Press Junket Potluck: An oral history of The Best Man Holiday with Malcolm D. Lee & the cast

It took nearly a decade and a half, but the entire core cast of 1999's hit dramedy The Best Man--which has only grown in popularity and esteem in those years since--and writer-director Malcolm D. Lee are finally all back for a much-anticipated reunion, The Best Man Holiday. On Saturday, November 2, Lee and cast members Monica Calhoun (Mia), Morris Chestnut (Lance), Melissa De Sousa (Shelby), Taye Diggs (Harper), Regina Hall (Candace), Sanaa Lathan (Robyn), Nia Long (Jordan), Harold Perrineau (Julian) assembled for a series of press conferences in Beverly Hills (Terrence Howard, who plays Quentin, was unable to participate) from which a candid, insightful, and entertaining first-person oral history of this project, from conception to fruition, could be pieced together.

Genesis

"Honestly, there was talk of doing a sequel, very early when the [first] movie first came out, but I wasn't interested in doing a sequel right away. I didn't want to get pigeonholed as a director. It was my first movie; I didn't want to do the same thing. My idea was if I was going to revisit these characters, and I thought I would want to, it would be like ten years later after they've lived some life, had kids, that kind of thing. At around late 2005 or so, I started percolating the idea. I would see the cast over the years and say I'm thinking about doing a sequel. It just got to a point where I was ready to do this now. I'd taken enough notes and put in enough of structure together where I said, 'Let me the cast together, and let's see what can happen.' I basically got them together in early 2011 and said, 'OK. Let's all get into the same room. At least we will have all caught up. I have an idea for a sequel, and if we all think at the end of this meal it's worth doing, then I'll pursue it.' So I pitched them the idea; they were all into it. They all l liked it, and they said, 'Let's go.' A couple of months later, I went to Universal, and I pitched them the idea, and we got it going. I mean, you know, it took a while to 'get it going.' I wrote the script pretty quickly because I'd been thinking about it for so long. It wasn't easy because as you've seen from the film, it's very different tonally speaking than the first one, and I think that was part of their hesitation of wanting to make it. That was by design. I did not want to do the same thing again; I didn't want to tell the same story. The things you think about in your mid-to-late 20s are very different than what you think about when you're in your late 30s or early 40s, when you're married and had children and have bills to pay and doing 'grown-up stuff' and dealing with 'grown-up things.' So I said to them that it's not about doing a destination wedding or anything like that. People love this movie because they love the characters; they love the people. They don't just love that it was a wedding. So it took us to bringing the cast together to do a read-through, and once we did the read-through, they were like, 'OK, we get it.'
--Malcolm D. Lee

Re-assembling the Cast

"A couple of years ago, Malcolm actually got us all together. We went to BOA. He hadn't written the script yet, and he literally pitched at a loud restaurant, with lots of drinks flowing, moment by moment, beat by beat, the script. In that environment, which is very challenging for pitch, we were on the edge of our seats. And we all, at that moment, said, 'If you write it, we're going to do it.'"
--Sanaa Lathan

"We all decided [to return] before Malcolm really finished the script. He kind of came to each one of us and said, 'Would you guys be interested in doing a sequel?' and we all decided if the script was great, and the story is there and the characters have grown, why not? And so that's basically what happened. It was pretty easy."
--Nia Long

"We all obviously had a great time doing the first one. Great friendships and bonds were made, and we all kept those friendships. So at this dinner, it was great to see each other just on general principle, just great to see old friends that we haven't seen in a while. I think a couple of us knew possibly what Malcolm was going to come with. Then to hear him actually say it, and then to hear the story, and then to get together as a group with our collective energy and do what we all needed to do to get this project made has been a great experience."
--Taye Diggs

"We all loved working with each other on the original. Obviously a lot of time has passed, but we all did go to dinner, and he talked about the storylines. He talked about where we were going to be in our lives, X amount of years later, and what were going to go through. Even at that point we were all, 'Yeah, it would be interesting, it would be great to get together and do this again.' But once we read the script, that just really solidified everything. The script really spoke to me."
--Morris Chestnut

"The friends that met in college and stayed friends, to see them years later and how their lives have developed--I thought that would be interesting. I also thought Mia and Lance's journey, what they were going through would be interesting and challenging for me as an actress."
--Monica Calhoun

That Table Read

"Some of the suggestions from the studio were like, 'This person's out of the picture already; maybe this person's dead already; maybe this person's divorced'--I was like, 'I brought the cast back together, and we were going to do this collectively, period. At least you've got to give this a fair shot.' So that's why we did the reading."
--Malcolm D. Lee

"I stripped. I showed [the studio] where it could go. [laughs] No, we showed up, and we acted like we were really wanting to get this movie made. I think everybody came on their A-game. We read the whole script. For Melissa [De Sousa] and I, it was actually harder because we didn't have Harold [Perrineau], and when he wasn't at that table read, it was not the same. Even reading the script before we did the table read, you read lines and you hear the people's voices in your head. So to have a voice that doesn't resonate with what you know, with what Harold Perrineau would do, for us, we just missed him. "
--Regina Hall

"I didn't make the table read. I was working in India [shooting Zero Dark Thirty]. I heard it was awesome though."
--Harold Perrineau

"When we did the table read, and there was a reader for Harold. The guy that was reading his part was a good actor, but we were really missing him. To Regina I was like , 'We miss Harold,' and the guy heard me. And I was like, 'Oh God.' I was so terrible. [laughs] There's just something he brings to that character that just can't be replaced. No one can really fill that shoe."
--Melissa De Sousa

Evolving Characters, Evolving Artists

"I feel like I know these characters very well; I've lived with them in my head for a long time. But when you evolve as a person, you have to have your characters evolve too. And not only that, my actors were great actors in the first movie, and they're even better now. I've grown as an artist, as a writer, as a director. I'm better, so I wanted to make something that was more sophisticated, something that spoke to these characters that would be similar to where they were but showed their growth. I don't think it was that difficult; it was a matter of just really knowing the characters and making them evolve. The actors had some input on what they felt, where they could be strengthened and layered. That was taken into account."
--Malcolm D. Lee

"We were very vocal, so I know we were testing him though we were having a lot of fun. I know that we tested his patience, but he dealt with it well."
--Sanaa Lathan

"I think we all evolved. We're all older. We're all more mature. We've all had more experience. We were all new, or at least I was, for the first one, so we weren't nearly as vocal. But now we've matured as actors, and we look at a script differently, and we challenged him on our character throughlines and whatnot and story structure. We all brought our life experiences to these roles. We've all been through our ups and downs, and that has affected us as people, as actors, and we were lucky in that we could apply that to these characters."
--Taye Diggs

"I really wanted to see another side of Shelby. Everyone's like, 'Well, she's a bitch'--I didn't want to be one-note. I wanted to see her grow and go through changes and see emotions and see that she's human, not just for the comedy and for the laughs. She actually has real problems; she has a real life going on. I think we saw a different side. But she's still Shelby at the end of the day. She's still a bitch. [laughs] I did ask him to at least show a different color, and I think I did that."
--Melissa De Sousa

"I fought for the hair. [Malcolm] did not want a short bob. He wanted long hair like [Candace] did in the first movie. And I said, 'No! You can't be a ho in the same city and not try to change your look up.' [laughs] 'I still live in New York. I'm married. I don't want people going--CANDY!' He was like, 'No,' but I was like, 'Trust me please; let me go shorter for it.'"
--Regina Hall

"I said less on this movie. On the first one I was more opinionated. In this one, after the first one, I was like, 'You know what? I'm just going to trust Malcolm. I'm just going to trust his genius and let him do his thing.'"
--Harold Perrineau

Picking Up 14 Years Later

"When it came to these characters, I wanted to see where they left off. From the get-go, I just started writing notes. I wanted to set this movie at Christmastime because it's a cinematic time of the year, and it makes it a reason for being. If we're going to bring these characters together, it's got to be for a reason, so that was part of the impetus. For the characters, Harper was kind of on top of the world when we had left off. He had learned some things and been beaten down a little bit, literally and figuratively, but he was on his ascension. So now I was like, what if he has a couple of failed things? And Lance has this seemingly charmed life, and he does: he's about to break a record; he's got four beautiful children; there's this ginormous house, and this wonderful, beautiful, supportive, loving wife. But there's something that's going to test his faith even more than in the first movie. Then with the other characters, you try to give them conflicts and obstacles they have to get around. I've learned over the years to be a better writer and what characters are used for. So Quentin is going to be that button-pusher still, and he's going to give us the comic relief, and so is Shelby; they're going to be my comic fastballs. At the same time, they are more than what they were in the first movie. Quentin had a gentler side, a more merciful side, say, like when he prevented Lance from killing Harper in the first one, and it's a small moment in the first movie when Harper's getting emotional in the best man speech, Quentin touches his arm. I wanted to go further with that. I tried to write something sophisticated, challenging for myself, challenging for the actors because, again--why come back together? It wasn't for the money; this is not a money grab at all because we all did this for a price. It was about displaying their acumen as actors, mine as a director or writer, and kind of reintroducing ourselves to the world. The time was right, and we also knew there was a large fan base for this movie that really wanted to see these characters again, so let's give the people what they want."
--Malcolm D. Lee

"Getting back into character wasn't so difficult. What was difficult was determining what her journey has been like for the last 15 years and making sure that I maintained certain things about Jordan in this new film. Just being really clear about what her emotional journey is was the most important thing."
--Nia Long

"When Malcolm pitched the idea that [Robyn] was nine months pregnant, just in terms of a female vain perspective, I was like, 'Well damn. Like the whole movie?' [laughs] And it's not like it's three or four where it's cute--it's nine months. But I think that energy of 'well damn' is kind of what women feel like, so it kind of worked. I had to put on this huge belly. It was like a real belly. It was heavy. It made me hot. I waddled. You have to waddle; there was no walk that was put on. So it was a drag, but it worked for the character."
--Sanaa Lathan

A Family Reunited

"The reunion was great. It was so fun. It didn't feel like work. We had so much fun and in between takes. I realized how sick and sadistic people are. Literally every day I would get about three punches in the belly, out of the blue. And they would just laugh. Malcolm would do it too. It was crazy! Something about knowing it wasn't real... so funny."
--Sanaa Lathan

"Howling all the time. A lot of people laughing. Malcolm looking a little distressed--'We gotta go guys; we gotta go!' [laughs] It was a lot of fun, a lot of comedy, and Malcolm was so shorthanded."
--Harold Perrineau

"[Malcolm] needed a lot of help wrangling us in, especially for the group scenes. "
--Regina Hall

"We would have these roundtable discussions where they would always put our chairs together. The girls would be kind of grouped together, and the guys would be grouped together, and we would have some pretty intense conversations about everything, and we'd get into debates: love, relationships. We were like college kids sometimes in between takes. We were like bad children, but we got it done."
--Nia Long

"I think the chemistry shows. You can choose to act it, or it can just be real, and obviously it always helps when it's real. You're able to look forward to the time when the cameras aren't rolling as well as the time when the cameras are rolling. It just makes the entire experience truly enjoyable when you spend all day on set and you all get to hang out afterward. It just worked out. I think we were just so blessed, lucky, fortunate, however you want to term it, with this experience. The fact that we got everybody together in the first place I think was miraculous, and then to have that type of script and then to have everybody mature the way that they did."
--Taye Diggs

The Difficulties -- Practical, Physical, Emotional

"There's the pressure of the first movie, of living up to the first movie. That's huge pressure."
--Sanaa Lathan

"For me, what I noticed this time around, as it pertains to Malcolm, were the outside pressures. I could tell this time around he had a lot more on his shoulders. So I would say that he has evolved in the sense that he was able to deal with a lot more pressure. He did it again with a lot more on his shoulders. He had a cast that had experience."
--Taye Diggs

"Every scene that you see in the movie had the appropriate response behind the camera. It was all emotionally cathartic because they were very much in character and really committed to what they were doing. And there were other scenes that were just really difficult because we either didn't have enough time or the most difficult scenes were when they were all together, like the dinner scenes. Sanaa's Instagram-ing, and Terrence is like ad-libbing, and I'm like, 'Guys! We are running out of time here!' These are long scenes where you keep doing this dialogue over and over again. It's a challenge, and it's not just jokes and setting up punchlines; there's story that has to be woven in here. I need a look from you, and I need you to pause here... it's not always a fun process. It's incredibly difficult, especially given our very challenging schedule. We started shooting in April; we shot April and May. And then shooting the football also wasn't easy. But it was fun."
--Malcolm D. Lee

"With this particular movie, it's 14 years later, and the character still needed to be playing football. So it was really challenging for me physically for me to be in great shape, and Malcolm said to me they wanted me to take my shirt off, and there were a couple of other explicit scenes that we didn't get to shoot. So it was tough for me emotionally and physically because I really couldn't eat. I lost a lot of weight for that movie just because I still had to portray the football player who was still in shape. But fortunately Malcolm gave me enough in this movie to where I could convey how far I feel that I've come and am still growing as an actor. It was really challenging even when I first read the script. It's really hard to do these emotional things on an ensemble movie because everyone's talking about, 'Yeah, we had a good time last night, and tonight we're going to go to the club!' And I have to be over in my little corner just focusing on what I need to do to get to that place, but Monica and I were there together, so I think it worked."
--Morris Chestnut

"We still had fun, but it was tough. The emotional scenes were tough, but they were easy to get to for some reason because we are such good friends behind the scenes. We've known each other for over 15 years now. So we actually feel a bond. We could all go there because we all are really close even off set. Then the emotional work between Regina and I, that was a lot of fun to do. We had fun with it but we really worked hard on that [fight] scene. We didn't want it to look like just some ghetto madness. We didn't want it to look like it didn't come from someplace real. We didn't want it to be like the [Real] Housewives for real. We wanted to layer it up and really make it believable that we really would go there, not just for no reason. We had rehearsals, stunt doubles and everything. But behind the scenes we were laughing. I'm like, 'Regina, I'm supposed to hate you. Stop making me laugh.'"
--Melissa De Sousa

"It's a testament to how good [Regina and Melissa] are as actresses because you really have to trust each other in order to be able to go that far and feel those things and then be able to let them go. And you can see that they really trust each other, they work well together. They're just amazing actresses."
--Harold Perrineau

Can You Stand a Dance Number?

"Jamal Sims, our choreographer, is amazing. Any dance movie you've seen in the past ten, fifteen years, he's been involved with, any stellar dance sequence in a movie; we worked together on Soul Men. Jamal tried to get to work with [the male cast] in pre-production; that didn't work out. We tried to get them to come out like two weeks before or two weekends before; we couldn't schedule it. It was literally the Saturday before; we were going to shoot this on a Monday. Saturday all day they were in a dance studio working their tails off, and they were so into it and so excited. Then they did a little bit more on Sunday. But they were nervous! They were really nervous about the women watching them. They were like, 'Let's not have them there!' I said, 'No! It's going to fuel you; it's going to be good; it'll be more natural too!' So it was a lot of fun to shoot that. You see it's so joyful, beautiful, fun. They were down with it, especially Taye and Harold. They were so excited because they're both classically trained dancers. Morris was the one who was like, 'I need a lot of extra help.' That was a fun scene to shoot.
--Malcolm D. Lee

"Harold Perrineau. That dude can move. He went to Alvin Ailey, and he's a fierce dancer. Taye's actually a really good dancer as well. So they gave us some videotapes to watch; the choreographer didn't come until like two days before we shot the film. So we all went on a Saturday. Terrence was late, came in for about 30 minutes and left. [laughs] So I was just trying to get the moves down, and then on that Sunday, I had to call [Harold] and say I needed some more help because it just doesn't come easy to me. Nothing in this movie came easy to me. This was some work."
--Morris Chestnut

"This was another way Malcolm was really brilliant. I have a stage background, but for me stage is a lot more nerve-wracking than film acting because not matter what, you're in front of people. In film acting, you have control. If we're shooting a scene, and it's private or emotional, you can say that you don't want anybody in the room except the cinematographer and director. So it's less nerve-wracking doing film. But with this dance sequence, Malcolm said, 'Be on your stuff because I'm going to film it in a way where the girls are going to be watching you.' There was a level of performance that we had to take into account because we wanted them to think we were good. So we were nervous--at least I was. I wanted to make sure that we had the counts and whatnot. And it worked, and it helped, and when we filmed it, seeing them and getting that live, real energy. So that was great."
--Taye Diggs

"The first time we saw it was real time reactions. Those reactions you see in the movie are real. They turned into like seven-year-olds. First of all, they had dance rehearsal; it wasn't that simple. Taye has a dance background. Literally in between takes for weeks they would be like, [snaps fingers] 'OK, and five, six, seven, eight...' [laughs] They were so excited. This was like their debut at Alvin Ailey!"
--Sanaa Lathan

The Legacy

"The reason why he have so many women who love The Best Man brand is because they can look at the film and almost point themselves out or at least say, 'I'm a combination between Jordan and Shelby, or Robyn and Mia.' As an actor, you don't get those opportunities to really work alongside other great women, and that's such a blessing. When's the last time in a film when you've seen four African-American women that are actually all in the same movie? It doesn't happen all the time."
--Nia Long

"I think it's important for us to see ourselves reflected in all that we are instead of just one type of genre. I think it's really important for the artform of film to reflect the world that we live in and who we are. I think that hasn't really done that for people of color. We've come a long way, and we still have a ways to go. But that's why I think a movie like the first Best Man resonates so much is because people are hungry for stories that are layered and they can recognize themselves and their family and their friends and things that they're going through, people that look like them."
--Sanaa Lathan

"It was 14 years ago when we made the original. Fourteen years in Hollywood and to still be able to make a film that you're proud of and be relevant in Hollywood--it really doesn't happen. So I'm just proud, and hopefully I will be proud when the box office numbers come out. [laughs] Even if the numbers don't come to what we expect, I'm just proud to be a part of this film and just be able to have the impact and do what we did in the movie."
--Morris Chestnut

Still More Unfinished Business...?

"If they want to do a third one, I would love to. That means this one did very well in order for us to do it."
--Morris Chestnut

"We have to see how this one's going to perform first. That will dictate whether a third one gets made or even gets talked about. But there's some whispers. I have an idea [for a third film]; let's put it like that. I will not wait another 15 years. [laughs] If it happens at all, it will happen quickly. I also had the idea, if this movie were to be successful, to do a [television] series that would take place from the end of the first movie until the second movie, that 14-year span. That might be an interesting television show, but then how do you cast that too? It's possible. We'll see."
--Malcolm D. Lee

The Best Man Holiday opens in cinemas nationwide today, Friday, November 15, from Universal Pictures.

Buy The Best Man Holiday movie poster here.
Buy The Best Man Holiday soundtrack here.
Order The Best Man Holiday DVD here.
Order The Best Man Holiday Blu-ray here.

(Special thanks to Malcolm D. Lee, Jocelyn Coleman at Favor PR, Shannon Barr at Rogers & Cowan, and Universal Pictures)

Press Junket Potluck: The Baggage Claim cast on their characters

While ultimately centered on one woman's search into her romantic past to find her matrimonial match within a month, David E. Talbert's film of his novel Baggage Claim a wide-ranging canvas of colorful characters played by a large and impressive cast. So who better than to describe such characters (in every sense) and the appeal of the project as a whole than their portrayers, most of whom offered their thoughts at a press conference in Beverly Hills on Saturday, August 17.

On Montana Moore and her journey

"When we first meet her, she’s so hopeful. She thinks she’s met the man of her dreams, and she’s going to get married, and then... she’s not. It’s sad, and then as she’s dealing with her sadness, boom! Her younger sister comes in and says, ‘I’m getting married in a month,’ and she knows because of her mom how important marriage is, and how becoming a wife means becoming a lady to her family. So with a heartbreak, that mother, and her cute litle younger sister with a big ol' diamond ring, that has now sent her over the edge. She’s dressing for each man, she’s trying to be the right fit for each person, but the thing is that she has something in her constitution that just won’t let her compromise that much. She’s like, 'I’m willing to take another step in that direction, but I just can’t do it.' What’s beautiful about this romantic comedy, I think, is that there’s two happy endings. There’s one happy ending of a woman who stands up to her family and says, 'I don’t care what you think anymore, and from this journey I've come to love myself, and I’m OK with that.' And of course, like life, the moment that you no longer need a man, then the one comes--or a few of them--and there’s the second happy ending. But I thought in this modern world we live in, it was so important--David and I talked about this a lot--that Montana finds her own happiness before that moment because I think people are very tough on women. It’s not enough that you have a successful career, and you volunteer, and you take care of all of your nieces and nephews--'Do you have a man; do you have a child?" [It's] as if none of that matters unless you are married with a child. And that’s unfortunate; men don’t go up against that. We want the happy ending; it’s an amazing thing when you find the right person to share your life with, but if you’re just finding somebody just so you can fit in or so you can say, ‘I did it'--that’s why there’s so much divorce, quite frankly. I think what’s beautiful is at the end of the day the man she meets is the man that knows about all her baggage, he knows her number, and he loves her in spite of it all."
--Paula Patton

On Catherine, Montana's much-married mother

"What David gave me in this film was a true arc to my character. Every character has an arc, but this meant so much because Catherine came out of the gate so desperate and dysfunctional. When you're not really paying attention to what your children are saying to you, there's something deeply wrong--and especially from a woman who has been married five times herself. But she has the arc where she comes around. This worked because of David E. Talbert and the chemistry I had with [the actresses playing] my two daughters; it was very special. This is my 63rd movie, and I'll never forget it. David gave me one of my best performances."
--Jenifer Lewis

On Sheree, Montana's recently betrothed younger sister

"With her mother being such a hopeless romantic, I think she just wanted to make her mother proud, and that is what their mother thinks is success: getting married and having men support you and give you security. But I liked that she was just infused with joy. She was so bubbly and happy, so innocent and vulnerable and just open, and that was fun for me to play."
--Lauren London

On William, Montana's neighbor and longtime best friend

"I was sent a different role, for one of the different guys, and when I read William, I just kind of connected. I think I related to William because every day as an actor you get to meet and talk to men on every level, from every hood, from every suburb, and the things that men say to me I don’t hear sometimes in publications. Men of color, black men--they are very vulnerable, what they think, how they feel. I always want to sow a good seed on film. So many people have given me a chance to roll; I feel like in that chance I just want to inspire. My mom groomed me 'as William,' so I had to play him.
--Derek Luke

On Quinton, Montana's successful, world-travelling suitor

"I think the western countries still view Africans as men in loincloths chasing gazelles. That's okay too, but we're also elegant, urbane, and a great number of Africans are entrepreneurs. So that was important for me to convey. The concept of looking at Africans as if we're way behind the western world is quite false. So I wanted to bring that to a western audience, to open people's eyes about Africa and Africans."
--Djimon Hounsou

On Gail, Montana's vivacious friend and co-worker

"Typically I play characters who have a lot of emotional baggage or stress. Gail is really carefree; she's a little loose. I thought that would be fun to play; I wanted to have fun. So when I read the script, David and I came up with a lot of different ideas on what she's going to look like. The first one was lots of cleavage."
--Jill Scott

On Cedric, airport security guard

"Here’s the thing about TSA agents: they think they are a cross between junior cops and secret service. It ain’t that serious any of the time. I went to the islands, Trinidad and Tobago, to celebrate my birthday, and I came back through Miami, and I tell you the TSA people there in customs are on speed. The line was at least 45 minutes long just to get past all of that, and this dude was like, ‘Ma'am, my flight is leaving in 30 minutes; is there a way to get past the line?’ She was like, ‘No. Wait in line; you’re going to miss that flight. I hope you didn’t have important plans.’ She really did that in front of everybody. So that’s Cedric in a nutshell."
--Affion Crockett

On Tanya, distracted airline counter agent

"My dad actually is a flight attendant. So I just thought about the stories--some of them I could never repeat--that my dad tells me that happens on airplanes and in the airport. I kind of brought some of that into my character. We've all been with those people at the airport where we're rushing, and they could care less."
--LaLa Anthony

On Janine, hysterical lover of one of Montana's exes

"I think I scared my husband! I just put myself in the situation, how I would feel if I was being cheated on, and I just let it go; I had no hesitations at all. David was amazing; he was throwing things at me to say and do. It was a lot of improv, and I just had a lot of fun with it."
--Tia Mowry

On the draw of the film

"The romantic comedy has been done so many times over and over, and David actually found a new way of presenting the story."
--Taye Diggs, who plays Langston, Montana's politically ambitious ex

"The thing I really like about the movie is the fact that there were five eligible good guys who could end up with the prize. Also the way David writes is very non-stereotypical, which I love. He painted the picture of different characters that were different from we're used to seeing, and any time we can expand the horizon and show us in diverse lights--I'm up for it."
--Boris Kodjoe, who plays Graham, Montana's man of her dreams

Baggage Claim is now playing in cinemas nationwide from Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Follow the cast:
Paula Patton: Twitter, Facebook
LaLa Anthony: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Affion Crockett: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Taye Diggs: Twitter, Facebook
Djimon Hounsou: Twitter, Facebook
Boris Kodjoe: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Jenifer Lewis: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Lauren London: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Derek Luke: Twitter, Facebook
Tia Mowry: Twitter, Facebook
Jill Scott: Twitter, Facebook

Buy the Baggage Claim movie poster here.
Buy David E. Talbert's Baggage Claim novel here.
Buy David E. Talbert's Baggage Claim novel on CD here.

(Special thanks to Fox Searchlight Pictures and Sandra Varner; bottom photo courtesy official Baggage Claim Instagram)

In conversation with... David E. Talbert, on Baggage Claim

The story of a woman's frantic 30-day search to find a fiancé screams "chick flick" from all angles, but the romantic comedy Baggage Claim is not only directed by a man, David E. Talbert, nor also screenwritten by him, but also based on his own novel. The celebrated playwright/theater director/novelist/filmmaker sat down for a conversation in Beverly Hills on Saturday, August 17 to discuss the story's transition from novel to screen and his own ongoing transition from being a storyteller for the stage, then to the page, and then to one for the screen.

Michael Dequina: What was the inspiration for writing the original Baggage Claim novel since it falls under, for lack of a better term, the "chick lit" genre?

David E. Talbert: The plays I've been writing for 20 years, most of them have female protagonists, and I grew up with three generations of single black women, so I kind of know the voice. But what I think my sweet spot on stage has been female protagonists. I don't what it is, but for some reason I'm able to tap in. I asked Babyface, we did a play together [2002's Love Makes Things Happen], and I said, "Kenny, how can you write so well from a woman's perspective?"--talking about the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. And he says, "Love is genderless. I just write for the emotion." That's what it is--so really what I do is write for the emotion, and I just happen to assign it to a woman.

MD: What was the motivation to originally write the story as a novel as opposed to your more familiar format of a play?

DET: I just hired an agent who kept coming to see Love Makes Things Happen, and he'd say, "You know what you should be doing? You should write a novel!" And I'm like, "But I don't even read novels!" [laughs] He says, "That doesn't matter; I'll get you a publishing deal." So the play went to New York, and he had all the publishers come out to see the play, which was sold out at the Beacon [Theatre]. After he says, "There's a bidding war with three publishers to give you a two-book deal." I'm like, "Uh, OK." Then he says, "I got you a deal with Simon & Schuster; you gotta start writing it!" And again I said, "But I don't read novels!" [laughs] So I wrote the first chapter, and he said, "What is this? I don't know where I am or who's talking. It's supposed to be a novel!" And I said again, "I don't read novels!" [laughs] He said, "Look, let me send you a chapter of a novel, and just make it like that, with your story." So he sent me a chapter of one, and I said, "Ohhh, narrative prose is a third person or a first person talking. I have to say what they like and what they smell like...?" He said, "Yes! That's a novel." Then six weeks later I handed in my first draft, and he says, "I love it."

MD: So you got the hang of it pretty quickly then.

DET: Well, words are words are words. Once he told me what the format was, then I said, OK, I know words. I'm not afraid of words. I just needed to know what the format was.

MD: You've had a screenplay for Baggage Claim for a while. Why adapt this story for a feature film for this story and not, say, any of your plays?

DET: It felt the most expansive, and in the novel I use a lot of metaphors. I could have been thrown into metaphor jail for the novel because there's a little too many metaphors. But it was the first thing I'd written that gave me a freedom. All the plays usually use two sets, three sets at most. It gave me a freedom where I could go to this place, and I didn't have to worry about the budget. I just wrote the novel as if it were going to be a $30 million budget movie, and it wasn't until it was time to make the movie that it was like, "Uh, we can't go to all those places; we can't afford it!" [laughs] Fortunately, the team was smart enough to figure out how to "go" to all those places without having to [really] go to all those places. But I knew that this story was a mainstream, big story, and I wrote it really as an homage to [writer/director] Nora Ephron and those types of movies: Sleepless in Seattle, my favorite of all time; You've Got Mail--I could quote you line for line those movies. Bridget Jones's Diary. Love Actually. I wanted to write a movie that felt like all of those movies but happened to have an African-American cast. That's what my intention was. So when it came time to do the music, I didn't want a bunch of songs in here; I wanted a score, an orchestral score, and we got Aaron Zigman. So it just kept coming together that way.

MD: And that's an important decision to make, especially when a lot of African-American films are a bit dependent on selling a song-heavy soundtrack album, and that goes along with having a romantic comedy that just happened to have an African-American cast, since any other romantic comedy--

DET: ...they're not trying to sell a soundtrack. That's the thing; when Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are about to kiss, you don't hear a Babyface song. I love Babyface. You don't hear R. Kelly. I love R. Kelly. But they put in an orchestral score because it makes it timeless, and the music they put in the movie is timeless music, like when we put the Jackson 5's "The Love You Save" in there--it's timeless. It's the Jackson 5, so you feel like you're in a big movie moment in the chase to the airport.

MD: Baggage Claim was originally set to be made as a film a couple of years ago or so. Did your vision for the film change at all between then and when you finally did get to make it?

DET: I was, years ago, going to make the best "black" version of the story as I could. When it came back this time, I said I'm just going to make the best version of it. So the people that's cast in it, they may be African-Americans, but they're not just known to the community. Djimon Hounsou is a two-time Academy Award nominee. Taye Diggs has been on the highest rated dramas on television. Paula Patton is in international blockbuster movies. And then you have Adam Brody as Sam. So we're mixing this thing up where it's just a good movie that's mostly populated by African-Americans, so it's universal.

MD: Was there a certain specific motivation for that shift?

DET: The benefit of working with Fox Searchlight is that they're not into making black movies or white movies. They're just into making good movies. So from my team of producers, Steven Wolfe, my wife [Lyn], Zola Mashariki who's the exec there--everybody said they just want to make a great movie and get the best cast possible, like getting Ned Beatty to sign on as Mr. Donaldson. They didn't say, "Well, let's just get some generic actor. Let's go for somebody good, somebody big, to make it an event." And when Ned Beatty read the script and said that he wanted to do it, we were like, "Ned Beatty? I mean, Ned Beatty?" [laughs] But it's one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. I think it was really the collective mindset of the group of all the filmmakers involved. When we came back this time, with the success of Think Like a Man, which could not have done close to $100 million which just black people going to see it, we felt like we had an opportunity to break out. And I think that's what people take away from this movie: that it's a great movie that just happens to have black people in it.

MD: Between writing the novel and making the movie, you've lived with the character of Montana Moore for a while. Were there any unique qualities that Paula Patton brought to the role that surprised you?

DET: I didn't realize how comedic she was and her sense of story. We spent days just going through the script and honing things in for her character. She's an actress that has an opinion, and those are the ones you want to work with. You don't want to work with people that just show up and say what you ask them to say. She has a point of view, and I didn't realize she would help shape this character as much as she ended up doing, and she helped to elevate the character even from the novel, and establish it as the film version of Montana Moore.

MD: In what ways did Paula and the rest of the cast elevate and establish this as the film version of the characters and story?

DET: I try to get what's on the page, but then we let it live when we're shooting it. You give me a couple of takes, I'll give you a couple of takes. We'll do a couple of takes of what's written, and when we'll do a couple of takes of what you think. And in a lot of the instances, we used a lot of the ad lib stuff. Adam Brody ad libbed, "You should come to this window; I think the King of Zamunda's outside." [laughs] I fell out of my director's chair when he said that. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever heard, and it's the funniest line in the movie. When Montana says in the rehearsal dinner that being married doesn't make you any more of a woman than being in a garage makes you any more of a car--I thought I was saying something profound with that, and then Adam ad libbed while we had the camera on him, "That's a weird analogy." [laughs] When we tested the movie the first time, Montana said that line, and people started laughing. And I'm like, "Why are they laughing?" And someone said, "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life." [laughs]

MD: I guess that's an example of your metaphors going crazy.

DET: Too crazy. People were like, "What the hell is she talking about?" [laughs] So when we went back in the editing room, we put that ad lib in, and now it gets a bigger laugh. But Adam is just one example of someone who ad libbed. Affion Crockett was only there for a couple of hours, and he said, "What kind of security guard is this?" I said, "It is everyone's worst nightmare, someone who takes his job way too seriously." And he said, "How far can I go?" I said, "We're going to take it all the way there because everyone will know that guy." And I roll camera and let it flow, and he says, "I have no life, which gives me all day to ruin yours!" I fell out of my seat. [laughs] The thing about shooting a movie is it's alive. The actor's aren't puppets, and I'm not the puppet master. It's a living, breathing thing, and you have to let it be what it's supposed to be.

MD: Do you work with actors on a film the same way you do on stage? Is there a lot of rehearsal?

DET: Unfortunately with schedules, you can't really rehearse with anybody. The difference in acting for film versus stage is film is very technical. Stage actors are more organic with it because it's really about the moment, the lines, the feeling, the space. Screen actors are technical. They understand that they're not going to give you all of this performance until it's their close-up. They're not going to give it to you on the master. They're not going to give it to you on the over-the-shoulder. They understand how to shape their performances for their close-up. For me, it's great because you're dealing with people that know the medium they're in, and most of them more than I do.

MD: How do you feel you've grown in filmmaking since First Sunday?

DET: Leaps and bounds. After First Sunday, I learned what I didn't know, and then I realized who I needed to surround myself with, and I surrounded myself with people who knew more than I did. I know story, I know performance, but I'm still learning camera and how to tell the story through film. I think with the team I had around me, it was like a master class in filmmaking, and I feel I'm leaps and bounds more proficient with the camera than I was on my first one. I'm thankful for the team of filmmakers that start from my producers to my cinematographer to my editor to the production designer, to my wife who's executive producer. The team of people helped elevate this.

MD: Would you like to elevate any of your stage plays into a feature film?

DET: [pause] Someday.

MD: You don't think you're there yet?

DET: I have so many stories now. I'm like a kid in a candy store with this film. I have so many scripts I've written and so many expansive stories. I love the stage stuff, but I have to be inspired that that story is screaming to be told in another medium.

MD: Any stage productions coming up anytime soon?

DET: No. I'm doing two more films with Fox Searchlight that I'll be writing and directing.

MD: And any novels?

DET: [pause] No, I'll be writing original scripts next. [laughs]

Baggage Claim opens in cinemas nationwide from Fox Searchlight Pictures this Friday, September 27.

Visit David E. Talbert's official site, follow him on Twitter and Instagram, and like him on Facebook.

Buy the Baggage Claim movie poster here.
Buy David E. Talbert's Baggage Claim novel here.
Buy David E. Talbert's Baggage Claim novel on CD here.

(Special thanks to David E. Talbert, Lyn Talbert, and Fox Searchlight Pictures)