Best of 2022 (Behind the Scenes): How P-Valley pulled off Mercedes and Lil Murda's finale performance
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Mercedes (Brandee Evans) and Lil Murda (J. Alphonse Nicholson) shut the Pynk down in the season 2 finale of P-Valley!
Both characters had separate internal conflicts throughout the season, but they came together for an epic performance in the end. The resulting trauma from killing someone to save Autumn's (Elarica Johnson) life and falling from the pole caused Mercedes to struggle to return to the stage as the powerhouse P-Valley viewers know and love. Lil Murda spent the season soul-searching after his big fight with Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan) at the end the first season and reuniting with his old friend (and former lover) Big Teak (John Clarence Stewart) in season 2. During the performance of his new song "Seven Pounds of Pressure" in the finale, Lil Murda was able to speak his truth like never before and Mercedes was able to conquer her fear in order to soar to new heights. We spoke to creator Katori Hall, who directed the finale, choreographer Jamaica Craft and director of photography Rodney Taylor about how it all came together.
Mark Hill/Starz 'P-Valley'
Music is a vital component of P-Valley's storytelling for Hall and that was particularly true for "Seven Pounds of Pressure." "For a show centered on the art form of pole dancing and stripping, I knew that music had to not only be something for us to move bodies, but also to drive the narrative," she explains. The song is a transformative moment for Lil Murda that comes after Big Teak dies by suicide and he kills a member of a rival gang. If the song was going to be his final note of the season, it needed to be vulnerable and honest to his complicated journey as an LGBTQ rapper from Mississippi trying to navigate his past and living authentically moving forward. "It's such a powerful moment for both of them and it took us a long time to figure out what the song needed to be because it has to not only serve LaMarcus as a reflection of his experience, but also it has to serve as a reflection of Mercedes' experience," Hall says.
The process of creating the song took months. It began with Hall delivering a brief to the music supervisors, but it wasn't until a second round of receiving demos that the team received one from David Fuller, Deante Hitchcock, and FM New Money that would become the song viewers heard. After receiving an initial version of the song, Hall recalls sending them a 20-minute long voice memo to explain what she was trying to say with the song.
"'Seven Pounds of Pressure' is part confession and part prayer for him," Hall says of the stripped down beginning of Lil Murda's performance. "I really wanted that part of the song to feel like theater and then when that beat drops, Mercedes comes out to take the pole in a way that we've never seen her tackle it before."
Mercedes spent much of the season dealing with the physical and mental struggle to get back onto the pole, so this triumphant return needed to honor that journey. "Seven Pounds of Pressure" is a song about a bullet, the cause of Mercedes' trauma, so it's a fitting track for her big return.
Putting together her powerful routine started like all other dances that Craft choreographs for the series. "Katori Hall is great with descriptions and imagination, and she studies dance a whole lot, which is really great," she says about how much of it stems from the initial script Hall and the writers deliver. Craft shares that she often sends moves back and forth with the P-Valley creator. Not only is this a conquering moment for Mercedes, but also serves as "the last dance" she has been aiming for since the series began, which viewers learn in the finale when she leaves the Pynk to open her own studio."I made sure that Mercedes as a character went down in history as one of the most praised performers that we've ever seen come through the Pynk," Hall states.
What P-Valley viewers see is a mix of the hard work of the actors and their dance doubles. Craft credits Evans, who she says does 85 percent of what we see in the scene. While they cannot have actors upside down or performing certain moves, the actors do a lot of what their characters do. For example, Evans is a professionally trained dancer and has the athleticism to bring what Craft and Hall come up with to life. "She was a Mercedes in hip-hop," Crafts says of her skill as a dancer.
As the director of photography, Taylor focused a lot on the lighting to make the performance of both the double and actor seamless. "We couldn't see their faces as much, but you can still see the athleticism but then you do see their faces during key moments, so integrating Lil Murda and taking into consideration all the details is what I concentrated on," he explains. Using wider lenses and filming as close to the stage as possible got them real close to the action within the scene.
Ultimately, the dance is a return to form for the Pynk's resident powerhouse. Mercedes is known for her high energy and incredible stunts and Craft's routine needed to bring that back in a major way. Moves like "the King Kong," where Mercedes wraps her legs around the pole and beats her chest, are examples of the power she brings to each performance. "She creates moments in the strip club where everyone throws money to make it rain because she does something explosive," Craft explains. Taylor was blown away by the athleticism of the performers and the care Hall and the team took to showcase how difficult the moves are while entertaining audiences. "I've worked on a film about Michael Jordan and I've worked on a Tour de France film and an Olympic movie. These women are right up there, man; the athleticism is incredible," he says.
Kyle Kaplan/Starz
With each dance Craft and Hall aim to deliver something special to the audience, and for the season finale dance that extreme move was "Kip Up off the Pole," where Mercedes flips over Lil Murda into a split. Hall took inspiration from Maria Jade, Evans' dance double who also goes by Massacre, by utilizing one of her signature moves in Mercedes' dance. "I wanted to make sure people understood the power, strength, and agility of a dancer," she explains. The big flip builds on the drops that Mercedes is known for. "We call her the OG at drops because she goes all the way up to the top then she drops really close to the ground," Craft says about her past performances. The flip requires stopping midway then leaping over J. Alphonse Nicholson who is taller than 6 feet.
Using the bridge of the song, the show-stopping move got its special moment. Hall worked with Taylor to get the camera angle right so the audience sees Mercedes flip from underneath her. The production designer Jeffrey Pratt Gordon built the stage so cameras could go underneath the stage and shoot through pixel glass.
"I remember seeing it for the first time and she was just at the top dangling and her hair was waving back and forth. Then the music dropped and she fell into the camera. This beautiful brown body jumped over Lil Murda and boom cut to her in a split on the floor. It was this amazing collaboration between the DP, the production designer, the dancer, the choreographer, the actors, me as the director," Hall says of the shot, which she calls "one of the most memorable shots of maybe the entire series."
With this performance, P-Valley honored two of its many great characters as they began new journeys. Mercedes is back in full force and is starting again with her own dance studio equipped with a pole. Lil Murda is continuing to push for a successful career as a rapper while also embracing his love for Uncle Clifford. Thankfully viewers will have a third season to see what comes next for these two and the rest of the residents of Chucalissa.
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