When we talk about police brutality,
it's not something that just happens in America.
Daniel has his own experience with police harassment here
and that's why it was so important for him to play Slim.
As Slim and Queen travel through the South,
they find safe havens within their own communities.
How important is it for you to create art
within an inclusive and diverse environment?
Really important.
You know, this film is about our unity and the power that we have
when we come together as a people and support each other,
and that's just not represented on screen but even behind screen.
Us supporting each other as creators of colour,
that's how we get ahead, and I think that's also how we're most powerful
and how we are most excellent.
We see the best in each other and we push each other to be better,
so it really is about creating that safety in our community
to lift each other up.
Yeah, I think also it's not always easy to have a crew, a diverse crew,
because it's also difficult for people of colour to get into unions,
so that's why we have to fight even harder
to help people get into those unions
and to make sure we're fighting to have them on our sets.
And also, I think it's just a better situation
when you're telling a black story and you have black people
working on the crew as well as behind the camera.
You have passion, and I think that you then see it
in every lane and medium.
The film highlights the joy and pain
that many African-Americans experience,
from police brutality to the community found in a blues club.
Working with two black British leads, I was wondering,
has there been any discussion about the different experiences
for black British people versus African-American people?
Yeah, there's been plenty of discussion.
I am one that does not believe in the separation of black people.
We're all part of the African diaspora,
we all have a lot of commonalities between us,
and it's really about that unity.
It's by design that they've tried to separate us
and so I try to work against that,
because we're most powerful in that way.
When we talk about police brutality,
it's not something that just happens in America.
Daniel has his own experience with police harassment here
and that's why it was so important for him to play Slim.
He could relate in many ways.
We're talking about systematic racism
which is a global issue that we all can relate to.
Even when we're talking about police brutality,
I remember my first experience with it that was really impactful was
there was an African immigrant named Amadou Diallo
who was shot 41 times in his apartment building
in the Bronx when I was growing up,
and I remember going to his apartment building
and seeing the bullet holes in that wall.
He was just looking for a better life
and when the cops came and confronted him,
they didn't ask him where he was born.
They just saw the colour of his skin.
Yeah, I completely agree.
I think it is ridiculous to say that just because you have an accent
or you're born here, that you get some sort of preferential treatment.
It's just not true, and I think again,
there is sort of this weird desire
for us to be divisive within our own community,
which again is, to me, a result of systematic racism as well.
So I think we have to continue to fight against that
and just know that it's ridiculous.
One of the biggest take-aways that I took from the film,
and in my notes that I wrote several times,
was the moments in the film where the image and the song came together
and that made me feel really transcendent, I think.
So how do you go about picking the perfect song for the scene?
You know, I wanted the music to be
kind of geographical marks on their road trip,
and also another character that plays with them,
and so it depends on the scene.
Some stuff is so you can hear the sounds of the place
and understand the culture,
like when we get to New Orleans and you hear a bounce track,
that's a very local sound of New Orleans
that's coming from the outside
and it's telling a story of where you are in that moment.
You know, the beginning is a Herbie Hancock song, who we grew up on,
and he's an amazing black artist at-, it's a black-owned diner.
So in that moment, you're like, 'Oh, the people who own this
would be listening to this, ' and it sets the scene,
and it doesn't disrupt the dialogue, which is also really important.
So I think it just depends on the scene and how you want to support it
and how you want to drive the audience.
You know when he gets in that lowrider
and you hear Mike Jones 'Still Tippin',
it gives you a feeling, right?
You're like, 'I wanna be in that car too,'
and you understand what he feels in that moment.
He kind of got some of Uncle Earl's cool.
So I think there's a real language in music,
and the way music and visuals support each other,
it's a beautiful chemistry that I'm rooted in.
I come from music video, so I understand the power
of that partnership and I utilise it in my filmmaking.
I love the line that Slim said,
'Why do black people always feel the need to be excellent?'
'Why can't we just be ourselves?'
As creatives, do you both feel this pressure?
Oh yeah, you know, we haven't moved past that yet
because if we weren't excellent, this movie wouldn't exist.
(laughter)
And it's interesting,
and I don't know if I feel bad when I give this advice,
but oftentimes I obviously get the question 'what advice do you have
for a person who wants to break into the industry?'
And the truth is, I give this whether you're a person of colour or not,
but particularly if you're a person of colour,
my advice always is to be great, is to be phenomenal,
because you really do have to be amazing just to get in the door.
That kind of goes for a lot of the stuff, but the truth is,
I think you can be a little bit more mediocre
when you're white or male or you're good-looking or whatever.
It's like, if you're a black person with a story,
you'd better tell it like it's the last story you're ever gonna tell.
Yeah, I don't think we get the chance to fail, you know?
So much of our own success, but not only our success
but the next generation in the creators of colour
depends on us delivering and making something powerful,
and putting value on our stories and our art
so that the next person can do the same and take it to the next level.
I think it's a burden we all bear.
It's heavy, but we were raised in that way.
That's something my mother taught me and yours as well.
It's even in the episode of Master of None that we did, right?
- You have to be twice as good... - ...to get half as far.
There you go.