'They Cloned Tyrone' Cast Interview With John Boyega, Teyonah Parris And More

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - First off, I wanted to ask both of you,

00:06 what was it like to bring into life a film

00:08 that's kind of timeless in that aspect?

00:11 Because we don't really know what time it's set in sometimes.

00:14 Like it's a modern film,

00:16 but then, you know, there's all the Blackploitation-esque

00:18 moments of the film.

00:19 Then some characters use a flip phone.

00:21 There's like an iPhone here.

00:23 So I'm just like, you know,

00:24 is this a period piece or is it not a period piece?

00:26 What was it like to bring into life this film

00:28 that kind of exists like, you know,

00:30 anywhere it could be at any time?

00:32 - Yeah, that's what is so fun about the film

00:35 and us filming it is that this film literally exists

00:38 in all times, in all eras and genres.

00:41 So we really got to just pull from so many different places.

00:44 It didn't feel like we were bound by anything really,

00:48 except for what Joel's vision might be.

00:50 And honestly, he really just let us play and go for it.

00:54 And there was a couple of times I think

00:55 where he might've been like,

00:56 "I don't know, man. I ain't even in it."

00:59 (all laughing)

01:00 - "You don't know."

01:00 - Yeah, bring that back.

01:02 But other than that, we really,

01:05 the film is talking about how this exists

01:08 in anywhere and at all times.

01:10 So that was fun that that element was also

01:14 infused into props, wardrobe, hair, makeup,

01:18 all of those things.

01:20 - Yeah, yeah.

01:21 Also, my favorite scene,

01:23 I have a lot of favorite scenes in this film,

01:24 but one is the fried chicken scene

01:27 when everyone burst out in laughter.

01:28 And the thing about it is I was like,

01:30 "Oh, Fontaine's laughing. He's having a good time."

01:34 And then I was really,

01:35 so what was it like filming that scene

01:36 where just bursting out laughing everywhere?

01:40 - It's less about the laughter.

01:44 I'm gonna tell you,

01:45 because this is some behind the scenes.

01:48 John decided that,

01:51 "Okay, we get there, we're filming the scene."

01:52 Jamie and I are like, "Damn, this chicken cold."

01:54 But John over there like, "Mm, mm."

01:58 We're like, "What is he eating?"

02:00 We found out John went and got

02:03 his own fresh, hot, fried chicken.

02:06 - So he was on a different wavelength.

02:08 - He was on a different wavelength.

02:10 - Everyone does rich differently.

02:11 (laughing)

02:14 - I was not, not rich.

02:15 Look, me and Jamie over there like,

02:19 "This is hot, this is cold."

02:22 - And he was, "Mm, mm."

02:24 - I think they got in the middle when I did.

02:27 No, yes!

02:28 - Method acting, we're like.

02:31 - That chicken was good.

02:32 That was my lunch break.

02:34 That's why we were sold on the scene

02:36 because it's just like, "Okay, good chicken, good fun."

02:39 They're like, "Oh no, it's kind of nefarious."

02:41 - It's us giving John a side eye like,

02:44 "Man, you really left us out here

02:46 to eat this hard, cold chicken

02:47 that's been here for a whole day

02:49 while you got fresh, okay."

02:51 - He was like, "I gotta make it look real."

02:52 - Yeah, but so, yeah, that was that.

02:55 But yeah, I mean, it's a crazy scene.

02:57 It's a crazy scene to see all of that

02:59 and just feeding into that stereotype

03:01 of black people and chicken and loving it so much

03:04 and what that is.

03:05 And you know, like, people like chicken.

03:07 That is a thing.

03:08 But also, we're clearly leaning into a stereotype

03:13 that we later get to break and dive deeper

03:16 into what is actually happening here.

03:19 - And you two and Jamie all have insane chemistry

03:23 in this movie.

03:24 It's so, so good.

03:25 I want to know how is it like building that chemistry

03:27 also given the fact that this film goes through

03:29 so many different tonal changes.

03:31 Like, it's like, I told you earlier,

03:32 it's like one of the sharpest scripts I think I've,

03:34 you know, seen on screen this year,

03:36 but also has like the hilarious moments,

03:38 also like the deep moments.

03:39 So what was it like creating that chemistry

03:41 while this film goes through so many different moments?

03:44 - I think it was very organic for a lot of us.

03:48 I mean, the circumstance of being one of the first

03:50 sequestered projects at the time was definitely made us

03:52 not have all the time in the world for rehearsals

03:55 and chemistry reads.

03:56 So it was just about, you know, people of the culture

03:59 kind of linking up and being like,

04:00 "Hey, let's make this movie."

04:01 And just being open artistically, being respectful.

04:05 And it was just the environment that was cultivated

04:07 by good individuals.

04:09 So we didn't actually have like a structure

04:12 of building chemistry.

04:14 It was just kind of like, you know,

04:16 thank God I've seen Tiana's work before,

04:17 I love the work, I've seen Jamie's work before, of course.

04:20 So it was just about just like linking up

04:22 and just making it work.

04:23 - Yeah. Yeah.

04:24 Well, thank you both so, so much for chatting with me.

04:26 I can't wait for more people to see this film

04:27 and I can't wait to watch it again.

04:28 It'll be my third time.

04:29 - Thank you. - Thank you, man.

04:30 - This film is so interesting

04:32 because it has so many tonal differences.

04:34 You know, it's very, it's one of the sharpest scripts,

04:37 I think, for the year so far,

04:39 but it also has a lot of deep moments

04:41 and a lot of social commentary, you know,

04:43 packed into that as well.

04:44 So how is it navigating kind of like the different moments

04:47 that this film goes within the script?

04:50 - Yeah, I mean, I think that's the,

04:52 that was probably the hardest part of like

04:55 the creative process was like balancing the tone,

04:58 you know what I mean?

04:59 'Cause you, it's some dark stuff in the movie,

05:03 but, you know, we didn't necessarily want to make

05:08 a dark, like dire film per se, you know?

05:12 We wanted it to be fun and like, you know,

05:14 something that you would just want to watch.

05:15 And even if you just watched it just to see a movie

05:18 and enjoy it and take nothing from it,

05:21 like you wanted to still have,

05:23 be able to play on that level.

05:25 And so I think really, like a lot of it was leaning

05:28 on the talent, you know?

05:30 So like, because like on the page, you know,

05:32 you can, you have an intent in terms of just like

05:35 what kind of tone this is and like how the satire plays.

05:39 But until like John and Jamie and Tiana

05:43 and Kiefer and Tamela and J.L.

05:46 felt like the cast was so good,

05:47 they understood like what we were going for.

05:50 And I think really, if they can't ground the characters,

05:53 it's not going to work, you know?

05:55 I hope it worked, but like, you know,

05:57 if it has a chance to work, I should say,

06:00 it will be solely because their talent, you know,

06:04 was able to make these characters grounded in a way

06:07 that you could see something that was like a little,

06:10 a little over the top and understand that like

06:13 these are still like real people in the neighborhood,

06:15 you know, and that they're like grounded in something

06:18 beyond just the caricatures they start out as, you know?

06:23 And hopefully, you know, when you start to break them down

06:27 and like kind of deconstruct them

06:29 as the movie goes further, you know,

06:31 that's all coming off the back of, you know,

06:36 our cast being able to sell it, you know what I mean?

06:39 And so really you gotta cross your fingers

06:41 and pray that your talent like saves you.

06:43 - Yeah, I feel like it could be tricky too,

06:45 'cause it's one thing to go from like, you know,

06:47 the chicken commercials in one part of the movie,

06:49 then to the everything else we see later on.

06:52 It could be a little more tricky,

06:53 but I feel like it's pulled off.

06:54 - Oh, thank you.

06:55 I mean, once it's in the universe,

06:57 it's up to everybody else to decide

06:59 if we accomplished it or not.

07:01 - And Charles, for you, you know,

07:03 I feel like timely is a word that we kind of overuse.

07:05 Like everything is timely in film and TV right now.

07:08 But for lack of a better term,

07:09 why do you think this film specifically speaks

07:11 to a lot of things that we're going through,

07:12 like, you know, socially and politically right now?

07:14 - I mean, look, it's first and foremost,

07:17 Joel, his whole vision behind this was,

07:19 we want people to laugh, be entertained,

07:21 but then also it's subversive,

07:23 then it's gonna make you think right after it.

07:24 So hearing that that's been the response,

07:27 it's been great to see that.

07:28 And just look, I mean,

07:29 there've been obviously so many social themes,

07:32 obviously now coming post the pandemic,

07:34 you know, the kind of large conversation

07:36 post George Floyd's murder

07:37 and the whole conversation around racial equity.

07:41 As Joel mentioned, I mean,

07:42 this project was pitched way before that.

07:45 And so, I mean, it's ahead of its time,

07:47 but it's also timeless at the same time,

07:49 which even with the theme of the film,

07:50 you don't know when it was made.

07:52 And I think there are themes in there

07:54 that are quite relevant.

07:56 They were relevant 50 years ago

07:57 and I think are relevant today.

07:59 But it's done in a smart way where you can think

08:03 and you can relate and you can connect the dots.

08:05 And, you know, we wanted people

08:09 to have those conversations.

08:10 So it'll be great to see the response

08:14 once the film is out.

08:15 - I was gonna say, it's like it's a modern set film,

08:17 but like there's so much,

08:18 but it's like, it was like Blackploitation-esque vibes

08:21 to the film, like 70s vibes.

08:23 It's actually, it could be timeless.

08:25 My character pulls out his cell phone,

08:26 I'm like, wait.

08:27 [laughing]

08:28 - But it was a flip phone.

08:30 - Yeah, yeah, exactly.

08:31 - Yo-Yo pulls out a iPhone, so it's, yeah.

08:34 - But even then, like the flip phone was an iPhone,

08:35 you're like, okay, are we timed?

08:37 But like, it's, I loved it.

08:39 - It's a modern, it's modern day.

08:41 It's just the neighborhood is lost in time.

08:43 - Gotcha.

08:44 - Yeah.

08:45 - So I mean, it's even that, like, you know,

08:48 that those anachronisms that's in the movie, you know,

08:51 that like disorientation in terms of where you are,

08:55 when you are, you know, you never,

08:57 you don't know what city they're in.

09:00 It's modern, but it, you know,

09:01 at times it calls into question,

09:03 is this, is this superior?

09:05 You know, like all of that is just, again,

09:07 like to create that sense of like disorientation,

09:11 you know, like I wanted it to feel like, you know,

09:15 this is taking place in its own,

09:16 like hermetically sealed bubble, you know,

09:19 like just this archetypal neighborhood

09:22 somewhere in the South,

09:23 some wind in the South, you know what I'm saying?

09:25 Where, you know, these,

09:27 these archetypal characters, you know what I'm saying?

09:32 They're like just dealing with some weird stuff,

09:34 you know what I'm saying?

09:35 (laughing)

09:36 You know, it's like kinda,

09:37 hopefully it kinda comes across as like anywhere in USA.

09:41 - Yeah.

09:42 - And you know, I think like, you know,

09:45 a lot of that inspiration too,

09:46 I mean, Napoleon Dynamite and like a movie like It Follows

09:50 both employ the same, you know,

09:53 world building device that we're, you know,

09:56 they're not period pieces,

09:58 but they feel like period pieces.

10:00 And there's like a dissonance that you feel watching that,

10:03 especially like a movie like It Follows, you know,

10:05 and like, there's like a dissonance while,

10:07 like I was uneasy watching the movie

10:09 and it's like a lot of it went into like the world building.

10:12 I just, I loved that, you know?

10:13 So definitely shout out to those movies.

10:15 - Absolutely, absolutely.

10:17 Well, thank you both so, so much for chatting with me.

10:19 I cannot wait for more people to see this.

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