Gina Prince-BythewoodsThe Old Guardis an unlikely superhero film, both patient and intimate.
But shes always been uncompromising.
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And its not just a corporate-approved, Disney-esque bit of tokenism, either.
In this scene, they sit handcuffed in the back of a van, surrounded by soldiers.
Joe is checking to check that Nicky is okay.
What is he, your boyfriend?, one of the soldiers asks, chuckling contemptuously.
Hes the moon when Im lost in darkness, and warmth when I shiver in cold.
And his kiss still thrills me even after a millennium.
His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world is not worthy.
I love this man beyond measure and reason.
Hes not my boyfriend.
He is all, and he is more.
Then the two lovers kiss, passionately.
The journey toward making it, weirdly, began with an entirely different superhero film.
But we were just not agreeing on the script.
I came in with a vision, and that vision never changed.
It was while she was wrestling withSilver & Blackthat the script forThe Old Guardarrived like a lifeline.
With female leads, one being a young Black female.
It was edgy and real, but still had that fantastical conceit to it.
Shell often chuckle when discussing all the time shes spent on movies that never happened.
Shes speaking to me from the room in her L.A. home where she does all her writing.
The pictures remind her, Okay, you do know how to do it.
That sentiment is shared by many of her collaborators.
She will fight patiently and quietly, but shes going to fight until she gets what she wants.
And Ive seen it time and time again.
Bernie Mac called me the Quiet Storm, Prince-Bythewood says with a smile.
I actually really liked that.
Its an interesting mix of extreme wealth and working class, she says.
And we were on the working-class side of it.
It was also an extremely white place.
Its one of the reasons she doesnt use Facebook or keep in touch with any childhood friends.
That dominated the house, she says.
I didnt like to go home because of that.
I was afraid to go to sleep.
Prince-Bythewood remembers writing stories at a young age and realizing, In stories, you could control the ending.
She also found salvation in sports, television, and movies.
She and her siblings one brother, also adopted, and two sisters had all started sports early.
There were so few girls, we always had to play with boys.
We would get kicked on the field by little boys who didnt want us.
She credits her parents for telling her never to leave the field.
The feeling of being able to dominate everybody on that court or track that was my survival.
Then there were movies and TV.
She escaped into soap operas (I was watching five a day).
Its a big deal to see yourself onscreen, she says.
(Once there, she missed competition so much she joined the track team.)
At the time, one had to apply to get into the UCLA film program in ones junior year.
What am I going to do now?
What youre saying is right, but you cant just say it give a solution.
(We had seen each other before at a taping ofFresh Prince, she says.
We always laugh about this.
He says I was checking him out.
I say he was checking me out.)
If you outlined the story on a page or two, it might not sound like much.
Its a potentially ridiculous idea, but the scene is filmed with zero irony.
As they play, a feeling of anguish sets in as we realize Monica might lose this game.
Love & Basketballwas well liked by critics and modestly successful in theaters.
(Fourteen years later, something similar happened toBeyond the Lights.)
Prince-Bythewood is proud of the film, but she also says that she took on the job too quickly.
You need a break, and I didnt take a break, she says.
It would be eight years before she would get to make another feature film.
(That relationship of the two brothers is what I went through personally, she says.)
She also had her own ideas about who would work best in the role.
I wanted Ryan Gosling, but that was before he was Ryan Gosling, she says.
I couldnt get people onboard.
For Prince-Bythewood, finding the right performer is key to unlocking the movie she wants to make.
I saw the film while she was talking, the director told me at the time.
She became determined to make the film with an unknown.
In all, it took two years to getBeyond the Lightsoff the ground.
She and Mbatha-Raw spent much of that time immersing themselves in the music industry.
The goal was to create a film that felt authentic to the psychology of those characters.
That was amazing, to have that in our muscle memory, Mbatha-Raw recalls.
But she didnt initially have much of a backstory.
Families both actual and surrogate are a running theme in the directors work.
I paid so much money to different programs that said they could track down your family, she says.
It was all a racket.
My sister found my birth mother in like two weeks.
The relationship with her biological mom didnt last.
She felt it was too difficult, she adds.
I reminded her of that time.
So that was like,Wow, you gave me up, but you kept them.
I was 17 when I had you, she tells Noni.
Black baby that my mom and dad wanted no part of …
It felt like you and me against the world.
The mother and daughter clash, but the film ends with a promise of reconciliation.
I need my films to have hope at the end, she says.
We have an opportunity to envelop you for two hours.
What are we going to leave you with?
I want you to feel good.
I dont think thats being soft at all.
