- Music is all over this piece,
and it's so intrinsic.
Was this an especially musical set?
- Tessa was the DJ in the hair and makeup trailer.
[laughing]
- I was the DJ,
but occasionally I would turn down the music so that we
could listen to Nnamdi.
He didn't realize that we could hear him
practicing his sax outside. [laughing]
Unbeknownst to him,
he was also one of our favorite musical acts.
- Have you been spending this year
entertaining your family at home with your sax skills, or
have you let those wane?
- I mean, since we finished shooting, I didn't.
I mean,
I don't think I've played. But, before we started shooting,
it's that I think everyone was annoyed with my saxophone
playing.
[laughing]
It helped with the film,
I'd say that.
- So, the film we're talking about today
is 'Sylvie's Love.'
This is a beautiful, old-fashioned romance.
I want to get our bearings.
Let's talk what we love about classic romances.
Guys,
tell me what makes a great movie romance?
What are the elements it needs?
- Well, it depends.
I really like the brand of romance where they dislike
each other in the beginning.
Like, one of my favorite sprawling love stories is probably
'When Harry Met Sally.'
You need some sort of tension.
You need, like, an outlet for them to express
their sexual tension.
I like the idea of, like, a good star-crossed lover situation,
which Nnamdi and I kind of have in 'Sylvie's Love.'
- You need some obstacles in there to make it -
- Exactly.
- Worth something.
- Yeah, "The course of true love never did run smooth."
Like, you have to have some -
I think that's Shakespeare.
Thank you.
You need some of that, you need some obstacle.
- Here's a big question.
Do you like a romance to end well?
Because some of the classics,
they don't end up together.
There's that tragedy.
- I like when there's a little, you know,
you don't know if they got together at the end.
And we were actually thinking about that, far as I remember,
when we were shooting the very last scene.
And I think up until the first take,
we were trying to figure out,
"Should we make this clear to the audience or not?"
But, yeah,
I like when it's a little more ambivalent.
- Because, yeah.
I mean, I think of like,
I mean, the ones that stand the test of time.
And I know you guys have
name-checked 'The Notebook' for instance,
which I feel like, in the last 30 years, is, like, the one
on Mount Olympus,
right?
Of romances.
What about that one works?
Why do you think that one's the one that all movie romances
are aspiring to now?
- I don't know.
I think there's this idea of, you know,
young love
and love that feels
transformative.
Love
that makes
each of the lovers
a better version of themselves
at the other end of it.
I think that's something that always feels aspirational -
- Yeah.
- that you could find someone that, you know,
brings out the best in you.
And also,
I mean,
not for nothing,
not that this is necessary for a good romance,
but those two got together
and were together for a while.
So, there was, like, a real, crackling chemistry. You were
getting to witness two people,
probably, really fall in love on screen.
And that's something that I think, you know,
for whatever reason, we like to watch, as humans.
Like, voyeuristically,
we love the idea of getting to see that.
So, that one has that going for it.
But, I don't think that's necessary.
You can still make a crackling love story
and be platonic friends, like Nnamdi and I.
[laughing]
- I mean, one of the -
on a serious note,
one of, I think,
the really meaningful things about a film like this
is about young people, I think, seeing themselves
included in a story like this,
right?
This is an archetypal, classic
kind of piece of moviemaking.
And I had the same kind of conversation recently about the
film 'Happiest Season,'
right?
That's like a classic, like, holiday rom-com
that has been the domain of straight people for decades.
And finally, now, there's a little bit more inclusion in there,
and it's revolutionary because of that.
Similarly, in your film,
which is this classic movie romance,
we're not used to seeing people of color
in the center of the frame.
Did that feel revolutionary on set,
that simple shift?
Did that feel like,
"Oh wow,
this is actually meaningful."
- I think sometimes, you know,
you can present something in ways that are not necessarily -
that are apolitical and they are political.
- Right.
- And I think certainly for me,
a big reason why I wanted to make this film
is I remember watching 'The Notebook,'
and thinking it must be so fun to play in frames like that,
and I will probably never have the opportunity to do that.
I think getting to,
you know,
present something inside of a formula
that has typically made us invisible,
in the same way that with 'Happiest Season,'
you get to center,
give this star treatment to queer characters,
and meanwhile, don't change anything about the formula.
I think you invite everyone into that experience because
sometimes what happens, if you're on the margins, is there's
this idea that your stories are niche.
That they only are
for your community.
And of course,
I think Nnamdi and I,
and Eugene [Ashe] and all the filmmakers,
we feel a great pleasure with getting
to make a piece of work
that feels like a love letter to Black people.
And also, we think it's something
that can be enjoyed by all people
because it's a story about love,
which is fundamental and just human.
And so, I think there's a way of diminishing us folks
that exist on the margins
by not allowing us to play inside of these formulas.
And so, I think that was something that, you know,
felt really impactful for us,
and was certainly a big reason
why I wanted to make this film.
- It was one of the reasons why it was so tough
to make this film.
Because everyone we went to for it,
you know, to help finance it
or to help make it,
they would say, you know,
"I don't know where the audience is for this film."
You know, it's a period film
with a Black -
with two Black leads
about love.
You know, it's during the civil rights era.
And so, I just don't think people had, sort of, a metric
for how it could turn out,
or how it might look.
So, it was very tough,
but I think that also was something
that, sort of, propelled us forward to saying that
we had to be able to show ourselves in this light.
- You're both not only the stars of this film,
you're both producers on this film.
Talk to me about what that's about.
Is that about protecting the material,
protecting yourself,
just putting out stories out into the universe
that you feel are worth telling?
Why is it important to produce right now for you guys?
- Probably for a lot of similar reasons
and also for different reasons for me. You know,
I've been working inside of this industry for over a decade.
It's, you know,
sometimes it's as easy as an actor to feel
like a cog in something moving.
And so, I was really, you know,
in the last handful of years,
it's been more important for me to feel more instrumental
from building the thing from the ground up.
And it's always been an aspiration of mine to produce.
That's something that I've been focusing on a lot.
And then, I also think that, you know,
necessity is the mother of invention.
There's this idea that
if you don't make these stories by hook or by crook,
they won't exist.
And this is a kind of story that I had been wanting to see
in the popular culture space for a long time.
And so, when the opportunity came my way
via Nnamdi, who I knew was going to produce
and thought was so wildly talented,
it felt like if we don't try to make this,
it might not happen.
- Yeah.
It's filling a void.
You know, you see a lot of films and a lot of those stories,
you don't see people that look like us in those roles.
And so, anytime that you get the opportunity to do that,
and then sort of open that door for more
of those stories to come through, you know,
you jump all over it.
And that was the first thing for me when I read the script,
I just knew I hadn't seen it before.
And I knew that,
like Tessa said,
if we weren't the ones to get it through,
you know,
it was going to go through a lot more noes.
And I don't know if anyone would have
kept going,
you know, to make it.
- I consider you both,
and I am sure you consider yourselves, activists.
And this has been - this past year has been a year to speak
up and speak out, certainly.
When you look back at 2020,
what are the positives to take away?
What are the shifts,
the stuff you're going to cling to,
as something good came out of a lot of tough, tough moments?
- You know,
something that has been a real bright spot for me has been,
I'm very lucky in the sense that my family is here
in Los Angeles.
And I think this has been a time of real radicalization.
It's been a gift to get
to take to the streets and protest with my little brother,
who is 22.
And being able to understand how you communicate
the power of the streets,
and then take it to the ballot box.
So, on the same streets
that we were protesting here in Los Angeles,
we then also dropped our ballot off together.
And so, I think the ability to be to find community,
to understand the ways in which -
and this has been something that I admire in both, you know,
in Nnamdi and his family, of really getting out there
and being civically engaged,
and trying to help people understand
how to do that, and normalize those conversations.
And I think that has been something
that is really tremendous, particularly with this generation,
which my brother is a member of.
Like, they are really -
I mean, I feel ancient saying this,
but the future and the present, in the sense that
they're understanding how to really dismantle systems
that have long needed to be dismantled.
And so, to me,
that's been a real bright spot this year.
And the work doesn't end,
it continues.
But, I think, hopefully, there is more,
I don't know,
just engagement as a collective,
that we can find ways to connect, just as we are doing now,
right?
And have conversations that are vitally important.
I think our future depends on it.
So, that is something that has given me hope, in moments,
for sure.
- I love when Tessa tries to act like she's an old lady.
[laughing]
- We have a long way to go on 'Thor: Love and Thunder.'
Have you started on it yet, Tessa?
- Yeah, I've started.
It's really, really, really fun.
It's very, very, very, very good.
I'm really excited.
I fly to Australia in a couple of weeks,
and folks are already there and on the ground.
I get very funny videos from Taika [Waititi],
and photographs updating me.
But, it's a great script.
It's going to be really fun.
It's very fun in the music department.
- Cool.
- Yeah. It's a good one.
I'm thrilled.
- And is Valkyrie gonna find love?
Is there more thunder
or love for Valkyrie in this one?
[laughing]
- There's both.
They're not mutually exclusive.
- OK.
- You can do -
She likes a kind of thunderous love.
[laughing]
- The most important, substantive question of course is
Michael B. Jordan is the Sexiest Man Alive, Tessa.
[laughing]
How quickly after you heard the news
did you text him?
Did you call him?
Did you give him crap?
Have you talked to him about it?
- I haven't talked to him about it
because I'm going to pretend it hasn't happened.
[laughing]
I don't want -
we're going to make another 'Creed' very soon
and I don't need this.
I don't need the Sexiest Man Alive to be,
you know what I mean?
I just don't need it.
I don't need any of it.
- It's a lot.
- It's too much for me to shoulder.
It's too much for me to handle.
No, I'm proud of him.
I'm so happy for him.
And I will give him a lot of crap about it in person,
and I cannot wait.
That's actually -
you reminded me.
It's good.
I need to remember,
I need to start developing, like, pranks around all that -
- Oh yeah, you need material.
- Currently some material. A tight five.
- Yeah,
yeah.
I'm happy for him.
I'm very proud of him.
- Is he directing the next 'Creed?'
That's the word on the street.
- He is directing the next 'Creed,'
which is -
so, it's going to be ammo, I think, for me,
when he is engaging with me as a director.
I'm just going to tell him to dial down
the sexiness.
But we, you know,
we're not gonna make it until later in the year.
So, there will be -
- Who knows what could happen? Yeah.
- Who knows what happens?
Another man will be -
I don't know if he'll still be
the Sexiest Man Alive in six months.
It could be Nnamdi.
- I was going to say, Nnamdi, start the campaign now.
- I'm actually going to be in the next 'Creed.'
- Wait.
- No, I'm just kidding.
[laughing]
I saw Tessa's face, too.
- I believed it.
- I wanted to see your reaction.
- But, actually, Nnamdi, you could probably
be in the next 'Creed.'
- Come on.
- I'll be his brother.
[laughing]
- You should actually start that campaign.
I know someone who knows someone.
- [Josh] Yeah, I'm sure you do.