How did you fit so much of the Black experience in the film without feeling overwhelmed?
I wanted to show Black life as realistic as possible. Our lives are very layered. It features joy. It features pain. It features love and it features sex. It features family, features community, but it also features messiness. The film features our own sort of projection on others. It features fear.
In terms of the dinner scene, did you purposefully create that amount of tension without disrespect?
I personally don’t think we need to have the disrespect in order to get the tension. Just between Black people? I don’t think we need it. I think that’s just from an intentional purpose. Hopefully, that’s what we were able to do.
So about that ending, what’s going on? Will there be a sequel?
It’s funny because this film was originally called Open Ended, so the ending was always meant to be open-ended. I never thought about a sequel. Now that it’s released, audiences are talking about a sequel, but I can’t even wrap my head around that because it took me 10 years. I’m like, I’m tired, You know? I love the fact that people are wanting more of these characters and wanting more of this story. So you never know. Who knows?
