Joshua Ferrell’s 2025 is off to a great start. He is executive producing his first Hollywood blockbuster, Both Eyes Open. He is a part of Rodfather Productions and their upcoming movie is star-filled, featuring Taye Diggs, Gail Bean and Joy Brunson just to name a few. He pulled up to the rolling out office to talk about working as an executive producer on his first film and why he chose to get into the film industry.
Why was this opportunity of interest to you?
Well for me, I would say 2024 was just a year … of transition, a year of a lot of change for me and just kind of discovering what it is that I actually want to do with my skill set. And when the opportunity presented itself to actually produce — I’m not sure how much everybody knows about production — but you’re really just putting pieces together, putting out fire, solving problems. And that’s something I have a lot of experience with. … Being in the film space was always of interest to me. So, when that opportunity came up, it was a no-brainer for me to just hop on board and enjoy it.
What exactly does your job entail?
I was executive producer — executive producer along with my father-in-law — on this film as well as producer, and those can be two separate titles. So, we put the money up; we finance the project; and we pull the pieces in. The part that I love most is just bringing in talented individuals who I know are talented and putting it all together. Once you actually get on set and you step into that producer role, you are then just responsible for putting out all the fires, and you’re just making sure that things are running. If there were any issues — anything that people needed — I’ll be the one that they call. You’re there to support and make sure that everyone has a great experience — make sure that the set is a good set — because that is something that affects the chemistry. We wanted to ensure that our actors were good, our crew was good, everybody was happy, and that just helped raise moral.
What about this film are you most excited about?
I’m excited for people to see Black women, honestly. There were quite a few Black women that were in prominent roles in this movie. Shout out to Gail Bean, who was not only the lead actress but the executive producer on this film as well. Shout out to Ariel Hairston, who is the director and the writer and a lot of other things with this movie, jack of all trades. We also had Amber Marie Woods who was UPM (Unit Production Manager) and producer. We had Chanel who was the AD. So, just a lot of black women. Shout out to Joy Brunson, who was the co-lead too. It was a dope set to be on.
