letters to God

6:12

must have an imagination, and certainly

6:14

a sprawling imagination. And

6:16

that's kind of what became like the North

6:19

Star for us. We were

6:21

like, all right, we're going to

6:23

expand Celie's imagination. We're going to

6:25

give her this

6:28

ability to think

6:30

and imagine her way out

6:33

of her abuse and trauma. I

6:35

really feel like a lot of times

6:38

we mis-categorize people who have dealt with

6:40

abuse and trauma as docile,

6:42

passive, or waiting to be

6:44

saved. I really believe

6:47

nothing could be further from the truth. People

6:50

who have dealt with abuse and trauma are

6:52

constantly trying to work their way out of

6:54

this abuse and trauma. We

6:56

just don't have access to their headspace.

6:59

So I figured if we can

7:01

give the audience a glimpse into

7:03

Celie's headspace, we'll see

7:05

her actively working

7:08

her way out, figure out how to love,

7:10

who to love, figure out how to escape

7:12

abuse, figure out how to forgive. I mean,

7:14

these are all things that she had to

7:16

go through, but you can't have

7:18

access to unless you're here with her. So

7:21

that's when I said, all right. I

7:23

think that's a possibility and we can

7:26

really earn our way into this incredible

7:29

canon that is the color purple. I'm

7:33

kind of blown away that you said that because

7:36

in watching the film, that was one of the things

7:38

that struck me so much and that I love so

7:40

much about, I'll say your version, is

7:43

that we got to get inside Celie's head, which

7:45

we'd never seen before. So to see where that

7:47

came from is amazing. So

7:52

I read that during your

7:55

pitch to get the film that Oprah

7:57

and Scott, the producers were texting each

7:59

other. dude is the one. So

8:01

what was this fantastic pitch that

8:04

you gave that is now legendary?

8:07

I mean, I mean,

8:09

you know, when you when you're when

8:12

you have to pitch to Steven Spielberg, Oprah

8:15

Winfrey, I mean, guys, this is, you

8:17

know, this is this is the 18. I

8:19

thought these are the goats, you

8:22

know. So I was, you know, I kind

8:24

of went back to how I've always done this,

8:26

which is I sketch,

8:30

you know, every idea I've ever had

8:32

begins with a sketch, with music, with

8:34

its film, when it's I always sketch

8:36

something. And it's,

8:39

it's kind of an impulse for me. But

8:41

I kind of also hone that in as my

8:44

way of always

8:47

being sure that my intentions

8:49

are not misunderstood. So

8:52

especially in the in the cinematic medium, I

8:54

mean, if I give out a script to

8:56

everybody in the house today, we

8:58

all went same script, we all went out to

9:01

make the same script, we'll all come back with

9:03

different movies, right? Because it's based on

9:05

how we see the world, how we see ourselves. But

9:08

I'm certain that if I show you a

9:10

picture and say, we got to duplicate this

9:12

picture, we'll all be because we know where

9:14

the camera is, right? And then we can

9:16

all build our world around that. So every

9:19

project I've done, I've

9:21

always sketched. And sometimes, for

9:24

instance, my first feature, the barrel of Kojo, I

9:26

sketched upwards of 600 frames. Actually,

9:32

sketching is how I got Beyonce to say

9:34

yes, to me, contributing to,

9:37

to black as king. So

9:39

on this film, I sketched upwards of 1200 1300 frames,

9:41

and that takes months, you know. But

9:48

that is also how I was always able

9:50

to communicate my intent, because a lot of

9:53

these ideas that you guys saw very abstract,

9:55

you know, if I get on

9:57

a zoom and stop talking about these ideas. I'm

10:00

not getting a call back. Yeah, it's not

10:02

going to happen. Because it's so out there

10:05

that I could only show them. And

10:07

not only, even after I

10:10

got the job, I went as far as

10:12

to scan every frame,

10:15

cut it, and I kind of went overboard here. So bear

10:17

with me. I scanned, I cut

10:20

it all into

10:22

a two hour film. I

10:25

hired voice actors to read all

10:27

the dialogue. I went

10:29

on YouTube. I found sound effects. I

10:31

put it all in. I even found temp score. And

10:35

I feel bad for my HODs. But everybody

10:37

that was hired to make this film had

10:40

to sit through two hours of

10:43

my pencil sketches. Yes,

10:45

it was kind of out there. But

10:48

I have to say this. They laughed.

10:51

They cried. It's all

10:53

the feelings that people feel the finished

10:55

version. But the great advantage for me

10:57

was if I could do

10:59

this, if I could evoke these feelings with

11:02

these two dimensional sketches, then

11:05

Dan Lawson's lighting

11:08

and cinematography, Francine

11:10

Tanchuk's costuming,

11:12

Fatima Robinson's choreo,

11:15

Paul Astaberry's production design,

11:17

I mean, I knew

11:19

we were going to hit it out the park. So

11:22

those sketches are kind of

11:24

how I pitched to get

11:26

this job. I came in

11:28

and said, I'm going to give you the imagination. And

11:30

this is what it's going to look like. And

11:33

that has always helped me. I

11:35

mean, it's not so unique. I mean, at the

11:37

end of the day, that's like the school of

11:39

Hitchcock, the school of who

11:41

else is

11:44

like that, Ridley Scott's like that.

11:48

And I think that everyone

11:50

makes films quite differently. For me,

11:53

it really is helpful. If

11:55

I could show everyone

11:57

the sandbox and

11:59

go, guys. this is what I'm going for.

12:01

And then after they watch it, that's

12:04

it. We never talk about the storyboards ever

12:06

again. They don't come on set. Because

12:09

I want them to live in the hearts of

12:11

my crew. I just want you to feel like

12:14

we know what we're doing here. Because

12:17

I also don't like trying

12:19

to be didactic about that. I

12:23

want people to make it their own. But I

12:25

want them to know what my intent is. And

12:28

this film was sprawling. We

12:31

covered over 40 years of

12:34

Celie's life. Multiple set

12:36

pieces, massive scale,

12:40

several background. It

12:42

was too many people for me to wing

12:44

it. Let's put it that way. So coming in

12:47

every day and knowing that everybody knew what I

12:49

wanted because they'd seen the movie in

12:51

some formal fashion was very

12:53

helpful. I

12:55

want to applaud you, but also I'm like, damn, you

12:58

might have ruined it for the rest of us. The

13:00

bar is now so sky high. So

13:04

you talked about the sketches and

13:06

how that's how you kind of find your way into

13:08

a project. What was the first sketch for this? The

13:12

first sketch was the

13:14

giant gramophone. Yeah,

13:16

because that was the one that I mean. When I

13:18

set it out by mouth, people looked at me like,

13:21

yeah, it's crazy. They had to

13:23

see it. And not only did I sketch that, that

13:25

I went as far as to getting

13:28

it pre-vised as well, the whole

13:30

sequence. Because

13:32

I remember trying to, my

13:34

first few meetings with Fantasia,

13:37

she was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing this movie.

13:40

I can't do it. It was very difficult for

13:42

me on Broadway. It was

13:44

emotionally taxing. I'm

13:47

a trauma survivor myself. And

13:50

being on Broadway was one of the worst things for

13:52

me. And

13:54

I said, I get it. I understand it. But

13:56

if you would allow me, I'd like to show

13:58

you what my. my intent is.

14:00

I plan to have this sprawling large

14:03

imagination for Celie and I'd like to show

14:05

you. I remember the minute I was done

14:07

playing that sequence in pre-viz, she was like,

14:10

oh, so that's what you're going to do? Okay,

14:13

I'm in. And

14:16

that, you know how Fantasia talks, that's how

14:18

you got there. So anyway,

14:20

I mean, that really was like, I

14:22

will say that was a

14:24

very important moment

14:27

for me, knowing that

14:30

this idea could

14:32

be, it's very expansive

14:36

and imaginative world could be made

14:38

real. You know, and

14:40

again, there aren't many films,

14:42

certainly not with black, brown

14:44

and indigenous characters that

14:46

have this level of a sprawling imagination.

14:48

So it was also something that I

14:51

knew would be, will be

14:53

quite a contribution. Well,

14:57

I'd love to stay in that for a second,

14:59

just talk about the world building a little bit.

15:01

This is obviously it's a period piece, but it's

15:03

a musical, which makes it a bit of heightened

15:05

reality. How did you approach the world building? And

15:07

in terms

15:09

of also, did you want to create a 360

15:11

environment for your actors? What was your thought? Yeah.

15:15

Wow, it's a good one. I'm

15:19

a very practical, immersive filmmaker.

15:21

You know, I, I got to feel

15:24

it. It's got to be in camera. A

15:27

few things we add down the line,

15:29

I had a brilliant VFX supervisor, Ariel.

15:32

So, you know, we knew we're going

15:34

to add some things, but Dan Lawson and I, this

15:36

is where we really connect. I remember

15:38

the very first day we talked, it was like, yeah,

15:41

my favorite movie is Soy Cuba. And

15:43

he was like, that's my favorite movie. I

15:46

go, my second favorite is Apocalypse Now. He

15:48

goes, that's my second favorite. And I said,

15:50

all right, you're hired right there.

15:52

And, and the beauty is that both

15:54

of those films are deeply immersive. And

15:56

it's like, yeah, it's like you're in

15:58

it. You're in a camera. camera is liberated.

16:00

And that's how Dan and I really

16:03

see cinema. And so it was a

16:05

great shorthand for us. So

16:08

we knew that finding somebody who could

16:10

give us deeply immersive sets was

16:12

going to be critical. And

16:14

Paul Astaberry was the man. I mean, everything

16:18

was built. Even

16:20

at Juke Joint, you know, we had to

16:22

drain the swamp. It took

16:24

us two months to drain that swamp, by the way.

16:27

Very risky. I don't advise it. Because

16:29

when it came time, we were done building, it was like, oh,

16:32

now we got to fill it up. And

16:34

we have two months. And

16:36

we started shooting before two months. So it was

16:38

tough. It was tough. We were hopeful, and

16:41

we were lucky it all kind of filled in. But

16:43

you know, when you see Shug Avery on that barge, you

16:45

know, it's like she had to

16:47

believe that she was Shug Avery, you

16:50

know, the Apatra coming down the

16:52

knob. You know what I mean? Like

16:54

that, that was kind of the vibe

16:56

that we wanted to create. And knowing

16:59

that you needed physical realities to achieve

17:01

that. And then

17:03

I mean, as it related to music, you

17:05

know, my great fortune, I've been a musician for

17:07

over a decade, I've taught quite

17:09

extensively with my band. And so I kind

17:11

of did have a bit of a cheat

17:13

code coming in, you know, when you've been

17:16

night after night playing a thousand other people,

17:18

you understand how musical storytelling

17:20

works. And for me, the one

17:22

big thing that I had, because I also ended up

17:24

having to watch every musical.

17:29

And guys, that's not easy. I

17:31

mean, some incredible ones,

17:34

but also a lot of not incredible ones. And

17:37

I really found very quickly what

17:39

was the differentiator. Those

17:42

which had found organic ways into

17:44

which music permeated the

17:47

scene, were the ones that I loved

17:49

and I kind of felt, you know, I fell into.

17:51

The ones where music disappears out the sky, I

17:54

struggled with. And so that was something that we

17:56

knew we were going to do from day one.

17:58

Let's figure out. as many organic

18:01

ways in which, and diegetic ways in

18:03

which the music would appear. Starting

18:06

from the opening shot, you know, when the horse starts

18:08

to come in and you hear the horse's hooves, and

18:11

a little bit of the banjo, and then

18:13

the girls patty-caking, and then before you know

18:15

it, it blossoms, or the guys building, or

18:17

putting up posters with hammers, and before you

18:20

know it, built into sonic cadence. Those

18:23

were things that I was very, very

18:25

focused on, to make sure that we

18:27

were never going to just stumble

18:29

into music. And then the music also

18:32

helped us create this conduit into imagination,

18:35

starting first with, you

18:37

know, coupling

18:40

that with any time that Celie

18:42

would be introduced to something novel,

18:45

her mind will just expand. So

18:47

a photograph, which you got

18:49

to think about it, in 1909, if

18:51

you had a photograph taken, you had to

18:54

be somebody. It wasn't something that was everywhere.

18:56

So Celie's mind immediately just

18:58

expands into that photograph. When

19:01

she sees a gramophone, which she had never seen before,

19:04

her mind expands into that gramophone when she

19:06

watches a movie, which she's never seen before.

19:09

Her mind expands. And that scene

19:11

I have to selfishly say, I did that

19:13

for myself. You know

19:16

what I mean? Like I grew, in Ghana, you

19:18

know, there was a coup that happened in the

19:20

80s, and a lot of the movie houses shut

19:22

down. So the only way you

19:24

could see a movie were the evangelical movies that

19:26

came out and showed Jesus Christ movies. And by

19:29

the way, the one that they showed all the

19:31

time, Last Temptation of Christ,

19:33

which I didn't know at the time, Mance

19:35

Corzese did. Same guy

19:37

who did Taxi Driver, same guy

19:40

who did Goodfellas, all this gangster

19:42

shit. I was like, wow,

19:45

he did a Jesus movie that

19:47

I've been seeing, you know,

19:49

my whole life. And what will happen is that

19:52

truck will go around town, announce that they're about

19:54

to show the Jesus movie. We'll

19:56

all, you know, again, finish our chores early, grab

19:59

our stuff, and go to this huge circle

20:01

park and we would literally spread

20:03

out our mats and wait. And

20:06

I remember just being there watching

20:09

and like being blown away. I was like

20:12

eight, nine, ten, blown

20:14

away by this incredible

20:16

visual language that

20:19

I didn't know of, I didn't understand, but

20:21

it drew me in. And

20:23

my mind, as a filmmaker,

20:25

my mind still goes there

20:27

when it's flickering lights

20:29

from a projector. So

20:32

I was like, yeah, Celie's going to have

20:34

an imagination and it's going to happen in

20:36

the cinema house. I'm sure everybody looked at

20:38

the screen and was like, what is Blith

20:40

doing sending Celie to watch a movie? And

20:43

I was like, yeah, that's how her mind

20:45

expands. But again, she

20:47

starts to see things as possible. She

20:49

starts to see her feelings for sure

20:51

come alive in that moment. And

20:54

so yeah, it was a lot of

20:56

that building, right? Just figuring out how

20:59

visually we were going to

21:01

tell the stories and sonically and how we're

21:03

going to marry them. And I think lastly,

21:06

Dan and I also agreed very early that

21:08

we weren't going to create a

21:11

period film with

21:14

the usual visual

21:19

kind of texture that we're used

21:21

to seeing, whether it's like faded or

21:24

sepia tone or desaturated, which

21:27

often tell you you're watching a period film. We

21:30

were like, nope, we're not going to do that.

21:34

We believe deeply that a

21:36

lot of those references are based on photographs that

21:38

have survived a very long time ago. And

21:41

our jobs were to push into those photographs,

21:44

into the world in which these people existed, and

21:47

they lived in color, vivid color,

21:50

you know, sometimes more vivid than

21:52

we can even fathom. There weren't

21:54

fans or ACs, so they sweat.

21:57

Their bodies reflected light. very

22:01

thoughtful about a tactile way in which

22:03

we could enter these worlds and be

22:05

one with it. And so,

22:07

yeah, those were all the elements that had to combine

22:09

for us to have this moment. Well,

22:13

with the musical sequences, I mean, you

22:15

touched on it perfectly. The reason why

22:18

they work so well is that they don't happen in

22:20

the vacuum, the pushing story, the pushing character. I

22:23

mean, all of them are dope, but Hell No was

22:26

like showstopper for me. Hell

22:28

No? Obviously,

22:31

you have an incredible choreographer that you worked

22:34

with on this. Can you talk about your

22:36

collaboration in creating each of these? Fatima

22:39

Robinson, y'all. You

22:42

be knowing. Fatima

22:45

is, I mean, wow. All

22:47

of those of all. Let me say this. If

22:50

I'm ever in a tense

22:56

and panicked mode,

23:00

Fatima is the person I want to sit next to me. First

23:03

of all, this is how she talks. Blitz, you

23:06

don't have to worry. It's

23:08

going to work out. Like literally all

23:10

the time. Like how dancers could

23:13

be doing the wrong thing. She would just go up to them. That's

23:15

not it. I don't

23:18

like Fatima, how are you this cool

23:20

all the time? But

23:22

my Fatima story goes way back.

23:25

As a matter of fact, she

23:27

was the first person I hired.

23:29

She was on my pitch deck. That infamous

23:31

pitch deck? Yes.

23:35

She was on it because

23:38

when I was in high school in

23:40

Ghana, there was a video

23:42

out by the late great Aliyah. Aliyah

23:46

that's somebody. I

23:49

remember we had some kind of competitive

23:53

entertainment night. Unbeknownst

23:56

to all these girl

23:59

groups. in my grade, they

24:01

had all picked, Aaliyah's IU

24:03

got somebody to learn the choreo and

24:05

to perform. And mind you guys,

24:07

this is pre-YouTube. So somebody had

24:09

to have a VHS tape,

24:12

okay? This is not easy work. They had to

24:16

play, pause, rewind, learn

24:19

one move, go back, learn the

24:21

next move. I mean, that's how

24:23

incredible her work was and

24:25

had traveled. And

24:27

I remember watching girl group

24:29

of a girl group coming up

24:31

and performing Aaliyah's IU, somebody, and

24:34

saying to myself, whoever did that, I

24:37

would love to work with them in the future. And

24:39

so when I got this job, I was like, guys,

24:42

first person, and she's

24:45

on my deck, so you can't

24:47

refuse her, it's Fatima Robinson. And

24:49

what I love with what

24:51

she did was we talked a lot. We talked

24:53

a lot about just this, brilliant

24:59

arc of African American

25:02

movement, and

25:05

its genius, and what stayed and what's

25:07

left, and what carried on, and that's

25:10

all we kept talking about. What are

25:12

the things that we could trace back,

25:14

dances that are done today that we

25:16

could trace back? And she

25:19

will send me videos with

25:21

her skeleton crew, and

25:25

she would even suggest shots. I

25:29

think when they do this, we should

25:31

do that. The camera should do that. I mean,

25:33

it was incredible. And the

25:35

other thing I should also

25:37

mention is Fatima and Dan

25:40

Lawson's relationship in this

25:42

film is one that I'm

25:44

so grateful for, because how

25:46

the camera moves is

25:49

very, complimentary

25:54

to how Fatima's choreo

25:57

worked. And so there was constant

25:59

conversation. there, but it didn't stop there.

26:01

I would also bring Fatima in because

26:04

truly I think one of the other

26:06

things that musicals suffer quite a bit

26:08

is how musical numbers are treated and then

26:11

how dialogue and narrative work is treated.

26:13

So often it's like you're watching two

26:16

different movies. It's like, oh, here's

26:18

this, you know, the camera is flying all over the

26:20

place and then here we go, bam, bam, bam, bam,

26:22

bam, bam. You know, and I, you know, I was

26:24

just like, how can

26:26

we make this more integrated? So that would

26:28

mean that the camera would have to be

26:30

liberated in all ways. So I

26:32

mean, you guys probably saw shots where it's like

26:34

we fly all the way up to find these

26:36

girls up in the window. It's

26:39

like that's shots that are often reserved for

26:41

like big dance moves when the camera has

26:43

to swing. Man, we were doing

26:45

it however we wanted, you know, like we follow

26:47

a horse like this and then before you know

26:49

it like that, we're finding the girls in the

26:51

tree. We were just doing all of that because

26:53

I knew that when it all cuts together, it

26:56

all has to feel like

26:59

one ballet. And that's when

27:01

I think Fatima was just incredibly valuable. All

27:05

right, it's a five minute warning. Hello. No,

27:08

we just get it started. So

27:13

I do want to talk about casting

27:15

because this cast, as I

27:17

was saying to you backstage, it's so beautiful.

27:19

If you just watch their journey,

27:22

they all organically dig each other.

27:24

They love you, they respect you.

27:27

And that shows up on screen. You

27:29

were also dealing with you're

27:32

doing a film, you're doing a musical, so

27:34

you have to find that balance between actors

27:36

and singers. And what

27:38

was the focus for you in

27:41

terms of that? And then also how did you

27:43

navigate working

27:45

with absolute vets and Broadway folk

27:47

and film folk and first timers?

27:50

Yeah, wow. That's a big

27:53

one. I mean, I always say like, I

27:55

don't cast people like I cast aura. You

27:58

know, I feel like how

28:00

would Coleman Domingo's aura live with

28:03

Fantasia's aura? You

28:06

know, like, and it's kind of intangible

28:08

and sounds quite esoteric, but like, when

28:10

you see it on screen, you just

28:12

go, yeah, those people

28:14

work, and you don't quite

28:16

know why. And that was like my

28:18

biggest focus, was to find energies that

28:20

matched. And, but I

28:23

also really value harmony. You

28:26

know, I think that the work we do

28:28

is deeply challenging, and

28:30

doesn't need to be more challenging by

28:33

having people come in. And

28:35

everybody knows, I had what they call

28:37

the no asshole policy. And

28:39

I didn't care how brilliant you were, you're

28:42

not gonna work on my film. Because

28:44

harmony gets us much

28:47

further than individual brilliance. Somebody

28:51

in the church felt that? Boom.

28:55

And I really encouraged that because

28:57

I also really value rewarding good

28:59

behavior. Right, people who

29:02

work hard and are kind and are

29:04

thoughtful about the rest of their teammates.

29:08

I value that. And so I was looking for people

29:11

who also revered this title, as

29:14

much as I did. You know, we all

29:16

had to come in and submit to the Color Purple.

29:18

I was working on this brilliant work, which we're

29:20

all in service of at the end of the day. As

29:24

far as figuring out

29:26

this sprawling cast and

29:28

the myriad of experience

29:30

levels, yes, I had the legendary

29:33

Lugasa Jr., okay? Master

29:35

of craft. And

29:38

I can say it in this room, because

29:40

y'all just saw it. I hope you're not

29:42

gonna tell nobody, but the legendary Whoopi Goldberg,

29:44

I mean, come on, come on. You

29:46

know? But then I also had like, fresh,

29:49

like never done this. Felicia

29:52

Impasi, who plays young, she

29:54

is brilliant. I also had her, John

29:56

Batiste. I mean, I had people who

29:58

were like, What I loved was that

30:01

there were no small parts. Everybody

30:04

came up, showed up as their

30:06

best self, took it infinitely serious.

30:09

I also like, I'm the kind of director that's

30:11

like, I believe the

30:13

casting period is the directing period. If

30:17

you cast right, your job

30:19

is to trust them. And

30:22

I really allow my cast the

30:24

space to work it out and

30:27

figure it out. At

30:29

the end of the day, we're conductors of

30:32

a massive orchestra. None

30:34

of us can purport to know anybody's instrument

30:37

better than they do. Not

30:39

even close. Your job is to

30:41

keep time. You

30:43

need it to get big, you do this, you need to come down,

30:45

you do that. But it's really on them

30:48

who've mastered their craft, but also

30:50

mastered the character. Because that's

30:52

the other thing. It's like, that's

30:55

all they think about. Matter of fact, I realized

30:57

they don't even read other people's parts. They just

30:59

highlight their shit. And they

31:01

just go, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me,

31:03

good night. And

31:05

I realize that, oh, you've got to trust

31:08

them. You've got to give them all the

31:10

space to live. And your job again is

31:12

to figure out this harmony. What I do

31:14

love, and I have to say this, is

31:16

how much everybody leaned on each other. There

31:18

was a real, true, I

31:20

mean, what you're seeing on

31:23

our press tour is

31:26

what it was like on set. Coleman

31:29

would show up early to help our younger

31:31

cast members. And

31:33

it wasn't like I'm helping you with your lines. It was like, I

31:36

just want you to know I'm here for you. And

31:39

a lot of our rehearsals were

31:41

also, they were just almost like therapy

31:43

sessions. Like we'll read the script and go,

31:46

okay, that's the intention here. Then we'll start

31:48

talking about, okay, what does this scene mean?

31:50

And then before we knew it, we're talking

31:52

about, yeah, I know somebody just like Mr.

31:54

Matter of fact, that's my uncle. Somebody would

31:57

be like, yeah, that's my auntie. She survived

31:59

this. Before we know it, we're

32:01

talking about these things in so much more expansive

32:03

a way. So when

32:05

we're on set, we're drawing from

32:07

these collective experiences. And I think

32:09

that's kind of what you're witnessing

32:11

is just the levels of harmony

32:13

that existed before the camera was

32:15

turned on and after

32:17

the camera's turned off. Well,

32:20

Blitz, thank you. Ah, it's a pleasure,

32:22

it's a pleasure. Thank you all for being

32:24

here. It's such an honor, such an honor.

32:26

Thank you, and thank you, Gina. Come on,

32:28

appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks

32:32

for listening to another DGA Q&A. The

32:35

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32:37

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32:50

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32:52

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